Your Ultimate Guide to Pairing Wine with Chocolate

How many times have I taken a bite of chocolate then wished I had the perfect glass of wine to sip with it? The answer is way too many! Clearly, better planning on my part is mandatory, right? The good news is that Nicholas Rubright, guest blogger (see more about Nicholas at the end of the article), has written a fascinating guide to pairing wine with chocolate (and vice versa). The result? I’ll already know what to pour… and why. Thank you, Nicholas, for this deliciously informative article! Enjoy the read, everyone!

The rule of thumb when pairing wine with food is to find foods that complement the wine rather than match it. Ultimately, you want the flavors of the food and wine to enhance one another, not clash. When it comes to wine and chocolate, there are a few pairings that work well. The trick is to know the rules to abide by when pairing the two.

Rule 1: Know where your wine and chocolate are from and how each is made

Wine

It’s widely known that wine is harvested from either white or red grapes that are found in different regions throughout the world. Each grape can inspire the name of the wine itself, though sometimes the wine is named after the region that harvested it.

Take Champagne, for instance, which is made with a blend of grapes and originates from the Champagne region in France. The name of this wine is made to be recognized by the region, while Cabernet Sauvignon, on the other hand, gets its name from the actual grape that the wine is made from.

The wine harvesting process always varies upon several factors like technique, technology, and region, but there are five core steps that never change.

Grape Picking

1. Grape Crushing
2. Fermentation
3. Wine Aging
4. Wine Bottling

It’s a myth to say that other fruits and spices are added to the wine. In reality, the grapes simply evolve in flavor during the fermentation and aging process. The wood in the barrels used during the aging process can contribute to that “spicy” finish in a Syrah, for example, even though no actual spices were added.

Chocolate

Chocolate is made from the cacao fruit, which, interestingly enough, grows on the tree trunk instead of a branch. Similar to coconuts, the fruit is protected within the husk. In the center of the husk, you’ll find the slimy and almost flesh-like membrane. The beans used for chocolate are found inside the cacao pod, which are protected by this membrane.

 

Much like wine, turning the cocoa beans into chocolate takes days of labor and generally goes like this:

1. Fermentation and Drying
2. Roasting
3. Cracking and Winnowing
4. Extensive Grinding
5. Conching
6. Tempering

Both wine and chocolate endure a long process to become the rich and flavorful products we love. By knowing this, you learn to really appreciate them on their own and can understand why the two are so delicate when it comes to finding the right pairing.

Rule 2: Tannins are important

Chocolate and wine are full of flavanols known as tannins. Tannins are found all over nature in things like wood, plants, and fruits. These lingering tannins are nature’s way of warding off predator animals or insects. While perfectly safe for humans – healthy, even – tannins impair the digestibility of foods in animals.

In chocolate, the tannins are concentrated in the cocoa pods which is why the membrane has a sourness to it. With wine, the tannins come mainly from the grape skins and the wood from the barrels used in the aging process. The natural chemical in tannins is what helps preserve both chocolate and wine in the fermentation process. Unfortunately, these tannins are also what makes it really hard to pair the two.

Highly tannic red wines and dark chocolate cannot be mixed because the flavors will clash. The bittersweet taste of chocolate will only bring out the sour notes of the wine, resulting in an unsatisfying combination. Knowing this rule about how to NOT pair your wine and chocolate makes it easier to pair them correctly.

Rule 3: Understand the impact of residual sugars

Residual Sugar (RS) is the leftover sweetness in a wine after the fermentation process. When the wine is fermented, yeast is added to take the natural sugars from the grapes and turn it into ethanol – AKA, alcohol. This process varies depending on the wine being harvested and can be stopped sooner to make the wine sweeter.

 

You will find that the higher the alcohol level, the dryer a wine will be. This is because the yeast transforms all of the natural sugars into liquor. However, given the lack of sugar, this also means that the tannins will be higher, resulting in a more bitter taste.

If your red wine seems to have more residual sugars, it is likely easier to pair it with dark chocolate. The RS is measured in grams since you can’t really tell with the naked tongue if the wine has any leftover sweetness. Brands like Malbec, Zinfandel, and Shiraz will have a profile of about 10 – 60 grams per Liter and will pair well with dark chocolate desserts. You can call these wines “The Exception to The Rule.”

Rule 4: Use fats to soften the tannins

We’ve discussed that tannins are pretty strong and can be cut down with some sugar. Furthermore, dessert recipes that call for extra fats and starches, like cakes, will help reduce the strong flavanols in chocolate. Now, what do I mean by “fats”?

When baking, fats like butter can be melted down, or reduced, to give a layer of grease and richness to the food. Chocolates, like milk and white chocolate, are higher in fats than dark chocolate because dark chocolates only use a small amount of cocoa butter and sugar, while milk and white chocolate have higher saturated fats including milk, cream, and cocoa butter.

 

When you bake dark chocolate into a cheesecake, for example, you’re adding fats from the cream cheese and butter, which soften out the strong tannins in the chocolate. By doing so, this allows you to pair the dessert with a dry red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon more easily. Because wines are fruity in their flavor profile, adding fruits such as raspberries or peaches to the dessert can complement the wine even further.

Rule 5: Salt can improve flavors

Salty and sweet go together like peas in pods. Salt is known to enhance flavors at a low dose (say a pinch) because it reduces the bitterness and highlights the sweetness, especially when baking. This rule is perfect for bittersweet chocolate, which pairs well with a more savory wine like Cream Sherry.

Cream Sherry is often used as a cooking wine, but when paired with chocolate, it does wonders for the flavor. Pairing the wine with a salted caramel chocolate bar is a very satisfying combo.

 

Wine pairing tips for each type of chocolate

Now that we’ve gone over some rules to help you better understand the process of pairing wine with chocolate, let’s go over each of the popular types of chocolate – milk, dark, white, and flavored chocolates and which wines pair best with each of them.

Milk Chocolate

Here are some wine selections to go with your milk chocolate desserts:

• Rutherglen Muscat – One of the sweetest wines in the world made all the way in Australia with the Muscat grape. As a dessert wine, some may think you shouldn’t pair sweet with sweet, but the caramel-like flavor notes make it a delicious pairing with milk chocolate.
• Cream Sherry – This savory wine is an Oloroso Sherry that is typically sweetened with the Pedro Ximenez (PX) grape. This is a Spaniard white grape that makes the Cream Sherry good enough to drink straight, but it’s better with chocolate.
• Aged Vintage Port – A 20-year-old Tawny Port would make for a great pairing with your milk chocolate dessert, especially if you’re adding caramel. The wine is aged with oxidation, which gives it savory nutty flavor notes with a caramelized body.

 

Dark Chocolate

The following wine selections will pair with your dark chocolate desserts.

• Merlot – The medium-bodied wine pairs well with dark chocolate made with no more than 55% cocoa powder. Anything higher than that will change the flavor of your wine for the worse, but when done correctly, it’s delicious.
• Port Style Red Wines – These Portugal red wines have a wide range of intensity that can pair well with different chocolate combinations. Petite Sirah Port, for instance, will compliment coffee chocolate desserts very nicely.
• Vin Santo – This Italian dessert wine has flavor notes of cinnamon, cherries, and a fine nuttiness. Perfect for offsetting a high tannic dark chocolate and enhancing the dessert.

 

White Chocolate

Following are a few wine selections to go with your white chocolate desserts.

• Ice Wine – Ice wine is made with grapes that have frozen on the vine. This simple detail is enough to alter the wine in such a way that makes it ideal for rich white chocolate desserts. Samples of Ice Wine are Riesling, Cabernet Franc, and Vidal Blanc.
• Moscato d’Asti – Moscato is a popular dessert wine that comes in many styles. This wine leans closer to the sparkling wine end. The fizziness makes white chocolate desserts all the more creamy.
• Rosé Port – This Port wine has beautiful shades of pink with a flavor profile of tropical fruits and exotic wood which is carried through when matched with white chocolate.

Flavored Chocolates

Try these wines that pair with your flavored chocolate combinations.

• Caramel Chocolate – PX Sherry, Amontillado Sherry, and Moscatel de Setubal.
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups – Madeira, Marsala, and Oloroso Sherry.
• Chocolate Covered Strawberries – sparkling wines including Champagne (yes, please!) and sparkling reds like Brachetto d’Acqui.

Cheers! ~ Cindy

About the Author: Nicholas Rubright is a digital marketing specialist for Jordan Winery, a California winery that specializes in the production of high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, sparkling wine, and other delicious products. Currently, his wine of choice is Syrah.