What wines should you drink with chocolate?

To pair wine with a chocolate dessert, look at the recipe more than the chocolate bar: the texture, the amount of sugar and what surrounds the chocolate (pastry, cream, fruit) decide the wine. A dense ganache, a soft poached pear or a sparkling end to the meal each call for a different bottle.

If you are starting from a bar of dark, milk or white chocolate instead, our article on what wine to drink with chocolate covers each one.

Chocolate Tart: A Fortified Wine for the Ganache

A dark chocolate tart combines a dense, cocoa-rich ganache with a buttery shortcrust. It calls for a wine with body and sugar. A fortified red from Roussillon fills that role: a Maury, a Banyuls or a Rivesaltes.

The more bitter the ganache, the older the wine can be. After several years of aging in contact with air, these reds take on a tawny color and notes of candied fruit and cocoa that carry the flavors of the tart. Pour small glasses: the dessert is rich, and so is the wine.

Tightly recorked and kept cool, an opened bottle usually lasts longer than a dry wine and can wait for the next dessert.

Chocolate and Pear Cake: A Sweet White for the Fruit

With a chocolate cake, the topping often chooses the wine. With pear, baked into the batter or poached on top, a medium sweet or sweet white echoes the fruit: a sweet Jurançon, or a sweet white from the Loire or Bordeaux. Its acidity lightens a dense cake.

Stick with that choice as long as the pear leads. If the cake is very chocolatey and lightly sweetened, with no fruit, go back to the tart's fortified red.

Sweet Bubbles: For Lighter Chocolate Desserts

Next to cocoa, a brut quickly tastes bitter and sharp: if you want to finish with bubbles, make them sweet. A Blanquette Méthode Ancestrale or a Clairette de Die Méthode Ancestrale, both low in alcohol, suits the lightest chocolate desserts, where cream or fruit leads.

Against a thick ganache they taste thin, and the fortified red takes over again. For more pairings of bubbles and desserts, browse our sparkling and desserts selection.

Chocolate Pastry Wine Questions: Éclairs, Soufflés and Brownies

Which wine should you choose for chocolate éclairs or cream puffs?

For chocolate éclairs or cream puffs, choose a well-chilled sweet white wine. Pastry cream and icing bring plenty of sugar under a light pastry: a Sauternes, Loupiac or Coteaux du Layon handles that sweetness, and its acidity keeps each bite lively.

What wine goes with a chocolate soufflé?

With a chocolate soufflé, serve a well-chilled sweet white, such as a Gaillac Doux or a Monbazillac. The contrast between a cold wine and a dessert fresh from the oven works well, and a wine lighter than a fortified red respects the soufflé's airy texture.

What wine goes with brownies?

With brownies, serve a fortified red, such as a Maury or a Banyuls. This dense, very chocolatey cake needs a wine with sugar and fruit. Keep it young: the more bitter tart is the one that can take an older wine.

Where can you buy wine for chocolate desserts direct from the winemaker?

You can buy wine for chocolate desserts direct from the winemaker on Avenue des Vins. Your order ships straight from the producer, with no middleman.

See also: Pineau des Charentes - Rosé wines and desserts - AOC Gaillac doux