The right chocolate and wine pairing is a beautiful experience. Chocolate amplifies wine’s nuanced aromatics. Wine adds new dimensions of flavor to the chocolate. Whether you’re planning an elaborate Valentine’s Day date, or just unwrapping a few bars of chocolate, this easy pairing can be pulled together in minutes. There’s only one caveat: not all wines and chocolates go together. Here is a The Wine Daily-tested guide to wine and chocolate pairing that will have you raring to take another sip.
Guidelines on Wine Pairing
Here are a few easy guidelines for pairing wine with chocolate:
- Pair sweet with sweet. Since wine is acidic, it helps for to have some residual sugar when pairing with sweet foods. Dry wines with little to no residual sugar tend to taste harsh or tart against sweet foods.
- Dark chocolate can handle more sweetness. On their own, I find fortified and dessert wines to be too sweet. But this sweetness is tempered in the face of bitter dark chocolate. The two flavors, sweet and bitter, balance one another in a way that is rich and complex. Conversely, sweet wines may taste syrupy or cloying when there is no bitterness to offset their saccharine nature, such as with white or milk chocolate.
- Tailor the chocolate to your wine preferences. Dessert and fortified wines can be intensely sweet, and not everyone likes them. If, for example, you only like dry red wines, pick a salty dark chocolate with less sugar. For example, Hu makes an excellent salty dark chocolate with only 7 grams of sugar. Taza Sea Salt Dark Chocolate, with only 6 grams of sugar, is also a great bet. Alternatively, consider salty dark chocolate with nuts or chocolate covered pretzels alongside drier wines.
Favorite Wine and Chocolate Pairings
Here are my personal favorite wine and chocolate pairings, after extensive tasting. That said, wine tasting is subjective. I prefer pairings with harmonious flavors, but some prefer pairings with more contrast. I highly encourage you to experiment — everyone’s palate is unique, and you may come across new favorites.
Dark Chocolate (60%+ cocoa) pairs with Pedro Ximenez, Ruby Port, and Zinfandel
Port and Pedro Ximenez have a concentrated sweetness, making for a delicious contrast against bitter dark chocolate. The combination is rich, textured, and filled with depth of flavor.
If you don’t like sweet or fortified wines, a fruit-forward Zinfandel also works beautifully with dark chocolate, and especially salted dark chocolate with nuts. The salty chocolate helps soften the wine’s tannins and bring its dark fruit flavors forward.
Milk Chocolate (30% cocoa with Moscato or Off-Dry Riesling, 50% cocoa with Ruby Port)
Milk chocolate has a wide variance in cocoa levels and flavor. 50% milk chocolate tastes almost like dark chocolate. Meanwhile, 20-30% milk chocolate bears more similarity to white chocolate, with a creamy flavor and little bitterness. I recommend trying different wines depending on the cocoa percentage.
30% milk chocolate has a sweetness that is gentle, creamy, and mild. Off-dry white wines like Moscato, off-dry Riesling, and off-dry Chenin Blanc have the right level of light sweetness to match. Meanwhile, I felt that tannic red wines overwhelmed milk chocolate’s delicate, creamy flavors. Fortified wines also tasted too cloying against the delicate flavors of 30% milk chocolate.
50% milk chocolate is darker and more bitter than its 30% counterpart. It strikes a delicious balance with the concentrated sweetness and dark plum flavors of Ruby Port.
White Chocolate pairs with Brachetto d’Acqui
Confession: white chocolate has such a pure, unadulterated sweetness that I find it hard to eat on its own. For me, Brachetto d’Acqui adds much-needed contrast to the mild white chocolate, bringing a refreshing pop of earthy red strawberry and raspberry flavor. If you can’t find Brachetto, Moscato also works, adding a honeyed stone fruit dimension to the white chocolate, without overpowering it. Both Brachetto and Moscato have a delicate effervescence (Moscato’s is more persistent, while Brachetto’s is quite faint) that is also very refreshing with the creamy white chocolate.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries pair with Moscato d’Asti or Champagne
The combination of strawberries and chocolate is filled with flavor contrasts. You have both fresh fruit and rich chocolate in one bite. If you like dry wines, Brut Champagne or Cava is incredibly refreshing against the strawberries. If you like sweeter wines, accentuate the chocolate flavors with a Moscato d’Asti. See our full article on wine pairing with chocolate covered strawberries.
Enjoyed this wine pairing with chocolate? Check out our other wine pairings and recipes here.