Chocolate and wine pairing

chocolate and wine tasting at home

If chocolate and wine are two of your favourite things, chances are you have had the thought of combining the two into one spectacular tasting experience. The sad truth, however, is that chocolate can kill a wine faster than you can even imagine unless certain hard and fast rules are considered.

Chocolate is both bitter and sweet: the darker the chocolate, the more bitter it is. In this case, red wine is a possibility, with Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and even Rioja being the hands-down best choices. These wines come with their own inherent bitterness in the form of tannins. You notice tannins in wine as a drying sensation in the mouth – much like what you would get if you steeped a tea bag for too long. In this case, matching bitter to bitter is the order of the day. A less bitter wine, such as Shiraz, would not do quite as well because of its low acidity and tannin. Tannin is part of the acid structure of a wine and is found in grape skins, seeds and stems. Although you might think that bitterness is not necessarily a desirable quality to impart to something you might eat or drink, it provides a layer of complexity that allows certain combinations to work better – such as would be the case with dark chocolate.

White wine would not generally be a good choice to pair with chocolate in any case because it lacks tannin. However, a sweet white wine would do very well, as long as it is sweeter than the chocolate itself. Choose a Sauternes, a late harvest dessert wine or an off-dry Champagne for best results. It is never recommended to pair milk chocolate with any type of champagne unless it (the wine) is on the sweet side. The romantic notion of a champagne and chocolate pairing is perhaps not as good in practice as it is in theory.

Milk chocolate is very sweet and creamy, and though it lacks the bitterness of dark chocolate, it is much harder to pair with wine. A general rule of thumb is to make sure the wine is sweeter than the chocolate. Pair a rich milk chocolate with a sweet dessert-style wine like a German Riesling-based dessert wine,   French sweet wine like Sauternes, or a sweet fortified wine like Tawny Port. With milk chocolate, the sweeter, the better!

 wine and chocolate tasting

Laurent Perrier Demi-sec (£38.99)  is soft and gentle champagne. It’s bright; shining colour and somewhat dark golden hue. Intense on the nose this champagne has a range of aromas from toasted nuts and dried fruit, honey, and pine. On the palate has hints of peaches and cream. Its richness calls for sweet dessert such as chocolate, enhancing them with considerable depth. Perfect pairing with white chocolate truffles.
We also find out that it paired very well with breakfast pastries, in particular, pain raisin and pain chocolat due to the brioche notes in both food and wine.
Maury, a dark and concentrated fortified French wine.  The Seriously Plummy Grande Reserve (£10.99) is 100% Grenache Noir grapes, goes really well with the dark rich chocolate dessert, as this Brazilian Brigadeirao – a dessert form of the famous Brazilian brigadeiros truffle. The dessert wasn’t as sweet as the truffles themselves, so it was a perfect match to Maury.

Baron de Ley Rioja Reserva
As strange as it may seem some red wines pair well with chocolate,  Baron de Ley Rioja Reserva (£12.49) is one of them. It’s cherry coloured and complex aroma, medium intensity and tannins paired well with the chocolate nut torte.

For more inspirational chocolate and wine pairings head over to Waitrose Cellar and for recipes at Waitrose chocolate recipes

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Thanks to Waitrose Groceries and Waitrose Cellar for providing all the wines and ingredients for this tasting.

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6 Comments

  1. October 12, 2015 / 7:42 pm

    I've seen beer and chocolate tastings but never wine (aside from the obvious dessert wine). I love the idea of champagne and truffles, but red wine with dark chocolate seems very luxurious! I will definitely have to experiment 🙂

  2. October 13, 2015 / 12:20 am

    Mmm… chocolate AND wine. I'm struggling to think of a better combination… two of my favourite things, together 🙂

  3. Stella Olojola
    October 13, 2015 / 2:33 pm

    I will love to have some wine and chocolate now.

  4. Top Style Advice
    October 13, 2015 / 6:34 pm

    Wine and Chocolate – amazing!!! My two faviourite things.Laurent Perrier Demi-sec is so nice, if I could have it every week I would.

    http://www.topstyleadvice.co.uk
    UK blogger group

  5. October 14, 2015 / 7:05 pm

    I never knew it was such an exact science, but as chocolate and wine are both amongst my fave things, this is a great read.

  6. November 19, 2015 / 3:47 pm

    I'm not really a wine fan, but I'd be very happy to attend a chocolate and wine tasting to see what it was all about. I have made a chocolate red wine cake, which was really very nice.