Wine & Chocolate

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Wine & Chocolate

From: Mark
Category: Drink & Food
Date: 30/11/2006
Time: 20:50:22

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A version of the short feature appearing in Devon Food Magazine.

Why is that two of the most seductive substances on earth are also the most incompatible? Chocolate kills most wines. It is the mouth-coating texture of chocolate and its sweetness that makes most wine turn bitter and tannic in the mouth. Your cherished claret, waiting for the right occasion, now tastes like you are sucking on a rubber-band. Perfect timing for a romantic end to a meal! However, it is possible to enjoy both. There are a few well-trodden rules concerning this most challenging of combinations. Rules I like to think that on occasion are worth flouting - only in this way can you learn, understand and discover new taste experiences. So whilst I recommend that you use these rules as a guide, so you know what to expect, if you get creative with your food-matching it might also lead to some pleasant surprises as well.

Some 'rules':

Chocolate makes wine taste less sweet than it actually is. Chocolate can make dry wines taste bitter as a result.
Sugar can also reduce our perception of bitter-tasting tannins (astringency). This means that ultra-sweet wines don't taste as tannic as they might if their sugar content was lower. The same goes chocolate. Chocolate itself (especially dark chocolate) often has high concentrations of phenolic compounds. The bitterness that can accompany these phenols can be rdeuced when high levels of sugar are present. This is why less-sweet or darker chocolates (consequently with proportionall less sugar) can taste harsher and unsweetened chocolate very bitter indeed as it has no sugar to mask the phenols. This is why, when you match chocolate and wine it is important to match it with an equal or sweeter wine so as not to emphasize the chocolate's or the wine's phenolics.
Avoid overly oaked wines. The oak tends to interfere with the sweetness of the chocolate and can create metallic-tannic quality.
The best wines to choose have a high degree of fruit, very full-bodied and an equal or greater sweetness than the chocolate. This combats the drying (unsweetening) and thinning (watery) effect that chocolate has on wine.
The higher the cocoa content (the lower the sugar or taste-bud coating cocoa butter) often helps the food-match. Wines with mocha-chocolate notes already as part of their profile find an affinity with chocolate.
Acidity in wine is good to cut the mouth-coating viscosity of the chocolate but it also makes the wine taste less sweet. If it tastes less sweet it can emphasize the astringent qualities in a wine.
High alcohol is good - fortified wines reign supreme. Legendary French oenologist Emile Peynaud (back in the 60s/70s) demonstrated that alcohol gives an impression of sweetness and in high enough levels can accentuate a wine's sweetness. This mean that wines with similar sugar levels can taste quite different depending on their alcoholic content.
Don't just think dark chocolate when drinking wine think white chocolate as well. It can go great with demi-sec fizz.
Don't just think chocolate and sweetness but chocolate and savoury dishes such as Mexican Moles or Casseroles. The dryer the dish the dryer the wine.
Some dry reds can go really well with these savoury chocolate dishes.

To try:

Demi-Sec (medium) Champagnes, Asti-Spumante (especially with white or light milk chocolate)
LBV and Vintage Style Port, Boal and Malmsey Madiera, Pedro Ximenez style Sherry, Australian Liquer Muscats, Banyuls (S.France), Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise (S.France)
Sweet reds - Recioto della Valpolicella (sweet Amarone) from the Veneto or Sparking Shiraz from Australia.
For dry-savoury dishes that contain chocolate try full-bodied choco-mocha wines from Chile, California South Africa or Australia - Cabernet Sauvignons pair well with chocolate because they already have a hint of cocoa in them including blackberries and spice.

To avoid:

Dry white wines
Delicate sweet wines (Sauternes, German Riesling, Loire Chenins such as Vouvray, Coteaux du Layon or Bonnezeaux)
Rosé
Brut (Dry) Champagne
Heavily oaked wines - usually a no-go - except for savoury chocolate dishes such as Mexican Moles.