Turn Up the Sweet for Summer Desserts

We'd bet that some of the best wine and food pairings of your life -- perhaps port with Stilton cheese, or Sauternes with foie gras -- have sweet wines to thank for their role in elevating the match.

Sweet wines perform magic with desserts, too, of course. Summer desserts celebrating sweet-tart berries, from blueberry sorbets to strawberry shortcake, harmonize with wines featuring similar flavors.

Fresh strawberries and sweeter champagnes are a timeless pairing. Raspberry-almond cake brings out the luscious berry notes in port, as it did with the 2000 Osborne Late Bottled Vintage Porto we opened the other night.

The single most dessert-friendly wine around is arguably Moscato d'Asti, and it's especially easy to taste why alongside berry desserts. Get a bottle of this slightly sweet, semi-sparkling, low-alcohol wine now to chill and enjoy with the first berry desserts of the season, and we can virtually guarantee you'll be buying it all summer long -- as you should, because this is also a wine you'll want to drink fresh.

Some of the better makers of Moscato d'Asti to keep an eye out for include Bera, Caudrina, Saracco and La Spinetta. However, we've yet to encounter one we didn't enjoy. Case in point: our first sip the other night of Nivole Michele Chiarlo , which is somewhat drier than others we've tasted. It reached its apex when paired with Andrew's homemade strawberry shortcake. The secret? He drizzled a tablespoon of the wine on the berries and then added a dash to the fresh whipped cream, so that the wine in the dessert served as a bridge to the wine in the glass, which lifted the flavors of both.

With shortcake, we've also enjoyed sweet Vouvray -- but the creamier the berry dessert, the more likely we are to turn to a Sauternes. One of the most ethereal pairings we've ever tasted was during a summer visit to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, where friends treated us all to a bottle of Chateau d'Yquem, one of the world's great Sauternes, to accompany berry crepes served with a creamy coconut tapioca. Sauternes exalts tropical flavors.

Mary Cech and Jennie Schacht, authors of "The Wine Lover's Dessert Cookbook" (Chronicle Books, 2005), underscore the important point that because many sweet wines are produced in such small quantities, their availability is limited.

"Because specific brands can be so hard to find, it's best to ask trusted wine retailers for recommendations for the style you're seeking among those they carry," Cech told us. Schacht added: "As a general rule, the darker the berry, the darker the wine you'll want to pair with it." A few examples:

· Strawberries: demi-sec champagne, muscat de Rivesaltes.

· Raspberries: Sauternes, sparkling wine, sweet Vouvray.

· Blueberries: Brachetto d'Acqui, Graham's Six Grapes Port.

· Blackberries: black muscat, Brachetto d'Acqui.