On Valentine´s Day this month, we were delighted to attend a phenomenal chocolate and wine tasting event in Madrid organized by Cristina Alonso of Vintage Spain. They offer these scheduled events regularly so check out their calendar. What a great night!
The venue- a private room at El Coso restaurant, where we had a superb dinner afterwards. Highly recommended for Madrileños or travelers visiting Madrid looking for a good value gourmet experience.
The concept - the theme was wine and chocolate pairing, and it was fascinating. Chocolate is traditionally paired with sweet wines, and in Spain it is also served with sparkling “Cava” during the holidays (a major wine crime actually as the bubbly tastes insipid when mixed with mouth coating chocolate). The purpose of this wine and chocolate tasting was to see how chocolate could hold up next to dry wines (although we did have one sweetie, more on that below), and the golden rules of pairing bitter with sweet.
The “Maridaje”- the pairing is called a “Marriage” in Spanish, and our marriage of wines and chocolates included:
CHOCOLATES- the line we tried was from the producer Valrhona
Jivara 40% cacao (milk chocolate)
Extra Bitter 61% cacao
Coeur de Guanaja 80% cacao
WINES- we tried the chocolates next to dry Spanish wines (white and red)
Finca Los Nevados Viognier- one of our favorite Spanish whites at the moment.
Vallegarcia Viognier de Pago
Alidis Crianza – Ribera del Duero, Tempranillo
Lara O – Ribera del Duero,Tempranillo- outstanding wine, too!!
Alvear PX- Montilla Moriles, Pedro Ximenez
The Best Match- we personally enjoyed the Alvear PX with the 80% cacao chocolate the most. Surprisingly, the white Finca los Nevados Viognier with the milk chocolate was also gorgeous.
The Worst Match- the Alidis from Ribera del Duero was absolutely awful with the bitter chocolates.
The golden rules of chocolate and wine pairing we learned include-
- Pair the chocolates to wines with a similar “weight”, so heavy flavored chocolates with heavy wines; more delicately flavored chocolates with lighter wines.
- Match chocolates to wines with similar flavors (for example almonds, hazelnuts, cedar, spice, berries and forest fruits, creaminess, etc)
- Your tastebuds are your own! Virtually everyone at this tasting disagreed about the matches, and we had fun doing it!
Sommeliers traditionally recommend the following sweet or off dry wine and choco matches:
WHITE CHOCOLATE- Muscats, Late Harvest wines, Ice wine.
MILK CHOCOLATE- Hungarian Tokaji, Tawny Port, Muscats, Amontillados, Palo Cortados
BITTER CHOCOLATE- Banyuls, LBV Port, Vintage Port, Amarone, Pedro Ximenez
Spanish Chocolate Makers- Spain is full of some fabulous chocolatiers. Established and reliable companies include Chocolates Valor and Chocovic. Enric Rovira is an artisan master choco maker who also does some cross merchandising of wine and chocolate with the Priorat Odysseus winery. At the top of our list though, of favorite Spanish companies is Cacao Sampaka (with ultra trendy choco shops in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Berlin, Valencia, Tokyo, Lisbon and Málaga).
We did something similar at our Chocolate festival here in Fairfax recently with wine pairings with chocolate. It was a lot of fun!
Judd’s Hill Zinfandel is a wine that pairs really well with chocolate!!Received it as a Bottlenotes club shipment.With its robust tannins, often slightly jammy body, and stewed/brandied cherry notes, the Judd’s Hill “Zin” fits the bill without breaking the bank.
The restaurant “El Coso” in Madrid Spain want to thank your trust and send a cordial greeting. We remain at your disposal for any event of this kind.
A big hug.
Jorge Rellán Laguna
Director of Restaurant “El Coso”
[...] Chocolate and Wine Tasting Pairing Event in Madrid – March 1, 2009 [...]