The short answer is: yes, of course you can. You should always feel free to drink wine any way you please. Now pairing wine with ice cream seems to be a growing trend on social media.
It’s a Gen Z thing apparently. TikTok and Instagram are going crazy with people mixing ice cream with wine in the same glass. Does a red wine milkshake sound appealing? Or a “float” of white ice cream in a glass of Chablis?
Apparently, it started with Folderol, an establishment in Paris that sells scoops of ice cream in vintage metal coupes alongside natural wine. With an eclectic range of oolong tea, carrot cake, fig hibiscus or spicy melon, the choice of ice cream seems endless. Now ice cream parlour and wine bars are popping up in London and New York.
I am very fond of both ice cream and wine, but rarely enjoy the two together. Ice cream is sweet and wine is usually dry, so surely the two won’t mix? I do like wine sorbets, but they don’t contain cream.
Most wine drinkers will automatically pair a dessert of any kind with a sweet wine of some sort; Sauternes with fruit tarts, Port with chocolate desserts. There is a traditional wine and ice cream mix of very sweet Pedro Ximénez sherry with vanilla ice cream – a delicious hedonistic mix of cream, raisins, figs and dates.
I bought a half a dozen tubs of ice cream and conducted my own experiments.
The best matches did involve sweet wines, although there were a few nice surprises with red wines. If you want to try mixing red wine with ice cream, I would suggest a merlot or pinot noir, both of which have lighter tannins. My red wine went best with a raspberry ice cream.
My four favourite matches were as follows:
- Sauternes with Supervalu Signature Passion Fruit Ice Cream. I suspect that any fruit ice cream would go well with Sauternes, Moscato d’Asti, or an off-dry Riesling.
- PX Sherry with vanilla ice cream was excellent; Chocolate Fudge Brownie was nice but not as good as the vanilla.
- Tawny Port went really well with the Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Ben & Jerry’s Brookies too.
- Raspberry ice cream with a light, ripe pinot noir.
Lastly, my siblings swear by vanilla ice cream with a small dose of whiskey and freshly ground pepper.
