Fondue Wines

Filed in archive Food and Wine on January 25, 2010

© AMagill


For Christmas I got my first full fondue set. To break it in, some girl friends and I threw a fondue party this past weekend. It was a learning experience in many ways but one of the best parts was testing out wines to go with the fondue.

We used three types of wine for our fondue night. The wine to make the cheese fondue and the wine we served with it. We also made chocolate fondue, so there was yet another type of wine to go with that. I've split the wines into three sections here.

1. The "Cheese" Wine: The wine that should be used in traditional Swiss fondue is a very dry wine. We used a cheap Sauvignon Blanc (and I do mean cheap, but it turned out great.) Chardonnay also works well in traditional fondue.

2. The Appetizer Wine: You can use a higher grade wine to cook in the cheese and also serve it if you like. But since we were experimenting with lots of different cheeses (some cheddar, some Swiss, some smelly ones too) we decided to go with a Cabernet Sauvignon. Any smoky red will set-off your wine nicely, especially if you are using different grainy breads in your cheese instead of just sliced baguettes.

3. The Dessert Wine: The kind of wine you pick for dessert depends heavily on what kind of chocolate you put in the fondue. "Original" chocolate fondue consists of bittersweet chocolate and cream. Try pairing this with a Shiraz or Rioja. Or if you're like me and a fan of sweet whites, a simple Riesling goes will with fruit you dip it too.

We had a great time trying different combinations of wine and cheese, wine and chocolate and just more wine. If you've tried fondue and different wines what are some of your favorite pairings?