Dark chocolate and red wine…find yourself floating up to heaven just thinking about the combination?! Keep flying and I’ll fill you in on the results of a wine and chocolate pairing I recently did at my house.
There were 11 of us – 2 sommeliers, 8 admitted chocoholics and one who ‘just isn’t into desserts’. I made a variety of truffles including a creamy white chocolate & goat cheese dipped in dark chocolate, a dark chocolate sprinkled with rose infused sugar and a lavender infused dark chocolate. Also, we had a chipotle, cinnamon chocolate bar and a delicious dark chocolate flourless cake. Wow…I’m craving chocolate all over again.
Red wine can be a most delightful accompaniment to chocolate, so we had four of those to work with and one sparkling. The wine choices were a delicate sparkling rose “Baumard Cremant de Loire” (one of my favs for the price), a M Chapoutier Banyuls, ’06 Hartford Zinfandel, ’05 Faust Cabernet Sauvignon and a Villa Pozzi Nero d’Avola (Italian red).
The results of the pairing were interesting in that nothing was agreed to unanimously which shows you how subjective wine tasting can be, but there were some pairings that almost everyone agreed to.
- Most everyone thought the sparkling paired best with the goat cheese truffle including Janet Easterling, a sommelier whose photographic memory is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to wine. You can find Janet at Bergheim Cellars near Boerne. She has MANY loyal followers.
- The Bayuls went well with everything although it was a bit sweet for a few in our group.
- The Faust Cab was a hit with the chocolate/lavender truffle in particular and the dark chocolate cake.
- The Hartford Zinfandel paired nicely with the chile/cinnamon chocolate. Heidi Holcomb, sommelier and manager at Central Market’s wine dept.,(look for ’Heidi’s Picks) said the chiles in the chocolate enhanced the wine.
- And almost unanimously, everyone liked the Villa Pozzi with the dark chocolate truffles and cake.
A huge thanks to the ladies who agreed to spend part of their Saturday afternoon on such a tough assignment. My friend Diane, she and her husband are part of the brain-trust behind Boudro’s and Zinc, says this was the perfect way to spend a 100+ degree day.
We did all the hard work for you – so grab a glass of red wine, a rich dark piece of chocolate and relax…they’re both good for you!
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