Wine + Chocolate = Bliss or Blech!

WINE TALK
1

Some thoughts and a little science on the matter (count me in for Blech!):

http://palatepress.com/2012/04/wine/the-food-science-of-wine-and-chocolate/

2

just make sure the wine is sweeter.
Favorite is 70% Bittersweet>Ripe Zin

3

I like really dark chocolates with bigger reds. But that is it.

4

Blech with very few exceptions, but even the exceptions don’t work nearly as well as a glass of milk.

5

Good chocolate can stand on its own. Mediocre chocolate is for someone else to eat. Neither is particularly enhanced by any wine.

6

I like it with a big, fruity red.

7

“Good chocolate can stand on its own. Mediocre chocolate is for someone else to eat. Neither is particularly enhanced by any wine.”

+1000

8

Yeah, I’ve always read that chocolate dulls your sense of taste, leading you to think that you would need a big red to stand out at that point. I typically avoid it, but so often you’ll be at a tasting or someone’s house and folks will be gushing about “oh, you have to try this with this chocolate!”

9

blech…in fact, for me, that goes with almost all sweets and dry wine. I’ll often skip desert if I’m enjoying the wine because once I have a bite of something sweet, it kills the wine for my palate.

10

Not a fan. Bitter dark chocolate and ripe syrah is “ok” but not something i seek out or practice often

11

+1 often i try to finish the wine before dessert and just have water with the desert, if not having a dessert wine

12

The worst of both worlds…

13

But…it’s fine red wine.

14

The Trader Joes chocolate wine is awesome. Ok, not really. I tried it once and spit it out.

I will sometimes eat chocolate with wine but they do not go super great together. I will be at the Chocolate Soirée in a few weeks though Scott. I am sure the chocolate will be better than the wine.

15

I like chocolate with Syrah or Zin. And Amarone or Banyuls too.

16

Nope. Nope nope nope. Doesn’t work for me at all.

17

…from Holland. That source of all great wine. [snort.gif]

18

Banyuls or Maury. The only things that work in my opinion.

19

This worked last night:

Whole Foods hosted 4-Hands. Got this beer and walked around the store with it. Stumbled upon someone doing a Wine and Chocolate pairing. They had some fruit bomb Zin and also an Optimo Tawny Port, both paired with chocolate truffles. Both worked. The beer also paired nicely. Then Koval was there, and I had a taste of a couple of whiskeys. At that point my palate was destroyed, and the beer tasted like dirt.

20

In more than one comparative tasting, the consensus favorite was Brachetto d’Acqui for best chocolate match. But that doesn’t make it great.