Clear the main dishes and get your taste buds ready for something sweeter – it’s time for dessert!

After a delicious spread of savoury foods (and way too many cracker jokes) it’s time to shift into a different gear and dial up the sweetness. That’s right, it’s time for dessert. Puddings, cakes, trifles, cookies, pavlova, tarts — the list goes on! But no matter what your sweet course looks like we’ve got the best drinks to complement it. Below, Wine Merchant Antony Tatangelo from Dan Murphy’s Prahran shares his recommendations for dessert course drinks and all the sweet treats that will match.

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Baileys Salted Caramel with Christmas Pudding

“Baileys is a really classic Christmas drink in my family, especially on the English-Irish side. This salted caramel version is a nice stray from the standard edition, but still subtle enough to be appreciated by long-running Baileys fans. It would pair really well with Christmas pudding because of the sweetness and then that little bit of salt in the caramel enhances all the flavours.”

Zytho Velvet Luxe Stout with Chocolate Torte

“This isn’t a very traditional stout, it’s a bit leaner which makes it really drinkable in the warmer months of the year. It’s also a great stepping stone if you’ve been curious about getting into darker ales. Stouts are famous for coffee and chocolate flavours so it’s best to stick in those territories when matching with desserts. Saying that, I would pair this up with a chocolate torte or even really chocolatey brownies.”

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Zonzo Estate Moscato with Fruit Salad

“I really, really enjoy this wine. It’s thoroughly balanced, not sickly sweet, and has a reasonably fine style bubble to it. It’s a great wine for the Aussie summer because it has that balance between sweetness and being a little bit fresh too. Serving this alongside a really fresh summer fruit salad would be absolute gold and bring out that fresh tropical flavour in the moscato.”

Barbadillo La Cilla Pedro Ximenez with Ice Cream

“This is a decadent and luscious Spanish sherry with rich honey, toffee flavours. It’s super syrupy and delicious. One of the most well known ways of serving it is poured over creamy vanilla ice cream. But you could also take that a step further and enjoy it alongside an affogato — hot espresso poured over vanilla ice cream.”

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De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon with Mango Cheesecake

“The Noble One Botrytis Semillon is a bit of an Australian dessert wine icon, but it’s also incredible value for the price. It’s very sweet and luscious with some tropical flavours like mango and pineapple that are really playful. Something that would really sing with it would be any kind of cheesecake with tropical fruits — a mango cheesecake for example.”