by Dan Perkins
When you think of having a nice glass of wine outside of the context of a meal, what’s the first thing that comes to mind in the food category as something to munch on? Cheese, right? Wine and cheese, wine and cheese... everybody loves wine and cheese. Well, not everyone. I like cheese but given the opportunity to have a chunk of cheddar with my Zinfandel or a piece of bittersweet chocolate; I’ll go with the chocolate every time! In fact I love chocolate chip cookies with my wine and at this time of year I utilize several good bottles to help polish off all those boxes of See’s Chocolates I got at Christmas.
Now for years we’ve been hearing about the wonderful antioxidant properties of both red wine and dark chocolate, that in itself should be good enough reason to experiment with the combination but truly it is the flavor profiles of both that actually work. Mind you, I do prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate but the combination of sweet and bitter, fat and acidic makes for a hand in glove fit. The other thing is for those who are already on the chocolate bandwagon, with glass in hand, is to not over look the benefits of chocolate with white wines. Most people tend to think chocolate is a partner to red wines only because chocolate can be part of a red wine flavor profile (just read any notes on a well made cabernet sauvignon and you’ll often see chocolate as a descriptor). But look at what often is found as part of the flavor profiles of white wines, vanilla caramel, honey and butter just to name a few(because vanilla ice cream is white and chocolate ice cream is brown we subliminally think they’re opposites... let me be clear; vanilla is not the opposite of chocolate!). All of these descriptions used for white wines are flavors that either directly compliment or are ingredients for chocolate.
So let’s talk chocolate!







