Pairing Wine and Food: Dry Wines with Sweet Foods

I've never quite understood how many people seem to continue drinking the table wine, which has accompanied their main course (and perhaps a starter), right through the dessert. The effect of a sweet, heavy pudding is to coat the palate, and overload it with sugar, completely changing the way a dry wine tastes. Anyone who drinks wine in this way is clearly not thinking about what they are tasting, otherwise they would quickly notice how unpalatable this is. The best solution, other than opening a dessert wine to accompany the pudding, is leave the wine to one side, only to return to it after coffee has cleansed the palate somewhat.These are two basic and simple rules which start us on the road to thinking about matching wine with food, and they illustrate quite nicely two simple themes in this art