“All you need is love.
But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
Charles Shultz
Wine and chocolate on Valentine’s day can be the perfect prescription for those in a relationship, as well as those spending the day of love alone. They’re both enhancements as well as coping measures. They symbolize passion and encourage discovery!
Do Wine And Chocolate Actually Work Together?
Just like matching people for love, it’s all about the personalities and attributes of those at play. True love can be found but it’s not easy. Just setting up a dry red wine or champagne with a box of assorted chocolates will result in a mediocre experience. Every fifth chocolate may be tolerable.
Some chocolates are so dark and earthy that they will leave the light or medium bodied reds lying naked and sour. Pinot Noir is seductive on it’s own, but it’s sour cherry note is driven to vinegar with dark chocolate. Beautiful champagne can be reduced to pickle juice.
Rest assured there are possibilities. Both wine and chocolate are natural aphrodisiacs. Pairing them well can result in knee shaking experiences.
What’s The Key?
A rule to remember is that wine should always be at least as sweet as your dessert or sweeter.
Dry acidic wines don’t integrate with the rich depth of the cacao unless they have some sweetness. Plush Syrah or big fruity California Zinfandel are the closest I’ve found to tolerable.
Most red wines will turn sour with chocolate.
There are some very sexy options out there to explore but they lie in another realm of wine.
The best fit are “fortified wines” like Port, Sherry, Madeira, or nice Vermouth.
“What Are “Fortified Wines?”
Fortified wines are made with an addition of a distilled grape juice similar to a neutral brandy. It bumps the alcohol up from 12-15% to 20%. The sugar level is much higher but the acid is intact which makes your mouth water.
Port is fortified wine from Portugal
It’s made with Portuguese grapes. There are Ruby, Tawney Port and even White Port. Ruby is the more young and fresh of the styles and is aged for 2-6 years. It exhibits red fruit such as raspberries and dark plum.
Tawny Port is more golden brown in color and has a more nutty, caramel, fig, date, and toffee element due to its ageing and oxidation in wood barrels. They age from anywhere from 3- 100 years!
Chocolate And Ruby Port
- Milk Chocolate
- Raspberry Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Chocolate And Tawny Port
- Chocolate Cake
- French Opera Cake
- Chocolate Almond Toffee Buttercrunch
- Chocolate Covered Nuts
Prices will range from $20 for a 10yr to $500 for 40-60 yrs. Single vintage Ruby can run $100- $400 depending on the vintage rating.
Ruby And Tawny Port Producers To Look For
- Taylor Fladgate
- Dow’s
- Graham’s
- Sandeman
- Warre’s
Sherry is from Jerez Spain and the cities that surround.
It’s pronounced “Yer eth” and was mispronounced by the brits resulting in “Sherry.” Shakespeare referred to it as “Sack.” It was often kept in a sack that acted like a canteen. It’s also the name given to taking an opponents ship and plundering it’s sherry. The Spanish ships were always getting “sacked” by British privateers and pirates. Sherry has a wide spectrum ranging from bone dry and tart, to sweet and decadent.
Sherry that is made with the sweet grape Pedro Ximenez is the most decadent. Cream Sherry is a blend of PX. It expresses raisin, fig, toffee, caramel, and molasses.
Cream or PX Sherry And Chocolate
- Ice cream
- Tiramisu
- Dark chocolate
- Brownies
- Mint chocolate
Exquisite Example
- Bodegas Lustau “East India Solera” Cream Sherry/ PX (Spain) $25
Madeira is from the island of Madeira off the coast of Portugal.
It’s a wine that’s heated gently and aged. The process was discovered when barrels of it travelled in the ballast of ships headed to and from the Caribbean in the 1600s on trade routes for sugar, rum, and coffee.
Madeira is what our founding father’s toasted when declaring independence from England. They didn’t want to drink sherry because the British were getting it from Spain and it’s taxes went to mad King George so they made a choice instead to go with the delicious nectar from this small Portuguese island. Madeira is different than the Port and Sherry in it’s balance of fruit and light smokiness. Mango, apricot, toffee, and coffee set it apart from the other fortifieds.
Madeira And Chocolate
- Sea Salt Involved Chocolates
- Chocolate Covered Nuts
- Chocolate Caramels
- Chocolate Cheesecake
Madeira Poducers To Try
- D’Oliveiras
- Broadbent
- Blandy’s
- Rare Wine Co. New York Malmsey $55
Vermouth and Chocolate
What is Vermouth? You may recognize it in connection to Manhattans, Martinis, and the Negroni but quality Vermouth can and should be sipped straight. It’s a fortified Italian wine with botanicals and herbs added. It’s usually offered as either an aperitive or digestive i.e. before or after the meal. Vermouth can be very complex and can range from light and dry to dark and sweet. The best are made with grapes like Nebbiolo from Piedmont in Northern Italy.
World Class Vermouth To Try
- Bordiga Excelsior Riserva $55
- Giuseppe Carpano Antica $30
Vermouth And Chocolate
- Dark Chocolate Cake
- Dark Chocolate Truffles
Pairing White Chocolate
I know it’s not technically chocolate and it’s very light years from the realm of dark chocolate. It’s a distant cousin with milk chocolate that’s more creamy, buttery, and has little bitterness.
It can surprisingly be paired with Californian Zinfandel! Red Zin is low in tannin and has gobs of fun fruit that come forth..
White chocolate paired with slightly sweet Moscato D’Asti or a dessert wine like Tokaji can create mind blowing fruit and cream combinations!
Tokaji is what Hungarian royalty have been drinking for well over 400 years. Considered a nectar of the gods, Tokaji exhibits mouth watering orange marmalade that meld with white chocolate to create “Orange Creamsicle!”
Demi Sec Champagne has the bubbles to refresh a creamy palate and will sing wonderfully with strawberries covered in white chocolate…
Wines For White Chocolate
- Rober Biale Zinfandel (USA) $20-$60
- Rombauer Zinfandel (USA) $38
- Saracco Moscato D’Asti (Italy) $13
- Botani Moscatel (Spain) $15
- Graham Beck Demi Sec (S. Africa) $15
- Veuve Clicquot Demi Sec (France) $60
- Vega Sicilia Oremus Late Harvest Furmint (Hungary) $30
- Vega Sicilia Oremus Tokaji 3/5 P (Hungary) $100
The only challenge now is choosing what to explore on your upcoming day of love. Whether you’re sharing with a loved one, or loving these combinations on your own, I wish you many happy discoveries! Cheers!
