03/06/07 Red Wine & Chocolate

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. From time to time we have holidays and occasions that seem to focus on chocolate. Like this past Valentines day. So what is the deal with red wine and chocolate? Both the items wine and chocolate bring to mind decadence and luxury, especially in combination. Personally  I don't get it. So - I have been doing some research about the recommended ways to combine chocolate and wine. Just like good wine high quality chocolates have complex layers of smells and tastes. You can examine and taste them in much the same way you would a wine. You can categorize the smells of the chocolate in ways such as fruity, nutty, caramel, coffee, spicy, flowery or earthy. The ritual in professional chocolate and wine tasting is to take a piece of chocolate and let it melt in your mouth then follow it with wine. So it seems the rules of thumb are white chocolates with Sherry, Orange Muscat or Asti Spumante. Milk Chocolate Pinot Noir, Riesling or Gewurztraminer. Dark and bittersweet chocolate with big cabs or Zinfandel. Fruit flavored rich truffles such as raspberry, or nutty fillings seem to fair well with Syrah and aged Port wines. When the candies were served in assorted flavors whether nut, fruit or cream filled they all seemed to adopt their own characteristic partnering with a wine. But it seems to take a good deal of experimenting to find a red wine and chocolate which really do pair well together. So let the research begin! And thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.