Chocolate and almond cake with auslese riesling

I’ve never been wholly convinced that sweet white wines go with dark chocolate but have had to modify that view after a surprisingly successful pairing at my friends' this weekend.

The wine was a Prinz von Hessen Johannisberger Klaus Auslese Riesling from the warm 2005 vintage but still only 9% - far too light you’d think to go with a rich dark flourless chocolate and almond cake. But strangely it worked due mainly, I think, to the exotic passionfruit and dried mango notes in the 11 year old wine.

Passionfruit, of course, goes pretty well with white chocolate, I just hadn’t expected it to work as well with a dark chocolate dessert though the fact it contained 4 tbsp of rum (yes, four!) may have given it a tropical fruit character for the wine to latch onto.

I still think a lighter, less intense late harvest riesling would have struggled but it’s certainly worth experimenting with ones from a hot vintage.

Unfortunately I can’t find the wine currently on sale in the UK but you can obviously try similar wines.

The recipe - which is not difficult and absolutely delicious - is Claudia Roden’s and is available here.

Three things you need to think about when pairing wine with chocolate