you’re pairing it with. Make sure to taste both items before the night. With food, the general rule 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, sometimes nuttiness, and occasional acidity to be found in chocolate.
• White chocolate:
Match with Sherry,
Muscat, a fruity Chardonnay, or a Moscata d’Asti. These
wines will pick up on the buttery, fatty tones of what
isn’t always considered to be a “real” chocolate. For
those who don’t mind a risk, a contrasting wine heavy
in tannins might just work to cut through the fattiness
of white chocolate.
• Milk chocolate: Try Merlot, Pinot Noir,
Riesling, Muscat, and dessert wines. Be careful of the
higher sugar levels in milk chocolate, as these may
cancel out any fruitiness in dry red wines, leaving them
tasting bitter.
INSIGHT
• Dark chocolate (50% to 70%):
Pair this with more robust 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 enters the bitter range with deep
intensity. Chocolate gourmands adore this range of
taste, so the wine should live up to it. Good choices
include Bordeaux, Beaujolais, Shiraz, Orange Muscat,
Port, Malbec, and Zinfandel.
• Try champagne or sparkling
wine with all chocolate types.
It is a variety that compliments many flavors. Many
fortified dessert wines work well across the chocolate
spectrum as well. ✤
February 2014
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