A Real Valentine’s Treat

I’m one of those stereotypical women who thinks there’s no point in dessert unless the highlight is chocolate.  Seriously, why waste the calories if it’s not really, really good? And how can dessert be really, really good without chocolate?

Fortunately for me, my two culinary loves, chocolate and wine, are quite compatible.  In fact, after my last wine class, one of the most instructive comments on my evaluation form was in answer to the question “what would you recommend to improve this class?”  Someone responded to that question by stating:  “More chocolate!”

And that got me thinking:  As we approach Valentine’s Day, what better way to celebrate the holiday of love then to give your sweetie his or her favorite chocolate with a bottle of wine specially chosen to complement it?

  So here are a few recommendations for wine and chocolate pairings.  Because the possibilities for matching wine with chocolate are almost endless, I’ve limited this to the four most common types of chocolate (choosing affordable, easy-to-find examples) and a couple of reasonably-priced, widely-available wines to accompany each of them.

White chocolate – Some people do not even consider white chocolate to be real chocolate because it has no cacao (cocoa) solids.  It’s typically made of sugar, milk and fat.  Regardless of whether or not you consider it chocolate, there are some wines that are wonderful with it!  If your Valentine likes white chocolate, I recommend either a Muscat (such as Sutter Home Moscato from California for about $7) or a sweet gewürztraminer (such as Hogue Gewurztraminer from Washington for about $10).  For the chocolate, I recommend Lindt Swiss White Chocolate, which is about $4 for 3.5 ounces.

Milk chocolate – If you like Hershey bars, then you like milk chocolate.  As its name suggests, this chocolate is indeed made with milk.  Unlike white chocolate, however, it actually does have cacao in it; it just doesn’t have very much.  By law, American milk chocolate must have a minimum of 10 percent chocolate liquor.  Milk chocolate is the perfect accompaniment to a tawny port (such as Presidential Porto Tawny from Portugal for about $14 or Sheffield Cellars Tawny Port from California for about $9).  For the chocolate, I recommend Green & Black Organic Milk Chocolate, which is about $5 for 3.5 ounces or Dove Milk Chocolate, which is about $5 for a 9.5 ounce bag of bite-sized pieces.

Semi-sweet (dark) – In the United States (the rules are different in Europe and some other places), once you get past white and milk chocolate, it’s rather difficult to categorize chocolate in any way other than by the percent of cacao it contains.  The more cacao, the “darker” the chocolate is considered – and the less sugar it generally contains.  Although there may be wide variations in the percent of cacao in different semi-sweet chocolates (typically anywhere from 50 percent to 69 percent), a general rule of thumb is that semi-sweet has less cacao (and more sugar) than bittersweet chocolate.  The semi-sweet chocolate that most of us know best is the one that comes in small pieces that are delicious in cookies.  Semi-sweet chocolate is terrific with tawny ports (see above recommendations) or ruby port.  Personally, I love it with Fonseca Bin No. 27 Reserve Porto (which is neither a tawny nor ruby port, but that’s another column) from Portugal at about $16.  For the chocolate, I recommend Dove Dark Chocolate (63% cacao), which is about $1 for a 1.3 ounce.

Bittersweet (extra dark) – Chocolate labeled as “bittersweet” is typically 70 percent or more cacao.  There’s generally an inverse relationship between the amount of cacao and the amount of sugar in chocolate:  As the cacao goes up, the sugar goes down.  Thus, of all the wines we’ve discussed, bittersweet is the least sweet.  Following the general rule that the wine should be sweeter than the food, bittersweet is the chocolate that most red wine lovers prefer—since red wine tends to be pretty dry (i.e., not very sweet).  Red wine can taste really bitter or astringent with sweeter chocolates.  Many people also believe that darker chocolates are more complex than lighter, sweeter chocolates.  Like wine, chocolates tend to have subtle flavors that vary, depending upon where the cacao beans were grown, what type of soil they were grown in and what the weather was like in a given year. The result is that the choices and varieties of wine to match you chocolate are almost infinite.  However, there are a few (mostly) universal good choices.  In general, my favorite pairings are cabernet (such as Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington for about $15) or zinfandel (such as Ravenswood Vintner’s Blend Zinfandel from California for about $10).  For the chocolate, I recommend Ghiradelli Intense Dark Chocolate Bar (72% cacao), which is about $4 for 3.5 ounces.  If you’re lucky enough to be able to find any Valrhona dark chocolate with more than 70% cacao locally, and you’re willing to pay a little more for this French chocolate (perhaps 20% to 50% more than its American counterparts), I highly recommend it.  I particularly like the Valrhona Noir Amer, but it’s difficult to find and rather intense.  It’s not for the faint of heart. 

The specific wines (and chocolates) I recommend are simply suggestions.  If you can’t find a particular one, be adventurous and look for another maker of the same type of wine or chocolate. 

In my class, I served a modestly priced Chilean cabernet sauvignon with 72 percent bittersweet chocolate drops.  The class enjoyed the wine by itself, but absolutely loved it with the chocolate.  In fact, this was the experience that prompted the critique that I could improve the class with more chocolate.  The combination of the wine with the chocolate left them wanting more.  Who knows:  Maybe if you surprise your Valentine this year with wine and matching chocolate, you’ll have the same experience.  He or she will be so impressed, she/he will want to stick around until next year to see how you’re going to top it!