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Episode Summary: In today’s tasting episode, Joanne shares a practical, at-home exercise focused on how sweetness in food can dramatically affect the taste of wine. This is one of those structural components that’s hard to memorize from a chart but easy to understand once you experience it.

Using a dry white or red wine and something sweet—maybe a bite of chocolate—you’ll explore how sweetness in food increases the perception of bitterness, acidity, and alcohol in wine, while reducing its fruitiness and body.

Joanne walks through how this concept shows up in real-life dining situations (like ordering dessert after a bottle of red) and why you should always consider a dessert wine for sweet foods. She also explains why this lesson is relevant for WSET students at every level and how tasting exercises like this can lock in your learning for exam day.

You’ll also hear about a clever pairing strategy from a Bordeaux winemaker who served sweet wine with umami-rich dishes to create a beautifully balanced experience.

Takeaway: Sweet food can rob a wine of its best qualities. Try this exercise at home and discover just how much sweetness changes your wine—and why pairing sweet with sweet is the key to a successful match.