5 Perfect Pairings for Wine and Ice Cream: Pistachio, Strawberry, Coffee, Butter Pecan, Rocky Road

Welcome back everybody. Today is National Ice Cream Day and we’re celebrating in an unexpected way – by pairing our favourite flavours with wine!

You heard that right! Our next guest says they’re the perfect summer duo. Here to explain is Natalie MacLean who offers Canada’s most popular online wine classes. Welcome back, Natalie!

I think a lot of people are watching this thinking huh? But pairing wine and ice cream has become a trend recently. Some people even make wine and ice cream floats! So explain for us why the two can work well together.

Why drizzle chocolate syrup on a sundae or add rainbow sprinkles to vanilla ice cream? Is it absolutely necessary? No? Is it more fun for your tongue to layer your vices? Yes. We can create some terrific flavour combinations by pairing wine and ice cream.

It just takes a little extra work because the challenges with pairing these two things are many. Between the wine and the ice cream, you need to balance sweetness and flavour, but we’re also dealing with the extra challenges of dairy content and temperature differences.

Ok, we’re going to see if we can guess the proper pairings before we taste them. We have 5 flavours of ice cream and 5 types of wine and you’re giving us 20 seconds to make our matches. Go!

Ok Derek is going to bring out our first pairing for us to taste while Natalie, tell us what it is!

We’re starting with pistachio ice cream as it has nutty flavour similar to almonds because many of the same flavour compounds are found in both types of nuts. Therefore, the ice cream isn’t as sweet as some of the other flavours here so it’s better able to pair with a drier wine like the Villa Conchi Cava, a sparkling wine from Spain with earthy notes that blend beautifully.

Villa Conchi Brut Selección Cava
Cava D.O., Spain

Derek, come on out with our second pairing. Natalie, what is this one?

We’re moving on to strawberry ice cream with this summery Chloe Rosé from Italy. The berry flavors in the ice cream highlight strawberry notes in the wine.

I’d also try raspberry, cherry, watermelon or the classic tutti frutti, which means “all fruits” in Italian – it’s a blend of candied fruits and vanilla ice cream.

Chloe Wines Rosé
California, United States

Let’s find out what the third combo is.

I’m pairing the Quails’ Gate Chardonnay from the Okanagan Valley in BC with butter pecan ice cream. The ice cream flavours complement the buttery, honied notes in the wine. The pecans act as a lovely bitter accent to the ice cream’s sweetness, allowing the wine to pair better with this flavour than say it’s close cousin butterscotch that doesn’t have nuts.

Given the luscious buttery flavours in this wine, I’d also try this with mango, sea salt caramel or peanut butter ice cream.

Quails’ Gate Estate Winery Stewart Family Reserve Chardonnay
Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, BC V.Q.A., Canada

What’s the next combo you have for us?

I’m going to dare to pair this coffee ice cream with Conundrum from the Wagner family, a full-bodied California blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Petite Syrah grapes. It has seductive aromas of toasty oak, dark fruit, and yes, coffee notes. It also has a touch of residual sweetness to blend perfectly with the ice cream.

I’d try this wine with cookies and cream, chocolate mint and mocha flavours.

Conundrum Red
California, United States

Now we know what our final pairing is so Natalie, explain for us why this flavour combination works so well.

We’re going with the sweetest, most flavourful combination: A glorious Tawny Port with rocky road ice cream. Port is a classic fortified wine from Portugal that’s sweeter than dry table wine. It also has higher alcohol at about 20% versus table wine at 13%. That’s why it’s a heavenly indulgence with layered chocolatey richness of the ice cream that swirls around clouds of marshmallows.

Mint chocolate chip, chocolate raspberry swirl or cookie dough would all work well.