Every year George likes to have tart cherries with French Sauternes. To share this he puts on a tasting with cherries and various wines including a Sauternes. Then we try to determine which wines work with the cherries and which ones don’t. I went down to the farmers market and picked up a couple of pounds of Rainier cherries. The Rainiers are mostly yellow with a little pink and are not real sweet. The Bings and other dark cherries are too sweet to have with Sauternes so George doesn’t want them. Even so, most wines don’t pair well with even the Rainier cherries.
The first wines was a 2010 Argento Torrontes Procedencia Salta. It was a light yellow color with a floral nose. The flavor was slightly sweet with floral and citrus. The tart cherries brought out orange peel in the flavor of the wine and the flavor of the cherries was accentuated by the wine. Overall this was a good pairing.
Next we had a 2007 Mokelumne Glen Vineyards Lodi Dornfelder, a German red varietal grown locally. This wine was inky dark ruby violet. The nose was medicinal and vegetal. The flavors were complex with licorice, tart dark fruit and smoke. There were a significant amount of tannins and good acid. The combination of cherries and wine accentuated the vegetal flavors of the wine and made the cherries taste less tart. Overall this was not a pleasing combination.
We moved on to Italy with a NV Marco Negri Marsilio Moscato di Asti. This effervescent wine was light yellow, almost clear, in the glass. The nose was sweet with caramel and floral scents. The flavors were sweet, floral and complex. The acid in this wine was adequate. The combination of cherries and the wine was very pleasing. The wine tasted less sweet and the tartness of the cherries was accentuated. Most tasters liked this combination very much.
We were all fooled by this next wine. We thought it was an older French Sauternes but it turned out to be a 2007 Honig Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc. The color was dark yellow. The nose was dusty and musty and smelled very concentrated. Flavors were bright though tasting like apricots, but once again as with the nose the flavors were very concentrated. The wine had good acid and the finish was very long. The combination of cherries and this wine made the flavors of the wine taste even more complex and the flavor of the cherries tasted more tart. This combination was the group’s favorite. Both the wine and the cherries tasted better in combination with each other.
Finally we get to a 2007 Doisy Daene Sauternes. This wine is from Barsac but because of the location they can label it as a Barsac or a Sauternes or even both as is the case with this wine. The color was dark yellow. The nose was concentrated, slightly stinky initially with mineral scents predominating initially. Minerality and pineapple flavors predominated with good acid and a long finish. The wine was sweet but nicely balanced with acid for a clean finish. Once again, the combination of this wine with the cherries was excellent, concentrating the flavors of the wine and making the cherries taste more tart and complex. This combination was the group’s second favorite.
So, the take home message here is when pairing tart cherries, such as Rainier, choose a sweeter wine with good acid. The combination of sweet wine with tart cherries is a pleasing and somewhat surprising combination. It has the making of an easy, light and unique dessert combination for this time of year.
