Ripe, squishy peaches spurting juice, pancakes sticky with maple-scented syrup, fragrant dark chocolate sliding across and melting into the tongue—there is a neurobiological reason we take pleasure in sweet-smelling, mouth-filling tastes in deeply colored packages.

They let us know that we’ve found sustenance. But, sweet wines, like Chris Brown’s vocal seductions, have fallen in and out of favor.

Late-harvest, eiswein, or botrytized wines, such as the world’s most expensive white wine, Chateau d’Kquem, tend to be appreciated solo by two groups of people: master sommeliers and novice wine drinkers, with many wine lovers quickly dismissing them.

Here’s why: Wine newbies love the absence of bitterness in the honeyed juice and sommeliers are enamored of the wine’s color concentration, aromas and flavor complexities. For the rest of us, just like listening to a Chris Brown album, you have to match the wine with the appropriate accompaniments. Nicknamed LPR wines, or “liquid panty removers,” the pleasure of these wines is in the pairing.  
Opening a meal with nectarous wine utilizes two key elements of seduction: intrigue and the notion that opposites attract.

One seemingly incongruous duo that works is the combination of raw oysters and Sauternes. Sweet and salty East Coast oysters, such as Chincoteague or Malpeque, naked and on the half-shell with Chateau Suduiraut, both available locally, is a lip-smacking duo—golden fruit with a salty kiss.  

You can find Chateau Suduiraut at J. Emerson Fine Wines.
 
Continue to satiate with an hors d’oeuvres of goat cheese and a glass of Jo Pithon Quarts de Chaume. This late harvest, oak-matured Chenin Blanc tastes like a golden raisin-studded Apple Brown Betty infused with warm citrus juices. One of the Loire Valley’s famous dessert wines, Quarts de Chaume complements the sour tanginess of the creamy cheese. Goat cheese is a specialty of the Loire Valley too, so this is a classic French pairing, like Napoleon and Josephine. Pithon wines and goat cheese are both available at Can-Can.

The last and most unusual pairing is Cappellano Barolo Chinato NV with dark chocolate. Barolo Chinato is a weirdo-thing, not for the faint of heart. It’s Barolo wine macerated with herbs, bark and sugar, developed in Piemonte by the Cappellano family during the reign of the House of Savoy. In the 1800s, the wine was a popular digestive tonic. Apparently Italians drink things after dinner to settle their meal and keep the conversation flowing, unlike us Americans, who loosen our belts and nap in a chair.

Serve this bitter, sweet and flavorful wine with the darkly seductive Criolla chocolate from Gearharts on Grove and fall in love with this psychoactive pairing.

Casanova used to slip chocolate and wine to his lovers just before bed. But, be warned, this is an extremely rare wine that must be special-ordered through a wine shop that deals with its distributor, Williams Corner. Drink it sparingly (the only way to drink this intense wine) and the bottle will last a year, kept in a cool place out of sunlight.
 
Dessert Wine Wrap-Up:
Sweet wines pair with savory or sweet foods. If you are pairing the wine with a sweet food, the wine must be sweeter than the food you are pairing it with. Fresh fruit or biscotti are terrific with dessert wine.
If you are pairing dessert wine with savory food, know that one half-bottle of wine will serve 8-10 people. The wine is meant to stimulate the appetite, not stop appetite in its tracks. Sticky wines are sexy. Serve them with small plates and tidbits.

Have a dessert wine you’re fond of? Let me know in the comments.