On Sep 23, 6:17 am, "Nils Gustaf Lindgren"
> wrote:
> Hello,
> Last night we had friends over, and finished a fairly plesant meal with a
> frozen fennel mousse, the which I found in a French cook book. The procedure
> is fairly convoluted and invvolves cooking fennels in a sugar syrup, then,
> making an infusion of star anise, using that for making ANOTHER sugar syrup
> which is heated to 118 centigrade, at which it starts to caramellise
> slightly, then, pouring the hot syrup into egg yolk, whipping energetically.
> The fennels are puréed, and it is all mixed with whipped cream and a glass
> of pastis, and frozen. In Swedish, it would be called a parfait - it is
> similar, when served, to an Italian semifreddo. In all, it has a clear
> taste of fennel and anise, but also a bit of fudge. It is served with a
> raspberry sauce.
>
> I served this with Mas Amiel, a Maury, red and fortified to 16.5 % alc, but
> the dessert and the wine only barely tolerated each other. Fennel, with its
> notes of liquorice, is not an ideal wine partner. Does anybody have a
> suggestion?

Not having tasted your fennel mousse, it is a bit difficult for me to
guess what I would consider a good match, which might or might not be
what you consider a good match. If I had time to experiment with
matches, here are some wines I might try. Vintage or a good reserve
Madeira. These come from bone dry to extremely sweet, so you likely
could find the sweetness level you want. A good Maderia, even a very
sweet one, has plenty of acidity. It also has a very intense taste and
bouquet that should hold up to a fairly intense anise-like taste. A
sweet wine from the muscat family also might work, although some of
these do not have nearly as much acidity as Madeira. Southern Italy is
full of such Muscat wines. Also Moscal de Setubal from Portugal might
be interesting to try. Ones with stated age such as 25 years old or
vintage examples have much more character than the basic versions that
often can be rather bland.Fonseca seem to be the Brand most often
found in the US.