The Enthusiasts! NYC Wine Club: Wine and Chocolate
This month... a red hot exclusive for the Sweetest Month of the Year - Wine and Chocolate Pairings!
Some Initial Thoughts
Like cheese or any other food, you can never go seriously wrong with pairing wine with chocolate. If it tastes good to you, then its a perfect pairing! However, some critics argue that one needs to be more careful when pairing wine with chocolate because the wrong pairing may yield a bitter result. Some basic tips include: (1)
Pair light chocolate with lighter wines, and (2)
Pair darker chocolates with full-bodied wines
What You Have Been Waiting For... The History of Chocolate
The chocolate we know and love today has had a rich history, which dates back almost 2000 years. In fact, for most of it's existence chocolate was known as a beverage and not a candy bar. As an introduction, some of the most important chocolate terms include: (1)
"Cacao" - refers to the plant or its beans before processing, and (2)
"Chocolate" - refers to anything made from the beans, while "cocoa" refers to chocolate in powdered form.
Photo source:
The word chocolate has been traced to several sources, including, the Aztec word "xocoatl" referring to a bitter chocolate drink, and the latin term for cacaco tree,
Theobroma cacao,
" meaning
food of the gods.
In the early days, many cultures (shout out to the Mayans and Aztecs in particular!) considered chocolate valuable enough to use it as currency. E
uropeans finally discovered the awesomeness of chocolate around the 17th century and hot chocolate quickly became a fashionable drink. Chocolate remained popular throughout Europe for its nutritional, medicinal and even aphrodisiac properties. Chocolate finally took bar form in 1847, when Joseph Fry (according to the Smithsonian) created the first chocolate bar. A small British company called Cadbury (who is not so small anymore!) was credited with introducing boxed chocolates to the masses in 1868. Nestle (another well-known name today) was credited for introducing milk chocolate just a few short years later. Since then, chocolate has remained a staple part of the food industry: it was included in army rations during both world wars and has grown to include exotic truffles and intricate candy bars.
Wine and Chocolate Pairings
Salted Caramels and Fortified Wine.
One recent article from the
featured this pairing as a favorite if one wants to pair wine with chocolate. Salted caramels are growing in popularity and need no introduction. Fortified wine, however, may be a different story. Put most simply, fortified wine is with combined with another distilled beverage, usually brandy.
Icewine and Fruit Filled Truffles.
Icewine (in German - Eiswein) is a type of dessert wine made from grapes that were frozen while still on the vine. Here, the sugars and dissolved solids that add to the flavor of the wine do not freeze, but the water does, so the juice that results from these frozen grapes is sweet and highly concentrated. This sweet dessert wine will pairing nicely with any fruit based chocolate because the fruit enhances the honey flavors of the wine.
Reisling and White Chocolate.
For my choco-holics, you may already know that white chocolate is not chocolate at all. It is actually made of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and salt. As a result, the vanilla and honey flavors of white chocolate blend well with the tangerine notes found in most rieslings.
Bordeaux Blends and Intense Dark Chocolate.
Most bordeaux blends are full-bodied wines that contain dark fruit flavors. Chocolate with a high cacao content will stand up to the intensity of most bordeaux blends and bring out the berry flavors.
Other interesting Pairings include:
(1) Rose Champagne and Truffles, the sharp tannin is balanced by the decadence of the truffles; (2)
Pinot Noir and Medium Dark Chocolate; and (3)
Chanti Classico and Vanilla Filled Truffles, Chianti has a dark and full-bodied flavor that balances nicely with the strong aroma and mild flavor of vanilla truffles.
General Suggested Pairings with Milk Chocolate.
If you like milk chocolate, try pairing it with the following wines:
Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc (I'm thinking this may be weird - try it and let me know how it goes),
Sparkling Wine/Champagne, and
Dessert Wines. If you're thinking the term "dessert wine" seems like a general classification - you would be right! There is no simple definition for dessert wines. It simply encompasses any sweet wine that follows the meal and should be distinguished from
fortified wines
that are commonly consumed before the meal. But, if you want to get technical, in the United States, a dessert wine is defined as any wine over 14% alcohol by volume and thus taxed at a higher rate.
General Suggested Pairings with Dark, Bittersweet or Semisweet Chocolate.
If you love dark chocolate, try pairing it with the following wines/beverages: Zinfandel,
Pinot Noir,
Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot, Tawny
Port, and Cognac. I know what you are thinking next ... what is
tawny port
. I'll admit I was interested in looking it up myself, but put most simply, it is wine, made from red grapes, aged in wood barrels, and gradually exposed to oxidation and evaporation. This exposure to oxidation creates a "nutty" flavor in the wine.
Pairings with White Chocolate.
For those of you who love white chocolate, try pairing it with: Chardonnary,
Zinfandel, or
Sherry.
For Those of You in the NYC Area, My Favorite Places to Buy Chocolate!
- Vosges Haut-Chocolate. I love this place because they take pairing chocolate with interesting international flavors to a whole new level. My favorite is the dark chocolate truffle with coconut and sweet Indian curry. While these chocolates are available online, you should go to the store in Soho - there are tons of free samples!
- Jacque Torres. The chocolates here are inventive and excellent. But if you had to come here for one thing, it would have to be the chocolate chip cookie. They are served to you after sitting on a griddle for several minutes, so not only is it warm, the chocolate chunks are also melting. Perfection!
- Trader Joe's. I know I shout out TJ's all-the-time, but this really is a great store for those looking for a bargain. They offer a lot in terms of standards and I even see truffles from time to time.
Check out the following sources for additional detail:
, on the history of chocolate;
, an online resource for all things chocolate; and
on specific chocolate and wine pairings. Stay tuned for the wine club results on what the group thought pair best!
Cheers!