What Sparkling Wine To Pair With Apple Pie?

The Apple Pie is an English Dish, it was first made in England, although the Americans might be the ones who enjoy it the most.

The English Apple Pie isn’t without its influences, from countries like the Netherlands, France and the Ottoman Empire.

The first record of the apple pie was written in England, in 1381, although the recipe consisted of various other ingredients, like pears, raisins, figs and even saffron. The first recipes for the apple pie didn’t include sugar and even the pastry wasn’t considered a real part of the dish, they only included ‘coffin’ pastry as a container of sorts, to keep the apple pie inside. The Dutch also have a record of the apple pie going back to 1514.

The sweet and delightful apples which we so often enjoy today were only introduced to American early Jamestown colonists, they brought with them apple tree seeds and cuttings, which were planted and would eventually spread across the country. America was not without apples before this time, they had the Crab Apples, but weren’t very pleasant to eat, being sour and shrunken, so instead of eating them, they made them into cider to drink, instead of water, which at the time required a lot of work to purify.

The first American cookbook to mention apple pie was published in 1796 by Amelia Simmons, it was called American Cookery. It started becoming enjoyed by the masses in America around the 18th and 19th centuries.

Feel free to watch the heavenly tasting on video, including all tasting and pairing notes, or continue reading onwards to find the results and scroll right to the end for advice on what Sparkling Wine to pair with your Apple Pie.

Now let’s meet the Sparkling Wines which will be competing to pair the best with this delicious homemade apple pie.

Szigeti

The Szigeti Winery was founded in 1991 by Peter Szigeti, it is located in Gols in the Austrian state of Burgenland. Peter and his cellar master have both spent a lot of time ensuring that his Sparkling Wine meets the highest quality and captures the varietal characteristics of the grape varieties.

Interesting Fact: When looking at their Prestige line you will notice an emblem of a Knight, this is a tribute to the Knight of Gols.

Sektkellerei Szigeti – Klassik Muskat Ottonel Extra Dry

Aroma 👃 “Sweet ripe fruits, peach, gooseberry, green grapes and grapefruit on the aroma.”

Flavour 👅 “Sweet, very ripe fruits, grapefruit, white and yellow floral notes, greenery and lemon candy sweets on the palate.”

This Austrian Sparkling Wine Won a Gold Medal in the Dessert Category at the Glass of Bubbly Awards 2021

Bolney Wine Estate

Located just 14 miles from the south coast on the edge of the South Downs in Sussex, Bolney Wine Estate was established in 1972, it is comprised of five unique vineyard sites and their head winemaker, Sam Linter is the daughter of the founders, Janet and Rodney.

When Janet and Rodney originally founded Bolney Wine Estate they first called it Bookers Vineyard, they have just recently been bought by Henkell Freixenet.

Bolney Wine Estate also put in a lot of work to win the Glass of Bubbly’s Sustainability Trophy in partnership with Slow Food, making sure to reduce their carbon footprint, recycle when possible and give back to the planet.

Bolney Wine Estate – Cuvée Rosé 2018

Aroma 👃 “Ripe red berries, including raspberries and strawberries, freshly cut grass, nettles, and more that you’d find in an English country garden.”

Flavour 👅 “Younge and rounded, red berries, redcurrant, freshly picked strawberries and raspberries leaves on the palate.”

The Trophy Winner in the Light & Fruity Category at the Glass of Bubbly Awards 2021

Brisson Jonchere Ratafia Champenois

👃 “Plentiful on the aroma, including tobacco leaves, yellow fruits, apricots, peaches, and prunes in syrup.”

👅 “Very nice, caramel, toast with honey, shortbread biscuits, syrup, peaches with hints of tobacco and oak flavours.”

A Silver Medal Winner in the Ratafia Champenois Awards 2020

What Sparkling Wine To Pair With Apple Pie?

Bolney Wine Estate

 

Pairing – “The Sparkling Wine comes in strong with a quicky burst of red berry flavours which faded quickly leaving rich apple pie flavours.”

Pairing with Cream – “The Sparkling Wine comes in and combines with the Cream, leading delightful red berries, strawberries, raspberries and more with the pastry and sweet apple until the close, a truly wonderful pairing, allowing for both the Sparkling Wine and apple pie time to express themselves to you.”

Christopher’s Pairing with Cream Notes – “The Bolney comes in and removes the cream, leaving silky apple, raspberry, raspberry leaf flavours, palate-cleansing works better there.”

Szigeti

Pairing – “A wonderful, well balanced pairing, the sparkling wine adds vibrant ripe fruits including lemon and lime to the apple pie, this creates a ripe fruit party in your mouth.”

Pairing with Cream – “The Sparkling Wine removes the cream from the pairing, the Sparkling Wine and Apple Pie then tries to harmonies with each other, but by the end of your left with a lemon/lime apple pie flavour.”

Christopher’s Pairing Cream Notes – “At the initial burst, the lemon flavours and apple pie flavours battle, but a Wonderful mid-length, lemon, lemon curd, silky creamy lemon flavours.”

Brisson Jonchere Ratafia Champenois

 

Pairing – “The Ratafia adds in a level of maturity, with bursts of all of the wonderful flavours of the Ratafia, while still keeping the pastry and sweet apple flavours.”

Pairing with Cream – “A perfect Pairing, the Ratafia adds elegant, delicate, maturity and rich notes to the pastry and apple pie, the apple pie losses no flavours, that’s important to note, it feels like it takes a small step back allowing the Ratafia to combine with its rich syrupy, oaky, yellow fruits and figs with the creamy apple and pastry flavours. Lingering on your palate long after you’ve finished. It starts great then somehow gets even greater.”

Christopher Pairing with Cream Notes – “Well, well, well, that’s good, initially creamy, silky and velvety texture to the palate, there’s nothing sharp, there’s nothing too aggressive, there’s just a wonderful caramel, apple, kind of cream apple texture, pastry, dried apricot and syrupy flavours. It’s a WOW factor.” 

After we completed this pairing, one thing was made clear, the sweeter the wine or in some cases, Ratafia, the more complimentary the pairing. In the case with an apple pie, if you’ve got yourself an Extra-Dry or even Dry Sparkling Wine, you’ll in most cases be perfectly fine pairing it with an Apple Pie.