Amorous partnership of wine and chocolate
Print Edition
ISACS is the founder and CEO of EnjoyGourmet, a leading gourmet digital (www.enjoygourmet.com.cn) and print media company in China. He has authored over a dozen wine and food books including the awarded ISACS Guides and other gourmet books and is a wine consultant to governments, wine regions and organizations. He also hosts wine events for leading organizations and companies throughout China. Contact John via jcolumn@enjoygourmet.com.
Over the years I’ve frequently written about the amorous relationship between wine and chocolate. Both have impressively long histories and are among mankind’s oldest and most beloved epicurean pleasures. Using new technology to examine archeological artifacts indicate that both were first consumed as liquids about 9,000 years ago.
The Theobroma cacao tree that produces the beans that are used to make chocolate is indigenous to northwestern South America where it has existed for millions of years. The habitat of this remarkable tree expanded into Central America over 500,000 years ago. It was here that chocolate was first made. The first humans to consume cacao based drinks were most likely Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer tribes. Approximately 9,000 years ago they domesticated cacao trees, tomatoes, chilies and maize, actions that led to some of the earliest sedentary agriculture villages in the Americas. Three thousand years ago, the Olmec culture in Mesoamerica used chocolate beverages for medicinal and religious ceremonies. The subsequent Mayan culture venerated the cacao bean and associated drinks made from the beans with a higher sense of spirituality. Aztec men believed that cocoa bestowed them with enhanced physical powers in battle and bequeathed greater sexual potency.
During the last few years of 15th century cocoa beans and derivative chocolate products were first introduced in Spain. For nearly a century the Spanish kept this New World treat to themselves but by the 17th century chocolate drinks became popular in several European capitals. Only the elite could afford this luxury beverage and unlike the natives of Central American who preferred their chocolate bitter and spiced with fiery chili peppers, the Europeans added sugar, honey and other ingredients to sweeten the drinks and make them less bitter.
The first solid chocolate bars for commercial sale were made by the British chocolate company J. S. Fry & Sons in 1847. About the same time, the new mass production techniques of the Industrial Revolution brought chocolate to the masses and the global popularity of chocolate has grown ever since.
Like many gourmet treats, chocolate reaches new levels of tastiness when paired with wines.
Chocolate friendly wines
There are a few factors to consider when pairing wine and chocolate. These include tannins, fruitiness, sweetness and intensity. Chocolate like red wines contains tannins, so it’s important to avoid tannic wines like Right Bank Bordeaux or Barolo reds. Pairing structured reds with chocolate can easily lead to tannic overload. With few exceptions, the best wines to enjoy with chocolate are quite fruity as the fruit in wines embellishes the flavors of chocolates and mitigates any bitterness.
Sweetness is another factor one must consider. In general, the sweeter the chocolate the sweeter the wine. Wine and chocolates also come in differing degrees of intensity and as a rule the more intense your chocolate, the more intense the wine. This means light flavored milk and white chocolates are best with delicate, low alcohol wines like Moscato d’Asti, while dense and bitter dark chocolates with at least 66 percent cocoa solids are best with intense and concentrated red or fortified wines.
One variety that’s exceedingly chocolate friendly is Malbec. The generous fruitiness, soft tannins and slight spiciness of top Malbec wines make them especially fine partners to dark chocolate.
Malbec vines were first planted in Argentina in the mid 19th century. For most of their history they were used to produce cheap, diluted wines only suitable for the domestic market. Then in the late 1980s and early 1990s, pioneers like Nicolas Catena and others then started to make lower yield, quality Malbec wines from high altitude vineyards. The best of these wines came from Mendoza, an elevated plateau bordering the Andes Mountains. The elevation provides an ideal combination of abundant daytime sunshine to ripen the grapes and cool evenings lengthens the growing season thereby bequeathing greater complexity and elegance to the wines. The altitude also has the effect of softening the natural strong tannins in the Malbec variety.
There are many good and affordable Malbecs available in Shanghai. Some of my favorite producers are Sottano, Vistaba, INCA, Norton, Trapiche and the Moet-Hennessy owned Terrazas that in collaboration with the winemakers of Cheval Blanc makes the super-premium Cheval des Andes.
Varieties:
The two most planted varieties in Mendoza are Malbec and Criolla with the former standing out for its quality; Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Bonarda, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Tempranillo are also cultivated.
Key term:
Soft tannins is a term commonly used to describe red wines that smoothly textured tannins that are not overly astringent.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
