MATCHING CHOCOLATE AND WINE.
by Professor Hrayr Berberoglu.

March 16, 2008


Up to recent times, wine writers and even gourmets considered chocolate too strong for wine. Now, many experts started changing their minds. First, remember that these days chocolate manufacturers nuance their products better, and have been able to create purer products and second many wineries started extracting more flavour from riper grapes, thus producing more intensely flavoured wines.

For the longest time wine, consumers thought wine and chocolate notorious enemies, and high quality chocolate with its dark, sharp bitter and lingering flavours, is an almost invincible foe. Of course, there is an exception to every rule.

Banyuls and vintage port and dark chocolate are good matches. A delicate, moderately sweet milk chocolate and fragrant ice wine go well together. The rule to observe here is that the wine must be sweeter than the chocolate.

Texturally fortified wines like sherry, port Madeira and Marsala are heavier than their natural counterparts, because of the additional alcohol they contain.

If you match white port with white, tawny with milk, ruby with dark chocolate you will experience how the whole matching theory and practice come together. For very dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa butter) high-end vintage port will do.

Do not forget that fortified Muscat wines are also good matches with milk chocolates. Quady’s from California produces an excellent sweet Orange Muscat that goes well with milk chocolate.

Try a chocolate mousse with a fine Asti Spumante and see how it works.

Ice wines (there are many styles using a range of grapes vidal, Riesling, cabernet franc, pinot blanc, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc) are fine with truffles. Cabernet Franc wines complement dark chocolates; regular ones are better with fine Swiss milk chocolates. If you like sweet sparkling wines try sparkling ice wine with a fine truffle.

Madeira, Marsala, Cream and Pedro Ximenez (PX) sherries complement chocolate very well if their sweetness is more intense than the chocolate you are serving.

Finally, berry wines deserve mention. Southbrook winery’s sweet blue- or raspberry wines can match any dark chocolate from Switzerland or Belgium, particularly truffles produced by Rogers in Victoria, British Columbia, Eitelbach in Toronto and Callebaut in Calgary.

Iced apple wine is a delicacy many people ignore; yet, it is an excellent match with truffles and regular fruit filled chocolates.

Matching wine and chocolate has become a lot easier. All you have to do is get a few like-minded friends and put theory in practice.

Hrayr Berberoglu took early retirement after lecturing on restaurant management and conducting wine, beer and spirits seminars for over a quarter of a century.

Now he consults and writes to increase wine, beer and liquor awareness. He conducts seminars and would be pleased to consider your requests. To peruse the list of his published books and order please contact him at hirayrberberoglu_3@sympatico.ca

Hryar Berberoglu www.littlefatwino.com