Chocolate varies greatly and can be sweet, bitter or creamy, while wine has a vast array of flavours, different levels of acid and tannin to consider. There is no one wine that works brilliantly with all types of chocolate but if you are planning on enjoying some wine and chocolate this Easter, we have enlisted the help of our good friends Neil and Robyn from Renaissance Chocolates.
Neil and Robyn make delicious hand-crafted chocolates using the finest ingredients. We gave them six of our wines to try and they have delivered some delicious matches.
- Pizzini Prosecco NV. This was an easy match for us. We originally developed our Citrus Crescent to match this exact style of wine. A smooth creamy citrus caramel in a white chocolate shell there is strong citrus and pear notes.
- Pizzini Teroldego 2019. We have matched this with a dark couverture shell with a white chocolate raspberry caramel topped with a white chocolate top sprinkled with red crystals for decoration. We got very strong raspberry notes on the palate and the nose. It's a great match for this delightful wine.
- Pizzini Nonna Gisella Sangiovese 2018. We found lots of cherry notes when tasting this wine so it was obvious to develop a cherry caramel and put it into a milk chocolate shell.
- Pietra Rossa Sangiovese 2017. We have matched this with a smooth slightly burnt caramel in a milk couverture shell. We picked up some earthiness on the back palate and smoothness which we think went well with the smoothness of the filling and the milk chocolate.
- Pizzini La Volpe Nebbiolo 2018. This is the only wine match where we actually used the wine in the filling. We made a rich ganache from cream and dark couverture and then mixed in the wine then put it into a dark couverture shell. This really gives a powerful mouth feel when tasting with the wine.
- Pizzini Nebbiolo 2015. We have developed a Black Currant caramel and put it in a dark couverture shell, we add a small amount of tartaric acid to this filling to give it a bit of "tartness" it matches beautifully with the rich red fruits of the wine.
In general, a creamy white chocolate will work with something crisp like Prosecco or even a Pinot Grigio, a lighter fruit driven red wine will suit milk chocolate and darker chocolate will marry nicely with wines that have some subtle spice and earthy characters. However Neil and Robyn take this to a new level with their custom made caramels, ganache’s and filling, making an even more harmonious match.
If you are pairing chocolate and wine over Easter, we would love to hear what you found worked well.
We also hope to have some Renaissance Chocolates in stock to purchase with some of our matching wines when we are able to welcome visitors to Cellar Door again.
