An introduction to matching chocolate and wine

It is often said that ‘chocolate is difficult to match with wine’ so the team at Charley’s thought we would have a go. We discovered it can be done, but with some train crashes.

From our expert Fred Schilling

‘The essence of matching food and wine has a lot to do with ensuring that the food is less sweet than the chosen wine. If tannins (think of the mouth puckering dryness of unsugared black tea) are prominent in the wine then avoid a tannic chocolate and vice versa.

Late harvest still and sparkling red and white wines tend to work across a range of chocolate. Fortified wines like muscat and sweet to semi-sweet sherries or Madeiras also have their place.

Charley’s dark chocolates are not high in bitterness nor tannins like many off the shelf commercial chocolates. They are also finer and less harshly flavoured than run of the mill dark chocolates which may carry a higher ratio of sugar to mask their rough edges. ‘

From Decanter magazine Sarah Jane Evans MW

‘., recommends thinking about a wine’s flavour, acidity, weight and length, and whether this works with the intensity, sweetness and texture of the chocolate.

Charley’s Tasting

Rather than leave you to wander to the wine shop, buy some wine and ‘hope for the best’ we have progressively identified some locally available wines and tested their match with Charley’s. The tasting was held on 5th March 2021 and comprised eight wines and six single origin Charley’s chocolates.

The challenge was to see where Charley’s chocolate is the best match with red, sweet and fortified wines. In the final analysis, the answer varied depending on the particular wine. Some fortified wines were a good match and some not. The red wine was a good match.

We have given ourselves a 62% pass rate. 

Here are the detailed results and tasting notes

1.Red wine

a.2018 Moss Wood Amy’s Cabernet Blend; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec Petit Verdot ($33)

A lovely fragrant wine. Energetic, fleshy, voluptuous, blackcurrant and plummy, a little herbal, with fine acidity and gently drying oak tannins. Very little skin tannin. An exquisite young wine. 95/100. Of the chocolates tasted, the group thought the best match was the 70% Karkar Island. The Karkar dark is a lovely rich velvety chocolate, with a satiny lemon finish. 

2. Sweet Wines

a. 2016 Chateau Miselle Sauternes 375 ml ($10)

The quality of this wine was a pleasant surprise and so too its match with the chocolates. Lemon, mandarin, marmalade, pineapple, apricot and a touch of honey with good acidity. The fruit character matched the chocolates surprising well, both the Karkar 70% and the milkier Karkar 52%. King Ranch went well too.

b. 2017 De Bortoli Noble 1 Semillon

Similar to the Miselle, but the new oak is more prominent and the wine is creamier, sweeter and more apricotty. Another good match with chocolate although the Noble 1 is perhaps a bit too sweet.

c.De Bortoli Black Noble 500 ml (10-year-old botrytised fortified)

Another good match with chocolates including the 60% Mt Edna milk. The creamy apricotty Black Noble lusciousness seems a happy match.

3.Fortified wines

a.2014 Fonseca LBV Port ($47.50)

An elegant, fresh cherry plum fortified, a touch of caramel and a spirity finish. A perfect match was expected, but somehow the caramel competes and the light elegant spirit detracts. A fine wine by itself, but a little too much finesse for the powerful dark chocolates. The Fonseca needs walnuts.

b.2007 Taylors LBV Port

This was at home with Shannonvale. The Taylors is a completely happy match with the chocolate. The blackcurrant fruitiness complements chocolate. It’s not too spirity either. Moreish.

c.Morris Classic Liqueur Muscat 500 ml, ($20.90)

Rasiny, orange peel, spirity. The flavour profile is not quite right for chocolate. Better with cheese.

d.1990 Toro Alba Don Pedro Ximinez, Gran Riserva 375ml ($57.00)

A fortified of brutal strength, almond, molasses, coffee, licorice, treacle, but good acidity. Take by pipette. Just as chocolate can be too powerful for wine, wine can be too powerful for chocolate.

Thank you to Mervyn for choosing the wines, acting as MC for the tasting and consolidating the views of the group of tasters into these notes.