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Easter food and wine pairing for chocolate friends
Easter is a time for friends, family and chocolate. Especially chocolate. In the spirit of the holiday, we’ve compiled a list of ways to match your Easter chocs with wine. Pairing the sweetness of chocolate with savoury and rich wine will open your eyes to a whole new world of food pairing.
Milk chocolate
The bread and butter of Easter chocolate, milk chocolate is the favoured variety in most households. It’s sweet, accessible and is almost made to be in egg form. Milk choc gets its sweeter flavour from a smaller amount of cacao and a higher amount of sugar in the mix.
When it comes to pairing your Easter milk chocolate with wine, you want to go with something rich and fruity that will pair nicely with the creaminess in the chocolate. Tawny is a pairing that will consistently shine with milk choc.
St Andrews Tawny is best served alongside coffee after dinner and goes exceptionally well with a handful of decadent cacao-dusted milk chocolate truffles.
McWilliams 5YO Tawny contains notes of the chocolate-pairing trinity of flavours – toffee, coffee and caramel. Sip a glass alongside a smashed open Easter egg, and you’ll find a match almost too good to be true.
Dark chocolate
The bitter flavours in dark chocolate come from polyphenols (aka tannins), which are also found in red wine. To counteract the bitterness in the dark choc, you’ll want to pair it with a red wine that contains some residual sugars and depth.
Whether you’re just munching on a block of chocolate, or have a rich dark choc mousse to serve after dinner, these wines will go down a treat.
Wente Beyer Ranch Zinfandel is an excellent example of a red that’s made for dark chocolate. It is bursting with the fruity flavours of raspberry and plum that complement bittersweet dark choc.
Pensilva Shiraz is a hero of McLaren Vale, with vibrant fruit flavours and an inherent smoothness that make it a great companion for dark chocolate in all its forms.
White chocolate
The paler stuff sits in a peculiar spot when it comes to pairing with wine, so you might be surprised to discover the versatility of matching reds with white chocolate. In particular, pinot noir pairs excellently with the ultra-sweet and vanilla-infused flavours of white choc.
The typical pinot noir notes of strawberries, cherries and raspberries go well with white chocolate, adding a burst of fruity flavour that enhances your eating experience.
Ballewindi Pinot Noir is rich in notes of juicy cherry and raspberry, which complement the velvety smoothness of white chocolate.
The Ned Pinot Noir is a New Zealand drop that bursts with fruity flavours of plum and raspberry. Try a sip with a white chocolate cheesecake for a match that’s meant to be.
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