Wine pairings for a chocolate-themed dinner party

Ever tried chocolate with smoked salmon? Or with butternut squash soup for that matter? Unlikely matches, I’ll grant you, but ‘chocolate’ - in its confectionery guise - is actually a misnomer. It’s most likely cacao you’ll be cooking with in future, if the founders of the fashionable chocolate brand ‘Venezuelan Black’ have their way.

Real cacao adds depth of flavour, not to mention a discreet but lengthy aftertaste to savoury dishes, and a recent tasting held at Berry Bros & Rudd’s Pickering Cellar, co-hosted by Tania Harcourt-Cooze of Venezuelan Black and Rebecca Lamont, manager of Berry Bros & Rudd’s wine education school, was an intriguing insight to chocolate and wine pairing that convinced me there’s nothing crazy about savoury chocolate dishes.

The Harcourt-Coozes featured in the whimsically named television series ‘Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory‘ on Channel 4 earlier this year. Their mission was to be the first organic chocolate producers to grow and make 100% cacao from bean to bar, with many adventures and mishaps along the way.

Whilst Tania talked us through the history of the ‘Venezuelan Black’ project, we nursed an aperitif of Mailly’s Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru Champagne. Much like wine, the origin, terroir, and microclimate of cacao trees determines the quality and flavour of the highly sensitive cacao bean, and like grapes, the beans require expert handling. The two most crucial factors influencing the eventual quality of the chocolate, Tania told us, is the stage after the beans are retrieved from their pods (at their plantation El Tesoro they place them in an oak box to lock in flavour) and the method of roasting, a finely calibrated process that can make or break the chocolate’s aroma.

As an ingredient, all one needs to do is grate the cacao into dishes ‘ it melts at low temperatures and fuses seamlessly with other ingredients. The first plate demonstrated two ways of incorporating chocolate into starters. First a delicate, mildly smoked salmon served with cacao bread. Sounds strange but the cacao gave it an appealing dark, treacle colour and a hint of bitterness which made it the ideal alternative to salmon’s traditional partners, Irish soda bread or Germanic rye.

Winewise we had two options to match with the salmon - a food-friendly 2006 Tres Olmos Bodegas, a Spanish Verdejo white from Garciarevalo in Rueda, and a sublime 2005 Clos Blanc de Vougeot, 1er Cru, Domaine de la Vougeraie from Burgundy. The former, with its crisp acidity, made a perfect partner with the salmon I thought, whereas the classic, delicately oaked white Burgundy was a better pairing for our second starter: spiced butternut squash soup with cacao creme fraiche. The slight curried note in the soup could easily have overwhelmed the wine, but Rebecca calibrated the pairing perfectly, with the Burgundy’s length emphasized by the butternut soup. The sprinkling of cacao in the crème fraiche was a deft touch, subtle but enough to alert one to its presence.

The second round offered four wine matches with two main dishes: the first dish a porcini risotto with grated cacao was bursting with umami, a real cracker of a dish that to my mind definitely called for a red Burgundy. Yes, we were offered a 2006 Dog Point Pinot Noir, from New Zealand’s Marlborough region, and a fine example of New Zealand Pinot it was, but this was no contest ‘ it was the 2002 Chambolle-Musigny, Les Plantes, 1er Cru from Domaine Bertagna with its fine earthy aromas, wild strawberry palate and extraordinary length that married the porcini risotto to perfection. The New Zealand Pinot, for all its exuberance, just didn’t have the same nuanced complexity as the Burgundy, nor did it do the risotto any great favours.

The second main course, a roast loin of venison served with a cacao-infused jus, was a superb foil for the venison which was cooked a point, still pink and succulent. The two wines we sampled were like chalk and cheese: a 1998 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape was a spicy jewel of a red Rhone, its gaminess dissipating on the palate to reveal ripe red fruit. A perfectly executed wine for a perfectly executed dish. Our second wine a 1990 Chateau Gruaud Larose tasted surprisingly muted, possibly because it suffered the misfortune of coming after the robust Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The idea of fielding a red Bordeaux was fine, it just didn’t match with the venison, or the risotto for that matter. One perhaps to keep for roast lamb.

The next course of this decadent tasting was a sampling of truffles made from four varieties of Venezuelan Black chocolate with champagne and Maury. All the truffles were made to Tania’s recipes. A tropical Rio Caribe Superior with a lovely smoothness and hints of citrus - and I could have sworn a touch of coconut - was matched with the Mailly Blanc de Noirs, but I thought it went just as well, if not better with the proferred Krug Grande Cuvee with all its rich, toastiness (as did most of the truffles!)

Hacienda El Tesoro, Venezuelan Black’s ‘house brand’ with its flavour of berry fruits was slightly sharper than the Rio Caribe, and worked better with the Mailly Blanc de Noirs, whilst the Carenero Superior, although made from exactly the same ingredients as the other truffles had a noticeably sweeter element to it and a nuttiness which made it rather a good match with Rebecca’s suggested Southern French sweet red, a 2005 Domaine des Schistes Maury. Finally the San Martin, a bar whose characteristics change with each harvest, had a fruitiness which was enhanced by both the Maury and the Mailly.

As if the truffles weren’t indulgent enough, we also had a sliver of Tania’s Cloud Forest chocolate almond cake made with raw cane sugar. This was a rich, dense cake, ideal I imagine with an espresso, but the chocolate aromas, as Tania had correctly warned us, didn’t come through as powerfully as in the truffles. Still, cake is cake and it was delicious.

Finally, a perfect way to send us off on a cold December night - a chocolate hot shot. This was a really invigorating little shot, which Rebecca mischievously enhanced with Berry’s finest Cognac - my neighbour observed it would be the perfect après-ski drink. Y

A Christmas special of ‘Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory’ will be screened on Channel 4 December 17th.

For information about future fine wine and food tastings visit the Berry Brothers website bbr.com

Image credit: NoName_13 from Pixabay

The 10 best wines for spring and early summer drinking

The last two days have been quite, quite beautiful, starting mistily, basking midday in an unseasonally warm sun and finishing with an extended dusk that announces that spring is finally here. I immediately want to eat lighter meals: the new season’s vegetables are not quite in yet but I can at least plan for summer and that means a spring clean of the cellar, pushing the full bodied reds to the back and assessing what whites, lighter reds and rosés I still have lurking in the racks.

Now is the time to drink up any lighter wines from last year that may have slipped my notice and make a shopping list for the weeks ahead.

The idea of changing the wine you drink with the season, just as you change your diet and your wardrobe still meets some resistance. People tend to ‘like what they like’ when it comes to wine, drinking the same bottles right through the year. The more pronounced acidity and palate weight of lighter wines may not be to your taste. But try them with the right kind of food and you’ll see how perfectly tuned they are to the flavours of spring.

Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon blends
What more is there to say about Sauvignon Blanc? Only that there is much more variety than ever before and that quality seems on an unstoppable upward curve. Try those from South Africa if you’re not familiar with them. And revisit white Bordeaux and other Sauvignon-Semillon blends.
Best food pairings: goats’ cheese, asparagus, grilled fish and other seafood, dishes flavoured with coriander and dill

Grüner Veltliner
No sign of the Grüner bandwagon slipping off the rails. It’s still every sommelier’s darling - less demanding than Riesling, more sophisticated than Pinot Grigio (though see below). Drink young.
Best food pairings: Light Asian flavours e.g. Asian accented salads and noodle dishes, Vietnamese spring rolls

Albariño
Another fashionable option, Spain’s feted seafood white, which comes from Galicia in the North West of the country, has the intensity to cope with most light fish preparations. A good wine to choose in fish restaurants.
Best food pairings: shellfish, light fish dishes, spring and summer soups e.g. gazpacho, tomato salads

Chablis and other unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnays
If you’re a Chardonnay drinker, time to change the register from oaked to unoaked or at least subtly oaked. (Those rich buttery flavours will overwhelm delicate vegetables and seafood unless they’re dressed with a rich butter sauce.) Faced with competition from the new world, Chablis is better quality than ever and a good own brand buy from supermarkets. Watch out for offers.
Best food pairings: oysters and other seafood, poached chicken, creamy sauces, fish and vegetable terrines, sushi

Dry Riesling
Like Marmite Riesling tends to polarise wine drinkers - some love it, some hate it. There’s no denying though that its crisp, fresh flavours and modest levels of alcohol it makes perfect spring sipping. If it’s the sweetness you’re not sure about stick to Alsace Riesling, German kabinett Riesling or Clare Valley Riesling from Australia. If it’s the typical kerosene flavours it can acquire with age, stick to younger wines.
Best food pairings: Smoked fish especially smoked salmon, crab, trout, smoked chicken, salads,Cantonese and lightly spiced south-east Asian food

Pinot Grigio
The tide of insipid, cheap Pinot Grigio has given the wine a bad name but the best examples (mostly from the Alto Adige) are elegant minerally whites that deserve a place in your cellar.
Best food pairings: antipasti, light seafood pastas and risottos, fresh tomato-based pasta sauces

Prosecco
The Veneto’s utterly charming sparkling wine, softer and more rounded than Champagne. It mixes fabulously well with fresh summer fruits such as peaches and raspberries as in the famous Bellini
Best food pairings: A perfect spring aperitif or to sip with panettone

Light rosé
I say light because so many rosés now are little different from reds in their levels of alcohol and intensity. Not that that style doesn’t have a place (it’s a great wine to drink with barbecues, for example) but it can overwhelm more delicate flavours. At this time of year try the lighter, less full-on styles from Provence and elsewhere in the South of France or from the Rioja and Navarra regions of Spain.
Best food pairings: Provençal-style dishes such as salad Niçoise and aioli (vegetables with a garlic mayonnaise), grilled tuna, mezze

Light Loire reds
Well, actually not so light if you look at the 2005 vintage but in general Loire reds which are mostly based on the Cabernet Franc grape are light and fragrant, perfect served cool. Examples are Chinon, Bourgeuil and Saumur-Champigny.
Best food pairings:
Seared salmon and tuna, grilled chicken, goats' cheese

Young Pinot Noir
I stress young because you want that bright, intense, pure raspberry fruit rather than the slightly funky notes you can get with Pinot (especially red burgundy) that has a couple of years’ bottle age. The most reliable place to find it currently is in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. Chile, California and Oregon have some appealingly soft, fruity Pinots too, though again, watch the alcohol and serve lightly chilled.
Best matches:
Seared duck breasts, salads that include fresh or dried red berries or pomegranate seeds, seared salmon or tuna.