Wine and Chocolate Don't Work. Stop Trying.
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Wine and chocolate have to stop meeting like this.
By Erin Henderson
When The Wine Sisters was just starting out, wine and chocolate pairings were really hot. I have no idea why, or how, but in the early 20-teens, requests for wine and chocolate pairings probably made up a third of all our tasting requests. Maybe even as much as 50 per cent, some months.
So, we did as any young business struggling to survive would do: we hosted them. Team builds, client appreciations, and the ever-present bridal shower, we were there showing everyone how to pair wine and chocolate. Until we realized, the pairing sucked.
It’s controversial, I know, but wine and chocolate just don’t work. It’s a hill I will die on.
As I wrote in the earlier blog about food and wine pairing, the cardinal rule for pairing sweet foods with wine is that the wine must always be sweeter, otherwise both will taste flat, bitter, and astringent. Ergo, some pairings can work – Port with Death By Chocolate cake, or Icewine with caramel stuffed chocolate bonbons, for example – but just because they can work, doesn’t mean they should. That overload of sweetness makes my teeth ache just thinking about it. For my taste, I’d much rather pair Port to a piquant blue cheese, or Icewine to a tangy triple crème Brie. That salty and sweet combo creates a far more interesting tension on the palate, rather than layer upon layer of sugar which just tires out your tastebuds.
Blame the Media
I understand why the casual wine drinker believes this pairing is the ultimate; at least three times a year – Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Halloween (where we also get the bonus of wine pairing with candy) – magazines, newspapers, food blogs, and social media posts pump out the wine and chocolate pairing content. Trust me, as a former journalist, no self-respecting reporter likes these articles but all of us have been saddled with them – at least until we got smart enough to make ourselves scarce when the producer/editor was doling out assignments.
Despite what well-intentioned – or maybe more likely, advertiser-driven – articles may suggest, wine and chocolate is a marriage that’s doomed from the start. Chocolate has bitter tannin, especially in dark chocolate, plus sugar, and rich fat, which combined can make an awkward dance partner for wine.
This is Not a Happy Couple
Let’s say you’re finishing up that terrific Napa Cab you ordered with dinner. Powerful but smooth with deep flavours of black cherry, blueberry jam, a bit of vanilla and some spice. It was a banger with your steak. Now comes your triple threat chocolate brownie for dessert. No problem, you think to yourself, I’ve still got a glass left, and this will make a fine match and won’t I look sophisticated. Until the combo puts a look on your face like you just smelled a ripe fart.
First of all, the over-powering sweet and decadent flavours of your dessert completely annihilate any of those ripe and jammy flavours of your wine, leaving it bland and lifeless. And when the wine has no flavour, all that’s left is the wine’s structure of astringent tannin and sour acid. And with the bitter/sour notes of the wine, the dessert also becomes a bit dull. This is the couple that brings out the worst in each other. It’s best for everyone involved if they split up and find a partner better suited to their characters.
Do yourself a favour: next time you want to sneak a treat from the kids' Easter basket, just enjoy it as it is. Or maybe with a coffee. Not everything has to go with wine all the time. And certainly chocolate is at the top of the list. You can love chocolate, you can love wine. You just can't love them together.