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A tradition born many moons ago, Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival synonymous with mooncakes sourcing. When it comes to the traditional, people tend to drink tea to ease the greasy aftertaste. Yet, it has been growing popular to pair it with wine also! This year, Watson’s Wine have selected 7 hot mooncake picks which range from the classic to the contemporary, all easily suited to wine pairing, giving this fest an interesting twist and surely mind-blowing!
1. Lotus Seed Paste Mooncake x Sweet Wine
Despite multifarious selections available in the market, the traditional lotus seed paste mooncake will always be an essential in every family. A typical choice of fillings, lotus seed paste contains a high sugar level that can be very rich. To find a wine capable of going toe to toe with this rich and sweet paste, why not a Moscato that also shares a particularly sweet flavour? Medium in body, a creamy Ceretto Moscato d’Asti is best to lift the sweetness!
Botrytized wine such as Sauternes is a surprisingly good match as well. The rich flavours of honey and nuts bring out the nutty fragrance of the lotus seed paste, the paste tastes so silky that as if it’s melting in your mouth!
2. Ice Cream Mooncake x Chilean Torontel
Not a traditionalist in mooncake? Let’s give it a contemporary twist with ice cream mooncake! With a diversity of flavours to choose from and new ones still popping up every year, it is simply finger-licking good. Generally sweet and rich, the ice cream mooncake often appears in flavours like chocolate, red bean and matcha, which is perfect to match with Torontel from Chile, or Nasco from Italy to reach a perfect balance in sweetness, providing you a modern angle to enjoy mooncake.
3. Chocolate Mooncake x Port Wine / Tawny Port
We often associate chocolate mooncake with whisky, but indeed Port could also be a match, for instance, the Warre’s Bottle Matured LBV.
This world-renowned brand has just celebrated its 350th anniversary, and its late bottled vintage has even claimed the Golden Award at the Decanter World Wine Awards. For its chocolatey sweetness with hints of caramel, honey, and dried fruits, it’s not only a match with chocolates without changing the flavours themselves, but is also a new enjoyment for your palate!
4. Snow skin Mooncake x Champagne / Sparking Wines
Mooncake with mung bean paste coated with chewy and fruit snow skin is such a refreshing choice that goes well with Champagne that is equally enlivening. Imagine the harmonious balance between rich and delicate bubbles with soothing mung bean paste, where apricot, lemon and honey aroma syncing the fruity snow skin, what a bite of sensation!
5. Assorted Nuts Mooncake x Single Malt Scotch Whisky
In addition to the modern interpretations, the traditional assorted nuts mooncake can also be paired with fine wine, as a new and innovative way of eating! The fillings are mainly olive seeds, walnuts, almonds, melon seeds and sesames, deliver a comprehensive nuttiness which suits best with a bottle of Glenfiddich 18 Year Old Single Malt Whisky. Brewed in Sherry barrels, this Scotch delivers a honey, fruity and nutty palate, which complements the nutty flavour of mooncake, and provides an surprisingly enjoyable blend. Who knew when east meets west can create such a chemistry that is so hard to resist?
6. Chinese Ham Mooncake x New World Merlot / Amarone
The Chinese Ham mooncake is a uniquely traditional style to enjoy the fest in a savoury way, matching up with suitable wines could neutralize the saltiness in it and give a more gentle palate. The Californian Merlot we are recommending comes with a big fruity entrance just like the warm and airy weather in California. With its particularly concentrated berries flavour, greasiness in ham and mooncake is lifted while the salty fragrance of ham stands out.
If you wish to pair it with Old World reds, Amarone from Italy would be the perfect choice. The fine tannin and dense palate of Amarone such as Musella and Tommasi could easily enhance the salty fragrance of harm.
7. Egg Custard Mooncake x Noble Rot Wine
The ever-popular custard mooncake is right on trend this autumn. For the silky creaminess and salted egg yolk that gives a savoury kick, it’s simply lingering. Try it with a Botrytized wine, such as Sauternes. Produced with extremely rare noble rot, it has a beautiful concentration of sweetness from botrytis, delivering a dense but layered palate that floats with floral, and lime aromas.
Apart from Sauternes, Australia produces some quality noble rot wines too, with De Bortoli Noble One being one of the most remarkable examples. Compare it horizontally with a Sauternes to see the difference!
