To enhance the sweetness of carnival pastries, try drinking them with a sweet, dessert wine.To enhance the sweetness of carnival pastries, try drinking them with a sweet, dessert wine.

At carnival, many of us might be biting into something traditional like the carnival cake prinjolata or other sweet treats, before the fasting begins in earnest. Similarly, carnivores will probably be tucking into something meaty.

Here are a few tips on some great Maltese wine combinations that will work really well during this festive time. Also, one can try wines of the latest 2013 vintage which have been available on the market for a couple of months.

To enhance the sweetness of carnival pastries and cakes, try drinking them with a luscious, sweet, dessert wine.

For many, the dessert is often the crowning glory of any dinner party and serving another wine at the end of your meal takes your dinner party to another level, enhancing your food and ending your evening on a high.

The good news is that matching your dessert with a wine is often far less difficult or critical than with other dishes. With most desserts, sweetness is the overriding factor, and as long as you’re accompanying wine that is as sweet or slightly sweeter than your dish, you should be on safe ground.

To accompany a dessert like prinjolata – which can have a whole stack of mixed ingredients such as pine nuts, glazed cherries, chocolate, condensed milk, vermouth, cream, etc – a well-chilled glass of sweet white liqueur wine like Grand Vin de Hauteville Moscato DOK Malta or the IGT Maltese Islands Casella Moscato would go down fantastically well.

Even a nice, chilled glass of Delicata’s rosé Ġellewża Frizzato IGT Maltese Islands would accompany prinjolata well, as the fizz will help cleanse the palate of all those sweet, sticky flavours. Similarly, if you prefer drier wines, the brut Girgentina Frizzato will work for the same reasons, as its crispness and dryness will counterbalance the sweetness.

However, if you’re going for a meat treat before Ash Wednesday, and you are having white meats or poultry such as chicken, quail, rabbit or pork, go for a light- to medium-bodied red that is low in tannins and full of ripe jammy fruit flavours such as the 2013 Medina Sangiovese, Pjazza Regina red or Medina Syrah Carignan Grenache.

If you prefer heavier, strong-flavoured red meats like beef, lamb, veal steaks or venison, try a fuller-bodied, robust red wine with higher tannins and lots of concentrated fruit such as DOK Malta Grand Vin de Hauteville Shiraz Cabernet or Medina Syrah or the DOK Gozo Victoria Heights Merlot. And with these fuller bodied reds, a slightly older vintage like the 2012 or 2011 (if you can find them) might be even nicer.

To savour the bottle of red wine you have chosen and enjoy its attributes at their very best, you should let the wine ‘breathe’ or aerate a little.

Generally speaking, white and rosé wines do not really need time to breathe. But there are elements in a red wine, like tannins, that will almost always benefit from a little exposure to air before drinking.

Almost all red wines will taste better if you simply open them up before serving (even 20 minutes will help) and let them ‘breathe’ in the oxygen which will allow them to soften a little and release all the flavours within. If don’t have this time, that’s fine, but don’t push the cork back in or leave the screw cap on the bottle.

If at all possible, simply pour the wine into adecanter or carafe, or, failing that, directly into your wine glass 15 minutes before drinking it, as this will speed up the breathing process and make your wine taste better, quicker.

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