5 Ways To Pair Your Wine And Chocolate

It’s a tricky business, wine selection. Pairing it with a food item is another hurdle in itself. If paired wrong, even the finest of wines can taste like tap water but if paired right, the most average of spirits can taste top-notch.

Chocolate and wine is a match made in heaven if you know how to play it right. Here are 5 wine and chocolate pairings that’ll make you fall in love with the coco!

White Chocolate

Quick fact! White chocolate is not technically chocolate, as it does not contain any cocoa, just cocoa fat. This characteristic makes it a versatile combination with wine.

White chocolate should be your choice of sweet when sipping a glass of Rosé Port, Ice Wine, Muscat, Orange Muscat, Moscato d’Asti, Sweet Tokaji, Vintage Port, Lambrusco (Dolce or Amabile) or Brachetto d’Acqui.

Milk Chocolate

Did you know that chocolate ganache is half cream and half chocolate? The cream adds a tad bit extra fat which earns it a bigger nod when it comes to wine pairing.

It is often hard to save the chocolate till the end of the bottle. But for those who do manage to balance their sip and nibble regime, Moscatel de Setubal, Montilla-Moriles, PX Sherry, Creamy Sherry, Rasteau, Aged Vintage Port, Rutherglen Muscat should be the choice of wines.

Dark Chocolate

Legit dark chocolate contains 35% or more cocoa content. With 35% being the minimum the quantity goes up to a bitter 99%.

With a taste so strong, dark chocolate is usually enjoyable with sweeter and less sharp wine like Vin Santo, Port, Late Harvest Zinfandel, Banyuls, Maury and Chinato.

Caramel Chocolate

Caramel strikes the perfect balance between sweet, salty and bitter. With an array of flavors blended together, pairing wine with caramel chocolates is more like a game of match the taste.

Wines that go bang on with caramel are PX Sherry, Vin Santo, Cream Sherry, 20 year Tawny Port, Moscatel de Setubal, Madeira and Amontillado Sherry. Moscato d’Asti, Demi-Sec Champagne (a sweet champagne), Brachetto d’Acqui, Asti-Spumante, Lambrusco also compliment the taste well.

Flavored Chocolate

Pairing wine with a flavored chocolate is not as challenging as it sounds. The trick is pay attention to the enunciated flavor. For example a Cherry flavored chocolate can be dark, milk or white. Pair the spirits accordingly!

With this cheat code of wine and chocolate pairing up your sleeve, drink on!