Wine & Chocolate!
Wine and chocolate, how can you go wrong? These are two foods that certainly bring
pleasure to life. You might say that
these are very different there are plenty of similarities in the two. They start as agricultural products; grapes
and seeds. The end products that we
enjoy are affected by the varieties of the grapes and seeds used as well as the
terroir, which is the combination of the climate, soil type and topography of
where they are grown, all of which shine through in their different flavor profiles.
In wine and chocolate, post-harvest the
production process involves fermentation.
Wine is produced by fermenting grapes; this is the process of yeast
converting sugar into alcohol. Cacao
seeds have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop their wonderful flavor.
It is a tough job, but someone has to do it, so I put myself
to the task of tasting local wine and chocolate. To arm myself with some chocolate to pair
with wine, I first met with local chocolatier Lucienne. Lucienne is a delight and has a marvelous
array of chocolates of different flavors and textures, many truly unique. Her wonderful chocolates have been featured at
the 2011 Academy Awards, Cannes Film Festival and the Emmy Awards and she is
located nearby in Jacksonville, New York.
So with some of Lucienne’s chocolates in hand, along with a few
of my standard chocolate favorites, I hit the wineries. The first stop was
Bloomer Creek Vineyard, on Seneca Lake, where Kim Engle chose some of his
favorite wines to pair with the chocolate.
We worked out some great combinations with several of his wines
including Café Red, Vin d’ete ’08 and Gewürztraminer ‘08. Notably, the Gewürztraminer was absolutely
delicious with Lucienne’s 70% Dark Chocolate Bar with Rosemary and Lemon.
The two reds went great with several of Lucienne’s
chocolates including dark chocolate pistachio and ginger bark, 70% dark chocolate
bar with cinnamon and cayenne, dark milk chocolate bar with sesame, over the
top biscotti and Lindt Extra Fine Dark Chocolate with sea salt.
The next stop was Sheldrake point on Seneca, where Christine
McAfee helped us with a few wine suggestions.
The Merlot ’09 went along great with Lucienne’s 70% Dark Chocolate Bar. It was great the way the wine and chocolate
were enhanced, often bringing out the fruit, smokiness, nutty or spice flavors
in the wine and/or chocolate. It is
worth noting that the Lindt with sea salt was not a good pairing with this
Merlot.
Continuing along the eastern shores of Seneca Lake, we next stopped
at Damiani Wine Cellars, met with Lou and Gabe Damiani and found that their Pinot Noir went along really well
with the Lucienne’s cinnamon cayenne 70% and the Lindt with sea salt, again
enhancing the spice and fruit of each.
Damiani also has a really great wine and chocolate pairing that visitors
can experience. They serve Hedonist Artisan
Chocolates, from Rochester.
And,
Ravines Wine Cellars has worked with Hedonist Chocolate to create two chocolate lovers experiences; The Classic tasting included;
Chardonnay 2008 with Demi-sec milk chocolate leaf with sesame oil, grey
balinese sea salt & toasted sesame seeds, Cabernet Franc 2009 with Dark
Chocolate drop with dried cranberries & dried orange zest, Meritage 2008
with bittersweeet chocolate truffle with Ravines Meritage blended in to the
rich ganache center for pure decadence!
And
the Eclectic tasting (which changes from time to time) currently includes; Chardonnay
2008 with Creamy Caramel made with Pittsford Dairy cream, Keuka Village Red 2010
with Dark chocolate with rosemary and pink peppercorns, and Meritage 2008 with
Dark chocolate truffle infused with Finger Lakes distillery Cream de Cassis and
Finger Lakes Black Currants.
Another
wonderful place to visit is Ports of New York right here in Ithaca, where we
found the atmosphere and the proprietors, Frédéric Bouché to be were warm and
welcoming. Here I had the chance to pair
some very nice spirited wines produced from traditional Port vinification
methods. There is a white and red named Meleau.
The red Meleau paired nicely with Lucienne’s Brownie Bar
and dark chocolate frogs. The white Meleau paired very nicely with the
following chocolates from Lucienne; including Hazelnut praline, Dark
Milk chocolate, milk chocolate sesame bark and Dark chocolate with dried
cherries and toasted almonds.
Another
chocolatier in the area, Christian Therion, , also has some lovely handmade
chocolates that are sure to please. He
makes very intriguing flavors ranging from hot Peruvian, black tea, coffee, passion
and salt caramel. Sure to please!
The
best thing about pairing wine and food is that it is a subjective
experience. A good pairing is when both
the wine and food are enhanced. I would
love your feedback, some pairings that work for you and some that may not, visit
my blog! Wine And Food with
Annemarie: and leave constructive comments,
http://wineandfoodwithannemarie.blogspot.com/.
Enjoy your tasting!
For
more information, please visit the following websites:
Annemarie
Morse, MPS in Enology, Cornell University, Certified Wine Judge, American Wine
Society, Chairman of the Finger Lakes Chapter of the American Wine Society
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