Durban - Given many descriptions for powerful red wines include chocolate or cocoa, there is an understanding that matching wine and chocolate is one made in heaven – a combination of two sensual experiences.
However, anyone who has tried pairing them may well have been disappointed, finding the sweetness of chocolate detracts from the complexity of the wine and leaving both fighting out a colossal battle with your taste buds. In a cocoa shell, more hell than heaven.
In the same way food is paired with wine, chocolate must be weighted to the wine to balance the demands on the palate. There is a perfect wine for every chocolate and experimenting is the only way to find that match.
Matching light-flavoured chocolates with lighter-bodied wines and more intense-flavoured ones with full-bodied wines is a starting point. Lighter chocolate refers to the overall flavour and not the colour or white and milk chocolates versus dark chocolate – and a dark chocolate with a delicate grenache can be lighter in flavour than white or milk chocolate filled with intense caramel or with spicy or nut centres.
The secret is seeking out similar characteristics in the wine to those in the chocolate or playing devil’s advocate and striking at the contrasts. There are no right or wrong answers, but subtleties that show which combinations work in personal circumstances.
Some people enjoy a fruity cabernet sauvignon or zinfandel with chocolate, while others find the combination too dry and many experts recommend fortified wines because the sweetness and structure matches the chocolate.
However, that can be a simplistic approach that leaves little to the imagination or personal preference and the more knowledge someone has about the nuances of both wine and chocolate, the greater can be the levels of experimentation and the appreciation for the outcome.
This is not a pairing that happens in a single sitting, rather an evolving process that takes into account the different elements, including that two shirazes are not the same on their own, so matching them with the same chocolate will have a different result.
The most intense, richly flavoured chocolate is 70-100 percent cocoa and has bitter, roasted, fruity, earthy, ashy or nutty tones and the same wines will match bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate (50-69 percent cocoa). These include Bordeaux blends, cabernet sauvignon, grenache, malbec, tawny or ruby ports, shiraz and zinfandel.
Milk chocolate has a higher percentage of sugar and smaller percentage of chocolate liquor. This, with its milk content, yields a milder, sweeter product with fewer flavours. However, the prominent ones include brown sugar, cocoa, vanilla, honey, caramel, milk, cream and malt, matching with dessert wines, muscats and tawny ports, based on the needs of sweeter chocolate requiring sweeter wines to prevent the beverage tasting tart.
White chocolate is made without chocolate liquor and thus technically is not a chocolate, but a rich product with cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids. It has sweet flavour notes including cream, milk, honey, vanilla, caramel and fruit and can be a fine match for sparkling wines (but not brut), gewürtztraminer, muscat and riesling.
Diary note: The Horse and Wine Festival will be at the Shongweni Club on April 13, featuring wineries, a brewery, and a craft market. - The Mercury
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