Cupcakes and Wine – A Perfect Pair in Chester County

When you get the call asking if you’d like to taste cupcakes from Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” winner Dia Doce that are painstakingly paired with vino from international award-winning Penns Woods Winery, is there a no answer? Hubs and I were happy to oblige.

The pairings, in a quaint area just off the tasting room at Penns Woods Winery’s charming location in Chadds Ford, started and ended sweet, but in very different ways.

Traminette 2010, part Gewurztraminer, best described as off-dry and just-so sweet, accompanied a Blood Orange Creamsicle cupcake. The vanilla cake was infused with a wee-tart citrus and topped with butter cream, offering sweetness in spades. The cupcake was crazy creamy, which set it apart from the slightly acidic and crisp wine, a perfect contrast to the rich confection that surprised us with that sweet-tart center.

Moving on to a fruity combo: Spiced Pear Cupcake and Pinot Grigio 2006. This pairing was an unexpected treatment of fruit, focusing on spicy goodness. The cupcake was a not-so-simple vanilla with a fresh pear center offset by a cinnamon cream frosting that gave a curious hint of spice at the end. The wine, by itself, brought bright fruit such as honeydew and something tropical, yet when paired those flavors were subdued to feature the spice in the wine. In this case, the cupcake’s complex tastes transformed the wine and gave it a buttery feel.

Did I mention these were mini-cupcakes? Thank goodness, as there were three more to enjoy. Merlot 2007 was the able accomplice to a Raspberry Chocolate Cupcake. Again, what may sound like a “regular” cupcake turned out to be a most delightful fresh raspberry center nestled lovingly in rich chocolate and, in a brilliant move, semi-sweet chocolate ganache. It was up to muster for the hearty wine, which brought its own tones of chocolate and berry plus amazing, enormous tannins. When the palate was treated to a bite and a sip, the combination exploded with big, big, big red fruit and chocolate. This was Bob’s pick.

I begged to differ, something to which he’s become accustomed. A flavor I never thought I’d like in a dessert got my thumbs-up as the day’s winner: the Fig and Blue Cheese Cupcake with Chambourcin 2006. Our knowledgeable Penns Woods Winery sales rep, Cliff Lewis, deemed this the most “intellectually interesting” of all the pairings, and I concurred. It was an awesomely savory cupcake – a cupcake! – and I adore savory. There’s no getting around it: it had that funky, earthy flavor only a blue cheese can impart, especially the blue cheese cream frosting. It was magical, dare I say umami, but with enough sweet to deem it a treat. That’s why the wine was such a genius pairing – earth tones like plum, blackberry, sage and black pepper stood up to the blue, then cruised to a smooth and dry finish. Want to try this? Better, hurry, as this is the last vintage of Chambourcin.

We started as we finished: sweet. But a different kind of sweet, subtle, understated. Bancroft Rose partnered with a Rosewater Strawberry Cupcake, which Cliff again aptly described as “the pairing that makes you the happiest.” There certainly was joy among the bright flavors of peach, strawberry and even kiwi in the wine, but its freshness set it apart from other so-called dessert wines. What was amazing was that it echoed all the elements of the cupcake’s strawberry filling and rosewater frosting. When tasted together it was light as a cool spring day. Think of this wine for a perfect cocktail spritzer, too. Prosecco, per favore?