Comments on: Ice cream: an impossible food-wine pairing?!?

By: rearly

rearly — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:34:23 +0000

These matches are suggested by users of WinedIn for Ice cream.

* Amontillado Sherry
* Beaumes-de-Venise
* Black Muscat
* Champagne
* LH Gewürztraminer
* LH Riesling
* Muscat
* Passito
* Pedro Ximénez Sherry
* Sauternes
* Vin Santo

By: Rori

Rori — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:00:49 +0000

Well tonight I made a plum honey sabayon with Virginia dessert wine and threw in some vanilla ice cream after I pulled it out of the broiler. It was fantastic…

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:55:30 +0000

Ice cream is easy. Try Dippin’ Dots the ice cream of the future, what futuristic wine would you pair with that.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:19:57 +0000

I find Muscat de beaumes de venise to be very good specially with non-berry ice creams

By: Steven Kolpan

Steven Kolpan — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:11:48 +0000

OK. This is not a problem. Pedro Ximenez is terrific with vanilla, maple walnut, chocolate chip, dulche de lech ice cream. Suggestion, drizzle the wine over the ice cream as a syrup. Unbelievable. Brachetto is the bomb with strawberry ice cream, peach, or Cherry Garcia. Most chocolate ice creams are better with coffee.

By: Christy

Christy — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:15:11 +0000

Late with the post, but can’t resist - if it must be soft serve, then orange sherbert soft serve with a sweet vouvray or moscato d’asti

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:25:26 +0000

25 year Highland Park with vanilla bean ice cream is superb. Just let someone else buy the whisky…

By: Dr. Debs

Dr. Debs — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:09:00 +0000

God, there’s no way to follow up on Benito’s suggestion, is there? After 48 hours of utter stumpitude I triumphantly came up with Pedro Ximenez and discover as usual I am late to the party. By the way, it is also good over coffee (as well as vanilla) ice cream, and if you can stand more of it, a tiny glass goes well on the side, too!

By: Benito

Benito — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:31:05 +0000

Take some authentic strawberry ice cream, either homemade or one like Häagen-Dazs that only uses natural ingredients. Make a slurry of basil and olive oil and blend it in a ribbon through the strawberry ice cream. Top with a bit of balsamic vinegar reduction. Serve with a chilled Gewürztraminer.

Gonna make your tongue knock your brains out.

By: genevelyn

genevelyn — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:19:34 +0000

Sparkling Shiraz with dark chocolate gelato
the bubblies compliment/cut the fat and the bittersweet chocolate accentuates the shiraz

By: Christophe - Titus Vineyards

Christophe - Titus Vineyards — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:36:40 +0000

Banyuls

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:03:23 +0000

Dale -

Why do these “impossible” pairings? For one, they’re fun and allow us all to put our heads together. Traditional approaches to food-wine pairing tend to go with tried and true dishes, such as lamb or steak. Our dishes, by contrast, take wine where it has never gone before, pushing the culinary frontier! The foods are also ones that we eat here in America: If wine we’re going to consume wine more than we currently do we’re going to have to think beyond which wine goes with steak. The group-think aspect is good too since there is never one right answer that will work for everyone.

We can also touch on general rules of food wine pairing and see if they work. Another Steve suggests here that the wine be sweeter than the food. That’s a good tip. I often recommend wine have higher acidity than food, which is why pairing wine with a vinaigrette dressing is such a challenge. Similarly, making a bitter food can take the edge of a bitterly tannic wine.

As to this particularly challenge, there’s little that is sweeter than a sticky or PX–tokaji 5 puttonyos perhaps? But I wonder if you need to go that far and wonder if a Moscato d’Asti might work too.

Cheers,

By: Arthur

Arthur — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:51:40 +0000

I would go with a black muscat or a late harvest Viognier, or a botrytized white - be it semillon or chardonnay (”sweet nancy” from Temecula) or sauvignon blanc from Santa Barabara.

By: Morton Leslie

Morton Leslie — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:48:48 +0000

My 91 year old Father puts chocolate ice cream in his red wine glass for dessert almost every evening. About three parts ice cream to one part red wine. Despite my Mom’s great pies and cookies, he says it’s his favorite dessert. I tried the mixture last time I visited. Not bad at all. Mixing them is probably better than trying to pair them. Thirty years ago, I used to buy a red Spanish wine, 6% alcohol made from boiled down grape juice, very sweet and syrupy… from Corti Bros, Sacto. CA. I forget the wines name. Tangy on vanilla ice cream.

By: another Steve

another Steve — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:22:18 +0000

Sometimes when you push the limits, you can reveal something new about the subject (or just get silly).

Either way, ice cream does illustrate one of the very few laws of wine pairing: that the wine should be as sweet or sweeter than the food, otherwise the wine tastes sour. Try it - take a bite of something sweet when you’re drinking a dry or off-dry wine.

Since ice cream is pretty much one of the sweetest desserts, it has been traditionally paired with Pedro Ximenez sherry, which is the sweetest wine on the planet along with Australian stickies. Both work a treat but aren’t really silly and don’t show anything new. Shit.