Top pairings | 3 things you need to think about when pairing wine with chocolate

Top pairings

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

Chocolate is supposed to be impossible to match with wine but like any other ingredient it depends on the chocolate and how it’s used.

In general I’d discourage you from serving a lighter dessert wines like Sauternes but if the chocolate flavour is not too intense and some kind of fresh fruit (strawberries or passionfruit, say) is involved it should be fine.

If you’re trying to find a wine pairing for chocolate it helps to ask yourself these three questions. (The answer may not necessarily be wine!)

What kind of chocolate?

To gain full access to this article and other premium content you need to purchase a bundle of credits which you can do as a one-off purchase or - and this is better value - on an ongoing subscription basis. (1 credit = 1 article)

To buy credits you need to register an account, which which is easy to do here. Or just sign in to your account if you already have one.

If you’d like be able to check out all the food and wine pairings on the site you can buy a bundle of credits here to access my premium content.

And/or for regular updates on what and where I’ve been eating, drinking and travelling sign up for my Substack Eat This, Drink That, Live Well.

You may also enjoy …

Comments: 3 (Add)

Fiona Beckett on April 22 2019 at 12:27

I'm never entirely convinced by champagne and chocolate - sometimes it makes the champagne taste too sharp but when accompanied by fruit like, say, raspberries, it can be delicious. Thanks for sharing your favourite chocolate pairings, John.

And Mike, sorry I missed your comment. There are indeed other wines that work well - the aim of this particular post was to keep things simple and help people to find the type of wine they might enjoy. (Lots more in the ebook!)

John Ahern on April 21 2019 at 23:33

I regularly try chocolate with wine - my findings are that white chocolate is excellent with a quality fizz or Champagne, milk chocolate with light fruity reds (Pinot Noir or a Californian Zin), and dark chocolate with heavier reds - which is actually my favourite.

Mike Murdoch on December 6 2018 at 12:31

You have missed out some good examples like Banyuls, Maury or Reciotto della Valpolicella these work well with Chocolate as does Essencia and Elyssium by Andrew Quady. Just a thought.

Recent posts …

About FionaAbout FionaAbout Matching Food & WineAbout Matching Food & WineWork with meWork with me
Loading