Matching wine and chocolate is a match made in heaven for the food lover and wine lover wrapped in one. Just as with wine, chocolate provides a complexity of tastes and textures, with the potential for subtle changes with each brand-new batch of chocolate. Knowing how to value the subtlety and complexity of flavours that both wine and chocolate have, along with having the ability to pair them well, is a most pleasurable pastime. This post explores the technique for pairing them effectively.
1. Follow the very first rule of pairing wine and food.
Do not have the chocolate sweeter than the wine you’re pairing it with. This suggests you need to do a little nibbling and tasting to learn in advance of the occasion, however that’s typically not a difficulty. You’ll find the wine tastes bitter if you have it less sweet than the chocolate.
2. Objective to acquire quality chocolate for the functions of wine and chocolate pairing.
Whether the chocolate is white, milk, or dark, its origins must be remarkable and its manufacture of a high quality requirement.
3. Pair chocolate and wine according to the darkness of the chocolate.
Just like food, the basic policy is that the darker the chocolate, the darker the wine. So, reds are ideal for dark chocolate. If pairing with white wine, look for fruity and intense varieties, to match the eclectic mix of bitter and sweetness, fruitiness, often nuttiness, and occasional level of acidity to be found in chocolate.
4. Look for wines with soft, rounded tannins to couple with chocolate.
The smoothness of the wine is a crucial aspect when combining with the smoothness of chocolate.
5. Look for full-bodied wines to match to strong, extreme, and heavy chocolates and chocolate desserts.
6. If tasting chocolate and wine together, comply with the wine guideline of tasting from light to dark.
Start with the light milk and white chocolates, and relocate to the medium intensity chocolate, ending finally with the extremely dark and bitter chocolates. Match the wines in rising order of weight and darkness.
7. Select wines according to the tastes of the chocolate.
The following list suggests good chocolate and wine matches. Just like all wine and food pairing recommendations, they are just standards and it is essential to do your very own experimenting since tastes buds react in a different way:
- White chocolate: Match with Sherry, Muscat, a fruity Chardonnay, or a Moscato d’Asti. These wines will certainly detect the buttery, fatty tones of what isn’t constantly thought about to be a “real” chocolate. For those who don’t mind a risk, a contrasting wine heavy in tannins may simply work to puncture the fattiness of white chocolate.
- Milk chocolate: Attempt Merlot, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Muscat, and dessert wines. Beware of the greater sugar levels in milk chocolate, as these could negate any fruitiness in dry merlots, leaving them tasting bitter.
- Dark chocolate (50 % to 70 %): Pair this with more durable wines, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, and Port. A Chianti can match well with chocolate around 65 percent cocoa content.
- Bittersweet chocolate (70 % to 100 %): This chocolate type gets in the bitter range with deep strength. Chocolate gourmands love this range of taste, so the wine should live up to it. Good options include Bordeaux, Beaujolais, Shiraz, Orange Muscat, Port, Malbec, and Zinfandel.
Attempt champagne or champagne with all chocolate types. It is a range that compliments many tastes. Numerous strengthened dessert wines work well across the chocolate spectrum too.
8. Experiment A LOT.
The standards in this post are nothing more than guidance; make up your very own mind about what matches well and exactly what does not when combining wine and chocolate. The flavourings and cremes inside chocolate will certainly impact the wine. When you are fortunate sufficient to be able to delight in store chocolate in a range of tastes, do your finest to match with shop wines that match and boost the flavours stood for in the chocolate.