Wine And Chocolate Pairing
Some simple suggestions for selecting the right wine to pair with your favorite chocolate dessert.
Pairing Wine and
Chocolate
One of my favorite desserts is our
Chocolate Espresso Pots de Creme which is dark and rich, paired with a nice
cabernet. Here are some tips we gathered from some real wine experts.
Light Chocolate desserts such
as mousse:
Italian light sweet sparkling wine (Asti
Spumante)
Young Sauternes
Unfortified sweet wines from the Muscat
family
California Orange Muscat (Quady Essensia, which is great with
chocolate/orange desserts)
California Black Muscat (Quady Elysium)
A lush,
ripe California Cabernet or Merlot
Medium weigh desserts such
as flouless chocolate cake:
-- Muscat de Beames-de-Venise
--
Muscat de Rivesaltes
-- Muscat vins doux naturals from
Languedoc-Roussillon
-- Muscatels de Valencia
Heavy, rich
chocolate desserts like a rich double chocolate cake or chocolate torte,
truffles
Ruby port
Ten-year-old Tawny port
Australian liqueur
Muscats
Malaga
The Experts at FoodNetwork.com
Suggest...
Not Sweet
Chocolate
The Chocolate: Chocolat Grand Amer, 85% cacao, from
the Paris house of Michel Cluizel
Actually, all of the wines in my
tasting went well with this super-dry chocolate, which has a kind of coffee-bean
bitterness about it. When chocolate is this austere, it's an ideal backdrop for
almost any wine. I'd even go so far as to say that rich California Cabernet
would go well with chocolate this un-sweet. My favorite sip with it, however,
was a spirit that went poorly with the sweeter chocolates in the
tasting:
The Wine: Bas Armagnac, Cerbois
Wine maker:
Cerbois
Price at review date: $25 for 350 ml
Region:
Southwest France
Country: France
This brandy from southwest
France has a gorgeous nose of vanilla, nuts and earth, followed up by a palate
that's unusually silky and gentle for Armagnac. The touch of sweetness is just
enough to get it over the chocolate hump. The result is two austere tastes
playing a lively duet; the flavors of neither get canceled out. This is a
serious, sophisticated, thoughtful match--a good one for a pensive Valentine's
Day, for lovers who prefer subtler pleasures.
Review date:
February 1999
Reviewer: David Rosengarten
Distributor:
Winebow, NYC