Wine and Chocolate
It can be the greatest accidental pleasure. After dinner you have a half glass of great cabernet sauvignon left, so ripe and rich you can't give it up. Out comes a chocolate-chocolate cake or deep dark truffle. Wow. What a perfect pair, and when you stop to think about it, why not? Connoisseurs fuss over the depth, the fragrance, fruitiness, nuttiness, even the grand cru origins of fine chocolate just as wine lovers do. How can these two luxuries not go together? Simple, try the same wine with a piece of white chocolate. Ouch, that cab is instantly bitter.
That will show you that all talk of wine and food pairing isn’t hooey. Maybe no one believes in firm wine and food rules but there are still bad combinations that sour any palate and they often include sweets, especially chocolate.
Matching wines and chocolates is easy in some ways because the overriding principle is sweetness. In other wine-food matches, chefs and drinkers worry over acidity, fruitiness or oak. With chocolate and wine, sweetness rules. And only one element can win; if food is the sweeter, the wine loses. You can spoil the flavor of the wine. If the dessert is sweeter, the wine is sour.
Over the years a few wines, usually fortified, sweet and sparkling, have proven successful. Ports, muscats, rosi Champagnes and the sweet Banyuls of Provence manage to trump most chocolates. But not all. The secret is in knowing that chocolates have different levels of sweetness. Chocolate and wine can be a grand gourmet indulgence or fool’s gold for gourmands who want too much of two good things and spoil both. Consider it from the chocolate’s point of view and look for a wine that’s sweeter.
White chocolate: The less real chocolate, cocoa powder, butter and liquor, in a candy, the more sugar, so white chocolate is barely a chocolate at all and calls for the sweetest wines. Look for late harvest white wines, tawny port, Sauternes, muscats and moscatos, the richest sherries and other wines with high residual sugar.
Milk chocolate: America’s favorite chocolate is creamy and heavier on sugar than cocoa. Rieslings, muscats, lighter merlots and pinot noirs.
Dark and bittersweet chocolate (over 50 percent cocoa): These chocolates have minimal sugar, very earthy roasted tones and a concentrated fruit. Marsala, port and dark muscats work, but you can experiment with dry reds, especially cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel. This is one place where you should welcome the trend to overripe reds, picked with higher sugar that makes higher alcohol wines (more than 14 percent). Ultimately, they should work, because there’s always been a hint of chocolate and cocoa in some of the best reds, a richness that develops from the earthiness of the grapes, and aging in barrels and bottles.
Most often we want chocolate and wine. Matching them up is a delightful exercise that makes a great excuse for a party. Set out three or four wines and three or four grades of chocolate and let your guests experiment. If they don’t succeed, follow up with a sure winner: espresso.
