Red Wine & Chocolate

Thursday Jan 21st, 2010 31 Views Vine to Wine

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and today is food and wine pairing day. For years I have fought this silly idea that red wine and chocolate are some kind of soul mates. Today, I will take at least part of it back.

I am getting ready for Valentine’s weekend, a time when here in wine country there is a good deal of fun surrounding red wine and chocolate. I have always hated it! I really do not like candy with my serious wine no matter if you use the very same wine to make the truffle. It’s not to say some you don’t swoon for it, but it disgusts me. However recently I took a new look at red wine and chocolate from the savory rather than the sweet point of view. The Mexican dishes with mole’ were my inspiration. I have been cooking with cocoa and chocolate and creating main dishes and side dishes that really do work with red wine. In particular I am working with Washington Syrah. I have learned that a chocolate which is over seventy percent cocoa is too strong and sort of overwhelms the wine. Down around sixty to sixty five percent it is really quite lovely. It actually brings out interesting characteristics in the wines. That is something I like very much! So over the next few weeks I will be experimenting and when I am done I will bring you my new favorite red wine and chocolate recipes! Remember to send your wine questions to linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.