Carrot Cake Paired with a 2010 Pacific Rim Columbia Valley Riesling

I was craving something sweet, but not over-indulgent and so I decided I'd make a carrot cake from scratch.  As I was thinking of a good wine to pair with cake or less heavy desserts in general I thought it would be interesting to pair a less sweet, more dry Riesling.  I purchased a 2010 Pacific Rim Riesling from Columbia Valley bottled in Richland, Washington.  I chose this wine since it received 90 points from Wine Spectator and it was reviewed to be medium dry and not overly sweet as to make the whole dessert plan a little too much in terms of flavor.  It is 11.5% alcohol content and was recommended for richer foods.

I gathered my ingredients and made the cake mix.  It was a fairly easy recipe that only took me about 15 minutes to prep and mix.  I was interested to see how the carroty sugary flavor of the carrot cake would mix with the Riesling.  

Once the carrot cake was finished baking I put some cream cheese frosting on the cake and waited for it to fully cool.  In the meantime I poured a glass of the Riesling and first looked at the color.  It was a pretty light coloring, a bit of a really faint amber-yellow.  I then gave the wine a sniff and was pretty happy when I smelled a honeysuckle, fresh spring day scent.  It was like a wave of springtime in my nose, even faintly pollen like, but overall very pleasing.  I decided I'd take a few sips of the wine before biting into my carrot cake in order to have a kind of control to see the contrast between the wine by itself and the wine paired with more sweetness. The wine pretty much tasted exactly how it smelled, it was fresh, pear like, honey suckle, just really fresh and vibrant, and completely reminiscent of spring to me.

Next I took a big bite of the carrot cake with some cream cheese frosting and then took a sip of the Riesling.  The amount that the Riesling had changed was pretty awesome.  It became more apple like in flavor but was now much more sharp and crisp, even more sour tasting then it was alone.  I'd say it went from tasting like a red delicious apple to a green granny smith apple. I continued eating and drinking until I finished the piece of cake and was pretty pleased with how well the two paired together, I for one am I person who definitely needs to drink milk with sweets to balance out the flavors, but I found this Riesling to do a good enough job that it was the only drink I needed to enjoy the cake.  Overall I'd definitely recommend this pairing.. it was really tasty together and since I am not too experienced with Rieslings it gave me a good starting ground for foods I know pair nicely with the wine.