Minisode #5: How to Pair Wine and Chocolate

Show Notes

Minisode #6: How to Pair Wine and Chocolate

Hi everyone, and welcome to this latest mini-episode of The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair.

If you are new to our podcast, these minisodes are shorter versions of our regular episodes that we usually do on weeks when we just won’t be able to get to a full-sized episode, and instead of tasting and reviewing three wines reasonably priced and easy to find wines, which is what we usually do, in these minisodes, we focus more on things like wine etiquette, wine education, and wine tips. And, we try to make it fun and understandable for regular, everyday people like us! And, by the way, in case you were wondering, our podcast is recommended by Decanter magazine, which is really super cool!

Ok, Carmela. In this minisode, we are going to focus on how to pair wine with chocolate. What do you think?! Now, for some people, that may sound like a weird combo, but actually, wine and chocolate is a classic combination. And, if you are curious, we did do a full episode with tastings and reviews around last Valentine’s Day in Episode 16. So, check that out if you want. 

So, picture this - you want to do something romantic and pair some wine and chocolate with your significant other, or you want to do something like a wine tasting with friends that includes chocolate, but you are not sure where to start. Here are some handy tips for you to make it simple. 

Well, the first thing you have to consider is the kind or darkness of the chocolate that you are going to taste. Any idea why that may matter, Carmela?
Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate all need different wines to pair with because they have different flavor profiles. 

Second, you will want to look for softer and silkier wines. I think that is relatively good for us, Carmela, because we tend to like those kinds of wines.
While you can pair chocolate with a lot of wines, really big and bold wines with high tannins can be a little difficult to pair with. They may actually overpower the chocolate. If you are dying to pair your big Cab Sauv with chocolate, look for a really rich chocolate cake or torte.
Don’t worry if you are not sure that that means, because we have pairing ideas coming in like 2 minutes

Third, you match the intensity of the chocolate with the intensity of the wine. Let’s go over some good rules of thumb. 

• Let’s start with milk chocolate. 
  • Since milk chocolate is smooth and creamy, the right red wines are either lighter bodied, like a Pinot Noir, and/or very smooth, like a Merlot. 
  • The right white wines are those a little on the sweeter end with a little spice like a Riesling or a Gewurztraminer. You can also go with a sparkling wine made with Chardonnay like Champagne, and you can focus on moderately sweet demi-sec sparkling wines to really shine. 
  • And a Ruby Port, which is a little lighter and less aged, is a great dessert wine to pair, and an Ice Wine can work well, too. 
• Let’s talk about dark chocolate
  • Since dark chocolate has a strong taste but not a lot of creaminess, you really will avoid white wines and stick to reds. Good reds are those that have a fuller body and rich flavors, so Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Amarone, and a richer Merlot. A good Bordeaux style red blend would also work,
  • In terms of dessert wines, a richer Port or Port-like wine like a Tawny or Vintage Port would be great.
• If white chocolate is your thing
  • I am not a big fan of white chocolate, but if that is your thing, focus on sweet white wines like Moscato d’Asti, a sweet Riesling, or a demi-sec sparkling wine.

And, to close it out, let’s talk a little about sparkling wine and chocolate pairings, because that seems like a natural, and we really like sparkling wine. But, I will say, you have to be a little careful about the sweetness level of the sparkling, which is always tricky because, in a sparkling wine, if you see dry on the bottle, it actually means it is sweeter, and if you see brut on the bottle, it means the wine is drier. Ay yai yai. 

• With milk chocolate, focus on sparklings in the middle of the sweetness range, so look for dry or extra dry, and sweeter red sparklings. You can go higher, but you do have to watch out for really sweet wines which could just overpower the chocolate. 
• With dark chocolate, focus on brut or extra brut which have less sweetness, and red sparkling wines that are not sweet, like a sparkling Syrah or Shiraz, are great choices.  
• With white chocolate, you can go with the sweeter wines we mentioned for milk chocolate, but you can also break out the sweet sparklings as well, so you can go all the way to dolce or sweet.

And, of course, one of the most fun things to do is to work with these as suggestions, but just try and taste different sparkling wines with different chocolate desserts and have some fun! That’s how you learn about wine and learn what and the people you love like!

Articles and links:

• https://www.eataly.com/us_en/magazine/how-to/how-to-pair-wine-and-chocolate/ 
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/michellewilliams/2018/12/13/how-to-pair-wine-and-chocolate/?sh=8a43db1586d5 
• https://www.thespruceeats.com/pairing-wine-and-chocolate-3511408 
• https://www.thespruceeats.com/pairing-champagne-and-chocolate-3511113 

Ok, that’s it for this minisode. Thank you for listening, and if you have haven’t done so yet, you can support our show by just subscribing or giving us a rating and review - which are free!!! You can also follow us on Instagram or CounterSocial, you can visit our website thewinepairpodcast.com and in any of those places you can reach out to us directly, and you can send us an email at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. We also will have our show notes on our website, and we will include links to articles on this topic as well. 

Check out our regular sized episodes, too, so you can get the full meal deal! And, remember, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.