In my recent column for the Ontario interior design magazine Homefront, I featured wine and chocolate pairings, including an interview with chocolate sommelier Roxanne Browning, who teaches classes on pairing wine and chocolate. You can also watch a couple of video interviews with Roxanne on this topic. What was your first experience with wine? My two brothers and I grew up in Oceanside, California, and neither of our parents drank wine. When we moved to the suburbs of Long Island, New York in the 1970s, drinking was the right of passage for young people. Cheap wine, Boones Farm Strawberry Hill, […]
Chocolate & Wine
Pairing Wine and Dark Chocolate Video Part 2
In the video below, Roxanne Browning and I continue our chat about pairing wine and chocolate, as well as the health benefits of wine. Get out a chunk of artisanal dark chocolate and a robust red wine and taste along with us! You can also watch part one of our wine and chocolate conversation. Roxanne leads a tasting of wine and chocolate: You may also enjoy these video chats: Pairing Wine and Cheese with Janice Beaton Dragon’s Den Arlene Dickinson talks about wine, women, business See all wine video chats here. Is there someone […]
Video: Pairing Wine and Chocolate with a Chocolate Sommelier
In the video below, New York Chocolate Sommelier Roxanne Browning chat about the difference between great chocolate and candy, pairing it with wine, Fair Trade and serving tips. Roxanne’s life-long search for the “ultimate bar led her down to the Ecuadorian Amazon rain forest where she helped with the cacao harvest. Here’s part two of our wine and chocolate conversation. Masi Costasera Amarone Classico, Veneto, Italy A full-bodied and richly flavoured red with aromas of black cherry liqueur, cigar box and dark spices. Hedonistic and satisfying. Food matches: dark chocolate, hearty meat dishes. […]
Wine and Chocolate Pairings for Easter – Food Network Canada
Here are my top ten wine and chocolate matches for Easter for your sweet enjoyment, courtesy of the Food Network Canada. Dark Chocolate Mousse and Blackstone Winery Zinfandel Winemaker’s Select, California Mini White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecakes and Dow’s Port Late Bottled Vintage, Portugal Flourless Mini Chocolate Orange Cakes with Ganache and Quady Winery Muscat Orange, California Chocolate Almond Cake and Delaforce Port Late Bottled Vintage, Portugal Malted Milk Chocolate Cakes and Quinta Do Noval Port Tawny, Portugal Flourless Chocolate Biscotti and Fleur Du Cap Noble Late Harvest, South Africa Warm Bittersweet Chocolate Souffle and Farina Le Pezze Amarone Della Valpolicella […]
How To Pair Wine With Chocolate – CityTV
We asked Natalie MacLean, author of the bestseller Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines, for her top ten wine and chocolate matches for Valentine’s Day. 1. Dark Chocolate and Tommasi Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico, Italy 2. Chocolate-Covered Biscotti and Jackson-Triggs Gewurztraminer Icewine Proprietors’ Grand Reserve, Niagara-On-The-Lake 3. Chocolate-Orange Cake and Niepoort Port Ruby, Douro, Portugal 4. Chocolate with Nuts and Warre’s Vintage Port, Douro, Portugal 5. Milk Chocolate and Tokaj Kereskedöház Tokaji Aszú 4 Puttonyos, Hungary 6. Bittersweet Chocolate and Poderi Colla Bussia Dardi Le Rose Barolo, Piedmont, Italy 7. Chocolate-Dipped Fruit and Open Vidal Icewine, […]
Chocolate and Wine Matches for Valentine’s Day – Zoomer Magazine
Natalie MacLean, author of the bestsellerUnquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines shares with us her top ten wine and chocolate matches for Valentine’s Day. •Dark Chocolate and Remo Farina Amarone Classico, Italy •Chocolate-Covered Biscotti and G. Marquis Vidal Icewine The Silver Line, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario •Chocolate-Orange Cake and Quinta Do Portal Port Fine Ruby, Douro, Portugal •Chocolate with Nuts and José Maria da Fonseca & Van Zeller Vintage Port, Douro, Portugal •Milk Chocolate and Tokaj Kereskedöház Tokaji Aszú 4 Puttonyos, Hungary •Bittersweet Chocolate and Bava Barolo, D.O.C.G., Piedmont, Italy •Chocolate-Dipped Fruit and Tinhorn Creek Vineyards Kerner […]
Chocolate & Wine 1
If a box of chocolates is your gift choice for that someone special this Valentine’s Day, put some adventure into it and pair it with a bottle of wine. Just be the sure it’s the right wine. “Ideally you should choose a wine that is sweeter than the chocolate,” says Natalie MacLean of Ottawa, an accredited sommelier, wine writer, speaker and judge. “Otherwise the wine will taste bitter by comparison.” She says that no matter what kind of chocolate you’ve got, there is also richness which comes from high alcohol. MacLean suggests taking a piece of dark chocolate which is […]
Chocolate & Wine 4
PERFECT MATCH Want to seduce someone this Valentine’s Day? Just share a glass of wine (or three) with your sweetheart. Wine is liquid sensuality: its heady bouquet stimulates the appetite and its velvet caress soothes that desire. What other drink is described as both voluptuous and muscular? And when you pair wine with the mouth-coating luxury of chocolate, the combination is impossible to resist. We asked Natalie Maclean, author of Red, White and Drunk All Over and the woman behind the food-wine matcher at www.nataliemaclean.com, to give us her romantic suggestions of chocolate pairings with California wines. Here’s her top […]
Chocolate & Wine 3
Oops, it’s Valentine’s Day and you’ve forgotten to get a booking at your partner’s favourite restaurant, which now has more reservations than a nervous bungee jumper. You are, in common parlance, dead, or you will be if you don’t act fast. You could just take him or her somewhere that doesn’t take bookings, such as Longrain in the city or Cicciolina in St Kilda, or go for oysters and champagne at the bar at Oyster Little Bourke or the Melbourne Wine Room. The danger with this is that your valentine might want to know why you didn’t book somewhere proper […]
Chocolate & Wine 2
Think of Valentine’s Day, and what color comes to mind? Not white. Maybe pink. Certainly red. Many will pop the cork on a bottle of bubbly in a romantic gesture. Champagne and other sparklers do, indeed, pair nicely with almost anything. Romance is almost inherent in serving sparkling wine. But, being a contrarian and lover of all wines red, I’m opting for a red Valentine’s Day. Just to bolster my case, I turned to a renowned expert, columnist, accredited sommelier, writer, wine judge, author, raconteur and lovely person, Natalie MacLean (her free Internet newsletter is at www.nataliemaclean.com). We’re both fans […]
