Match of the week | Chocolate and almond cake with auslese riesling

Match of the week

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

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