> Chef Frédéric Prouvoyeur’s focus on Fruit Desserts

It’s Summer! Fruits fall from the trees, red berries are here! All you have to do now is to discover how to enjoy them.
Frédéric Prouvoyeur, Château Magnol’s dedicated Chef gives some precious advices on pairing wines with fruit desserts.

Fruit is particularly welcome at the end of a meal and can be enjoyed many different ways: in a cold soup, on tarts, in puff pastry, ice cream, sorbets, cut in julienne strips, eaten whole, etc. Avoiding overly sweet flavours, let us try to make the most of the many delicious fruits on offer and discover fascinating contrasts, textures, and colours.

The red and the black: why not try "tone on tone" with flavoursome and slightly tangy red fruit (strawberry, raspberry, and cranberry) and black fruit (blackcurrant, blackberry, and blueberry) - for instance, smooth, fruity wines like Beaujolais, Pinot Noir d'Alsace, Saint-Pourçain, Sancerre, light Côtes du Rhône, or Cabernet de Touraine with a verrine of strawberry soup with rose water and whipped cream, raspberry zabaglione, or simply strawberries and cream? With pervasive flavours such as balsamic vinegar, the best choice is probably a red dessert wine like Maury or Banyuls.

Rosé de Provence is perfect with fruit salad containing mint leaves or strawberry and citronella soup. And a fairly vinous pink Champagne, or even a demi-sec, will be popular with everyone to accompany desserts such as macaroons.

The pink and the green: A number of desserts such as cold kiwifruit and strawberry soup, watermelon and strawberry soup, and strawberry and lime Bavarian cream go very well with sweet wines that have good acidity (thus avoiding any heaviness). These pairings draw a parallel between two different acidities: that found in the fruit and that in the wine. Loupiac, Jurançon, Vouvray or Coteaux du Layon fit the bill nicely.

White and yellow: peaches, apples, pears, and apricots are popular, but what wine to serve with them? Regional matches often work very well: peaches in Alsace wine with a sweet Gewurztraminer, verrines of fondant apples with semi-sweet Vouvray, or not very sweet Sauternes, baked apples with cider from Normandy or pommeau - but also Vouvray, Coteaux du Layon or Sauternes - and pear salad with honey and fresh mint with poiré.

The sweet white wines of the Loire are great with compote of mirabelle plums from Lorraine, stuffed caramelised nectarines, and pears in wine and spices: Coteaux de l'Aubance, Coteaux du Layon, semi-sweet Vouvray as well as diverse Muscat wines. Apples au gratin from the Calvados should obviously be accompanied by... a good Calvados.

Citrus desserts: banana and citrus salad, pear and grapefruit compote with gingerbread, grapefruit with cinnamon and almonds, citrus and green tea soup, grapefruit au gratin with Muscat zabaglione, orange and light cream, etc. Once again, sweet white wines work wonders here. These should be sufficiently sweet to counterbalance the dish, but with enough attractive acidity to wake up the taste buds and provide flavours reminiscent of citrus. A great Sauternes also suits.

Dried fruit desserts: prune crumble, baked apples with dried fruit, roast figs with spices, and dried fruit in brik pastry with ras el hanout. Once again, Banyuls does the job well thanks to its sweetness, bouquet of figs or dried fruit, and flavours suggesting cocoa or sugared almonds. Unusual contrasts: pears with chocolate mousse, brochettes of fresh fruit and chocolate, mini white chocolate cake with cranberries, etc. The oxidative nature of certain wines such as Port, Banyuls, or Rivesaltes plays a very positive role here.

Exotic desserts: Muscat à Petits Grains is a good friend of exotic desserts. Its exuberance and freshness go well with verrines of tropical fruit, melon soup with Sichuan pepper, plum and citrus soup, roast pineapple, orange caramel and spices, yoghurt and banana salad with coconut, kluai buat chi (bananas with coconut milk) and mango au gratin, etc. Serving these with a sweet, but not too sweet wine from Vouvray, Coteaux du Layon, or Sauternes also does the trick. Cherries or plums in brandy really can only be accompanied by the same brandy. The same goes for a pineapple tarte tatin with rum.