Tarte au citron with Helmut Lang Beerenauslese Chardonnay

Citrus flavours are difficult to match with wine, as I’ve mentioned before, but a classic lemon tart with its combination of sharpness and sweetness is particularly tricky. The better a tart is the more it will tend to strip the flavour out of any accompanying wine, so much so that it’s almost worth serving a shop-bought one (of which there are some very good examples) if you have a serious dessert wine to show off.

The other day though, I came across an excellent pairing which was a 2006 Helmut Lang Beerenauslese Chardonnay from Austria which Tanners sells for the very reasonable price of £9.90 a half bottle (a bargain for a sweet wine of this quality).

The reason it worked so well was that it was exceptionally liquorous, coating the palate so that the sharpness of the lemon balanced but didn’t dominate. It would also be a fantastic wine to have in your cellar for Christmas drinking which I suppose we need to start thinking about soon.

Heavens - how fast it comes round!

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