Wine With Chocolate

[Miami Danny]

Three words-Amarone, Amarone, Amarone! THE best wine with chocolates.

[Kerry Beal]

Three words-Amarone, Amarone, Amarone!  THE best wine with chocolates.

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I've got at least a half dozen rather old bottles of this in the house right now. Would you say it would be best with dark chocolate, or would it be compatible with milk and white as well?

[chiantiglace]

oh speaking of beer, if its allowable, smoked bock/porter blends well with a bittersweet chocolate and I love hefeweizen with white chocolate, especially if you add a little citrus to it.

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Can you recommend any specific brands? I know SFA about beer.

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Spaten Franziskaner makes a pretty good hefeweizen in my opinion, and you can get that in Chicago I would bet.

Pyramid Brewery is located in Seattle, so that might be able to be shipped? or possibly available in your area at a beer store.

Magic Hat has one of my favorite hefeweizen's even though I guess its an "american" version.

[miladyinsanity]

Kerry, maybe this link will be useful. It's the Like Wine For Chocolate edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday.

[Kerry Beal]

oh speaking of beer, if its allowable, smoked bock/porter blends well with a bittersweet chocolate and I love hefeweizen with white chocolate, especially if you add a little citrus to it.

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Can you recommend any specific brands? I know SFA about beer.

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Spaten Franziskaner makes a pretty good hefeweizen in my opinion, and you can get that in Chicago I would bet.

Pyramid Brewery is located in Seattle, so that might be able to be shipped? or possibly available in your area at a beer store.

Magic Hat has one of my favorite hefeweizen's even though I guess its an "american" version.

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Anthony,

I'm actually in Canada. The trip to Chicago is to take a class at the French Pastry School with Wybauw (Yahoo!!), so the stuff I pick up there will be for my own personal stock.

I'll check those brands at the LCBO or Brewers Retail here though. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Three words-Amarone, Amarone, Amarone!  THE best wine with chocolates.

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I've got at least a half dozen rather old bottles of this in the house right now. Would you say it would be best with dark chocolate, or would it be compatible with milk and white as well?

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I'm with this one as well -- along with the Banyuls and Port suggestions.

I would tend to stay away from "dry" reds like Cabs, Pinots, or Sangiovese IF you are having some sweet wines as well; you will end up with too many conflicting flavors.

I have done some Cab/Chocolate tastings for various wineries and those work okay, but when you start to introduce a sweet wine into the mix, it just makes for a very complicated palate for the tongue.

I think Muscat is too sweet for most chocolates.

Also, I am surprised no one has suggested Champagne. With all the sweets you will be ingesting, a good brut or sec would not only compliment the chocolate but also give a palate cleanser as well.

[Mary F]

Great post.

A local winery uses my chocolates for rollouts and events, we try to use complimentry flavor notes, without mirroring them exactly. With that being said, the winemakers favorite is a basic callebaut truffle rolled in cocoa. It seems to work the best with their cab.

Also, didnt the Shotts book have some beer pairings with chocolate?

[Desiderio]

Ehh , Amarone is the one that a friend of mine suggested to be paired with dark chocolate ( she is studying degustation ? at school , to be a somelier ).

[Kerry Beal]

On the way home from work I picked up a bottles of Banyuls from the LCBO and I'm sitting here right now with some white, milk and dark chocolate and a small glass. Actually a big glass with a small amount in it. Interestingly the staff at the LCBO had never heard of Banyuls either, quite a challenge finding it hidden in plain view. This particular bottle - Croix Milhas AOC Banyuls Rouge - was a clearance item and a 500 ml bottle cost me $12.55

Fabulous combination with the bittersweet and milk. Not quite as perfect with the white.

I'm going to hit the basement and get one of my amaretto chocolates...

- not quite so good as with plain milk or dark chocolate. You really taste the alcohol component when you combine it with the amaretto. Perhaps I'll come up with a different center to teach them. Maybe a banyuls ganache!

So, another question - what would be the typical glass to serve the Banyuls in - a sherry glass? or a nice big burgundy glass?

Ok, now I'm about 1 ounce of fortified wine to the good, and since I have no alcohol tolerance I'll be lucky if I stay awake another hour. I'd better remember not to imbibe while I'm teaching the class, or I won't stay awake long enough to drive home.

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry, maybe this link will be useful. It's the Like Wine For Chocolate edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday.

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May, that's a great link, tons of information. Thanks.

[dejaq]

I have always had good experience with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and even some Ports.

depending on Oak-Aging Aromas vs. Varietal-based Aromas

the following rings true:

Merlot is wonderful, with hints of cherry, plum,mintolive, cassis, vanilla, walnut

coffee,oak or cola, use exclusively with a dark (72% or higher) black cherry and soft tannins are prevalent.

Cabs offer berry aromas and many of the same characteristics of merlot.

Port are a bit tricky, it's a sweeter wine, therefore you must compensate for this.

you may try a Syrah ( flavor notes of pepper, spice and black cherry)

or perhaps a Sangiovese heavier full bodied spice, notes of raspberry, cherry and anise flavors.

my suggestions concerning whites, is they are more complicated B/C they tend to be dry.

a muscat, or late harvest vidal, such as an ice wine can have applications, but the

structure of the formula may have to have a lot more going on such as a combination of milk and dark chocolate to make it work.

stay away from chianti, zinfandel, pinot, and chenin blancs for they may be more trouble than for what they are worth to get proper flavor balance.

this topic will be in a forth coming article in the new zine "dessert Esoteric" look for it.

Michael

Edited February 21, 2007 by dejaq (log)

[Manolo]

The Wine Spectator website recently ran a video with Harvey Stieman discussing Wine and Chocolate pairings here.

[chiantiglace]

stay away from chianti

Now thats not so nice

[Art]

It all depends on the type(s) of chocolate you will be tasting. For example, our Madagascar has paired nicely with a good Pinot Noir and our Ocumare with a champaign.

Have you decided what types of chocolate you plan on sharing ?

-Art

[Kerry Beal]

It all depends on the type(s) of chocolate you will be tasting. For example, our Madagascar has paired nicely with a good Pinot Noir and our Ocumare with a champaign.

Have you decided what types of chocolate you plan on sharing ?

-Art

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I'll likely be taking along a variety of things. My day to day chocolate that I teach with is Callebaut - the 815 bittersweet, the 6226 milk and the WNV white.

I'll take what ever made up chocolates I have around, so that could be caramels, fruit centers etc. The center I had planned to teach them is Amaretto, and it didn't play nice with the Banyul unfortunately.

[aguynamedrobert]

Hello Everyone,

Well I'm not one that knows a lot about wine but I did a Chocolate and Wine Pairing with a food group in Sacramento last week. The president of the group brought 6 different wines to go with my 6 different chocolates. One wine that I really enjoyed and I think would go with a few different dark chocolates was, Black Muscat. I don't know if that is a brand name or a type(I will have to look more into it) but I really enjoyed the flavor and though it worked well with chocolate...

Robert

Chocolate Forum

[nikkib]

Hello Everyone,

Well I'm not one that knows a lot about wine but I did a Chocolate and Wine Pairing with a food group in Sacramento last week.  The president of the group brought 6 different wines to go with my 6 different chocolates.  One wine that I really enjoyed and I think would go with a few different dark chocolates was,  Black Muscat.  I don't know if that is a brand name or a type(I will have to look more into it) but I really enjoyed the flavor and though it worked well with chocolate...

Robert

Chocolate Forum

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The black muscat refers to the grape variety try the Elysium range if youwant a nice inexpensive 1/2 btle (or 3!) Maury is aloso good with chocolate - another grenache based sweet red wine or reciotto ( i think thats how its spelt) which is a sweet red wine made the same way as amarone and is DELICIOU S!!

[nikkib]

On the way home from work I picked up a bottles of Banyuls from the LCBO and I'm sitting here right now with some white, milk and dark chocolate and a small glass.  Actually a big glass with a small amount in it.  Interestingly the staff at the LCBO had never heard of Banyuls either, quite a challenge finding it hidden in plain view.  This particular bottle - Croix Milhas AOC Banyuls Rouge - was a clearance item and a 500 ml bottle cost me $12.55

Fabulous combination with the bittersweet and milk.  Not quite as perfect with the white.

I'm going to hit the basement and get one of my amaretto chocolates...

- not quite so good as with plain milk or dark chocolate.  You really taste the alcohol component when you combine it with the amaretto.  Perhaps I'll come up with a different center to teach them.  Maybe a banyuls ganache!

So, another question - what would be the typical glass to serve the Banyuls in - a sherry glass? or a nice big burgundy glass? 

It would typically be served in a dessert wine glass - similar to sheyy or even a champagne flute would work - a big glass will do nothing for the flavours at all.

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Edited March 2, 2007 by nikkib (log)

[aguynamedrobert]

Hello Everyone,

Here's a question for everyone. If you could list 3 wines that go well with dark chocolate what would they be? I just did a Chocolate and Wine pairing for a food group and we found that Black Muscat was good with dark chocolate...any other favorites people have?

[GordonCooks]

Something other than Port which is a classic pairing?

[Kerry Beal]

Robert,

I have really enjoyed the banyuls with dark chocolate.

I'm waiting for a couple of bottles of the Chateau Kefraya comte de M to arrive from Quebec to try that out too.

Edited March 8, 2007 by Kerry Beal (log)

[aguynamedrobert]

Hello Everyone,

Well I just got back from a day in Lodi California. I met with a couple winery owners and paired up their wines with different origin chocolates. I found that any nut flavored wine or champagne went well with Venezuelan chocolate...it really brought out the nuttiness in the chocolate. We paired Chuao 2002 Valrhona specificially with an Almond flavored champagne.

We also went through a lot of dark red wines and the ones that seem to go best were the very dark in flavor chocolates. We paired them with 70%'s that had very strong burnt or bitter notes to them and they went along very well...

There's my two cents...maybe i'll up it to four later on...haha

[Kerry Beal]

Hello Everyone,

Well I just got back from a day in Lodi California. I met with a couple winery owners and paired up their wines with different origin chocolates.  I found that any nut flavored wine or champagne went well with Venezuelan chocolate...it really brought out the nuttiness in the chocolate.  We paired Chuao 2002 Valrhona specificially with an Almond flavored champagne.

We also went through a lot of dark red wines and the ones that seem to go best were the very dark in flavor chocolates.  We paired them with 70%'s that had very strong burnt or bitter notes to them and they went along very well...

There's my two cents...maybe i'll up it to four later on...haha

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Robert,

Have you got some names for these wines and champagnes?

[kristin_71]

Cellar 8 is a great wine and is really good with chocolate as is Cline Old Vine Zin if you are looking for something that isn't too expensive.

[JohnL]

Someone has to play the role of iconoclast here. Ok curmudgeon!

why?

The traditional pairings are Banyuls and Ports. I also think a Mas Amiel (Maury) works ok.

But really--why?

I think chocolate--not a chocolate flavored desert but just chocolate--is one of those food items that eaten by itself while a pleasurable indulgence does not cry out for a particular beverage especially wine.

Who these days is serving a candy bar for desert?

This chocolate and wine thing is a trend at the moment. In fact, the chocolate biz is promoting chocolate like wine--it's all about the terroir!

So we are now looking for the proper wine for the specific chocolate.

Wine and....chocolate parties anyone?!

Sheesh.

I predict a relatively quick return to chocolate based deserts (the old advice--Banyuls and Port etc--really any sweet wine preferably dark) and off you go!

Actually, most chocolate deserts cry out for a good cup of coffee.

Let's see--my chocolate ganache cake is made with Peruvian blah blah blah single vintage chocolate so maybe a medium city roast Guatemalan Antigua from the Gomez estate or perhaps a Columbian single plantation......

Ok

I am done. thanks for you indulgence!

carry on......