How To: Pair Wine with Chocolate
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| Wine and Chocolate |
Planning a special Valentine’s dinner? Might there, just possibly, be wine involved?
Chocolate too? Can you drink wine with chocolate?
The answer is easy — yes! But what wine? What chocolate?
That answer can be easy too: Choose a wine you like and some chocolate you like. But it’s easy to do better than that.
A basic principle of pairing wine with food is that they should both have similar body. That’s to say, a strong heavy dish needs the power of a big, structured wine. And a light, delicate morsel matches better with a dainty, subtle wine. Big matches big, and little matches little. I mean, if a sumo wrestler dons a frilly pink dress, you’re going to laugh, right? Maybe not in his face, but you’ll find it strange.
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| Toasted, Nutty Chocolate Aromas |
For example, a delicate scallop entree is going to be clobbered by a big California Cabernet Sauvignon. And you’ll hardly taste your delicate white with a two-pound grilled Florentine steak. Most chocolate desserts are on the heavier side, so they require a big wine.
That’s the main thing, but you can mix and match flavors too: It’s like cooking. If the wine has some nutty almond notes, it’s going to complement the sweet, toasted aromas of the chocolate. A hint of vanilla from oak-aged wine makes a fantastic compliment to the chocolate. And the contrasting acidity of a well-balanced wine will cut through that sweet chocolate coating your mouth. Part of what makes a good pairing is a wine that cleans your mouth so you’re ready to indulge in more food.
One final note on pairing wine with sweets: The wine should be sweeter than the dessert. Otherwise the sweetness of the dessert brings out too much sourness in the wine. You can try some big dry reds with chocolate too. Many people enjoy a California Zinfandel or even a Bordeaux with bitter dark chocolate.
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| Chocolate Fondant |
So here are some ideas to match with the chocolate fondant recipe I’m sure you’ll be making for your sweetheart on Valentine&rsquos; Day:
Many Monbazillacs or Sauternes from southwestern France can hold their own against the dessert. Sagrantino Montefalco Passito is a delicious, full-bodied, red dessert wine from Perugia, in Italy’s Umbria region.
Also consider something even bigger, such as a Tawny Port from Portugal, a Pedro Ximenez Sherry from Spain, or even a Marsala Ambra Superiore from the sunny shores of Sicily.
Whatever you choose, the most important thing is that you drink a wine you like… and that you don’t laugh at the sumo wrestler.
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