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Very sweet and very sharp at the same time. Almost no wine survives both.
Moscato d’Asti, or a late-harvest Riesling. You need sweetness AND high acidity, which is a rarer combination than it sounds.
Key lime pie is condensed milk and egg yolk set with lime juice in a biscuit crust, usually under meringue or cream. It is one of the hardest desserts to pair because it makes two opposing demands at once: it is properly sweet, so the wine must be sweeter, and it is fiercely acidic, so the wine must also be sharp. Most sweet wines are one or the other.
The sweetness rule applies as always — sugar in food strips fruit and sweetness from the wine that follows, so a dry wine tastes sour and hollow. But the lime raises a second bar: a wine less acidic than the pie will taste flabby and cloying, however sweet it is.
That excludes a lot. A rich, low-acid dessert wine — many Muscats, a heavy Sauternes — meets the first demand and fails the second, tasting syrupy and dull against the lime. What you need is a wine that is sweet and bracing at the same time.
Moscato d’Asti. The best answer, and the least expensive. Lightly sparkling, grapey, only around 5 to 6% alcohol, sweet but with real acidity and a frothy lift that keeps it from cloying. It also will not overwhelm a light pudding the way a fortified wine would.
Late-harvest Riesling — a German Auslese, or a New World late-harvest. Riesling keeps very high acidity even at high sugar, which is exactly the combination this pie demands. The most precise match if you can find one.
A demi-sec sparkling — Champagne or Crémant with real dosage. The bubbles handle the cream and the sugar clears the lime.
A graham or digestive crust adds a toasty, buttery note that suits the caramelised character of a late-harvest wine — a small argument for Riesling over Moscato.
A meringue top adds more sugar again, raising the bar the wine has to clear. A whipped cream top is milder and easier.
What to avoid: anything dry, and anything heavy. This is a light, sharp dessert, and a big fortified wine like Port or PX simply flattens it — those belong with chocolate and coffee puddings, not citrus ones.
Moscato d’Asti or a late-harvest Riesling. You need sweetness for the sugar and high acidity for the lime, and few wines have both.
Because it is very sweet and very sour at once. The sugar means the wine must be sweeter still, and the lime means it must also be sharp — most rich dessert wines fail the second test and taste syrupy.
Less well than you would hope. A heavy Sauternes meets the sweetness but not the acidity, and can taste dull and syrupy beside the lime. Riesling keeps far more acid at the same sugar level.
Too heavy. Port and PX belong with chocolate and coffee desserts; against a light, sharp citrus pudding they simply flatten it.
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