Once upon a time, in my role as a wine buyer, I was asked to find out what wine went best with chocolate. I was put in a room with about forty types of chocolate (bars, puddings, you name it) and about a hundred different wines of all styles and colour. I was then told not to come out until I’d found perfect matches. I promise you, I am not making this up. A team of us tasted, sniffed, sipped and spat (ew, sorry) our way round that tasting table. And the verdict? Mostly, wine and chocolate are a tricky match. Wine’s acidity and/or tannins fight with the sweetness of chocolate. But every now and again, a particular combination works brilliantly. It really is a case of trial and error. Go on, force yourself. Here are a few tried and tested combinations:
Dark chocolate: Banyuls (a fairly weird but utterly delicious sweet wine from France).
Milk chocolate: Tawny Port (lighter than normal Port so doesn’t smother the chocolate flavours).
White chocolate: Mas Amiel (a sweet wine from Maury, south-west France. A tear-inducing match).
Happy Easter!
KM x
It's good that we have dedicated people like you to go out there and do this research for us! I love both chocolate and wine but it's so difficult to get them to go together. And now I know how! 🙂
Yes, but keep researching, always a new match to make!
And THIS is why I love your blog – you get right to the heart of the issues that matter. Happy Easter to you too KM!
Why thank you, and happy easter to you too x
Have you been invited to the wine and chocolate matching in London next week?
No, but sounds good!
I will drink any red wine with any brown chocolate…I don't like to get too technical!
Sounds perfectly sensible…
fred was just wondering if it is ok to drink mojitos with belgian chocolate…..
oh that's a very good match 😉
Wow, you had a bloody tough job once upon a time. Loads of choccy and wine galore? No wonder you left it for the easy peasy thingy of looking after kids! (I did the same…)
Ha ha…exactly. Walk in the park 😉
Er, yes please! Oh, thought you were recruiting there for a moment. Hee hee. What a terrible life you had! Congrats on the book deal BTW, just been catching up with news in the blogosphere and found you – fab!
Thanks so much, off to find you too…
This is why I never eat dessert in a restaurant if there's still wine on the table. Wine and sweet things don't mix. However… wine and the cheese board… happy days!
The way around this predicament is to eat chocolate before, between and after wine, having flushed the mouth with water first! 😉
You have this all worked out. I do like a plan x
I've always liked drinking beer with my chocolate, especially if it's a rich dessert. It beats down the sugar a bit and makes it taste 'cleaner' to me, but it's quite possible that I have peculiar eating habits.
Last week I was informed that the new 'novelty' drinks to try this season are chocolate wine and pink port with seltzer. I brought the chocolate wine over to a friend's house and it tasted like an espresso martini with chocolate in it. I couldn't find any pink port, but will press on with my research.
You see I do think beer and chocolate can work better…but a sweetie is my fave. Yes, heard about the choccy wine but not tried it yet. Want to now you've said espresso martini…yum.
Milk chocolate and tawny port, now that's my idea of a perfect meal!
Nutritionally balanced, too 😉