What Champagne Goes Well With Chocolate Cake

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Pairing Champagne and sparkling vino with chocolate is tricky business. The typical, dry-styled bubbly tin can wreak absolute havoc on the sweet, fatty contour of white and milk chocolate and take the tannins in dark chocolate to extremely bitter ends.

Sweet Bubbles Are Better:

To handle chocolate with bubbles, become for something sweet and possibly pinkish. In Champagne terms that would look like "demi-sec" or "doux" on the label, both referring to sweeter treats.

A superlative pick for demi-sec Champagne is Laurent-Perrier Demi-Sec Champagne.

For true pink Champagne, opt for a not-vintage Nicolas Feuillatte D'Luscious Demi-Sec Rose. If you are shooting for bubbling and not limited to simply Champagne (the highly regarded sparkling wine from Champagne, France), then save a few pennies and shoot for sparkling wines from California or Italy to Spain and other French-based regions (dubbed "Cremant" locally).

Consider the sweet red themes of Italian republic'due south Banfi Rosa Regale for combining the elements of higher residual carbohydrate and ripe crimson fruit with white, milk and dark chocolate options.

Champagne and Chocolate-covered Strawberries:

Opt for "pink" bubbly and milk chocolate-covered strawberries to ally the scarlet-fruited virtues of a rosé sparkling vino with the innate sweet profile of chocolate and strawberry combo.

What about Chocolate with Withal Vino?

While chocolate is not always considered a go-to pairing for most wine finds, there are plenty of bottles that marry extraordinarily well with all things chocolate. From the creamy, cocoa-butter base of white chocolate to the tighter tannins and bold flavors of dark chocolate, finding a vino to match the chocolate's textures, flavors and profiles tin take a little footwork, just is well worth the effort.

Quick Tips for Successful Wine and Chocolate Pairings:

The sweet gene of both the wine and the chocolate plays a major role in the success of the pairing. Typically, you want to shoot for a vino that is sweeter than the chocolate y'all are pairing it with.

Also consider the weight of the vino and the weight of the chocolate. For lighter styles of white and milk chocolate, the lighter to medium bodied wines will show a brighter pairing than a vino that is heavier on the palate and over competes with the chocolate. The weight of the wine also plays a role in the order of pairings. If you intend to run through a lineup of wine and chocolate pairings, then make sure to first with the lighter chocolates and wines kickoff, saving the heavy-hitters until the end, so that they exercise not boss the more delicate styles.

White Chocolate Pairings:

The subtle, flossy character of white chocolate calls for a vino that shows a light to medium body. Moscato d' Asti is a top selection pairing for white chocolate, thank you in part to its fragile torso and bubbling, which work wonders on the cocoa butter content and sweetness essences of the chocolate itself. Late harvest Rieslings with their lower booze levels and higher carbohydrate contents also make a remarkable friction match to white chocolate themes.

Milk Chocolate Pairings:

Milk chocolate is by far the more versatile chocolate pick for pairing with wine. Running the gamut from white vino finds like Moscato to Gewurztraminer and marrying upward with the likes of Pinot Noir and Zinfandel, or shooting to fortified favorites like PX Sherry, Port and Madeira, milk chocolate holds college carbohydrate levels and lower tannins than its dark chocolate cousins making it easier to access with a wider range of wines. Chocolate themed desserts often fall in line with milk chocolate pairings. German Chocolate cake caters remarkably well to a fruit-driven Australian Shiraz, a variety of Port wines and the sweeter side of Banyuls. Chocolate-dipped strawberries show best with Moscato d'Asti and an Italian sparkling rosé or ruby-red vino like Banfi Regale Rosa or Brachetto d'Acqui. The latest rage of chocolate with sea common salt is fabricated for everything from calorie-free to medium bodied dry reds (where the salt will serve to soften the tannins) to Scarlet or Tawny Ports. Take a need to pair caramel and chocolate themes? And then opt for cream Sherries or sweet sparkling wines, both carry the caramel well but in dissimilar veins – the foam sherry is complementary in style and the sugariness sparkling wine shows a delicious palate contrast.

Dark Chocolate Pairings:

The dry out tannin profile of a bittersweet 70% or higher dark chocolate partners remarkably well with the sweet, nigh viscous profiles of a bottle of Banyuls from the Languedoc Region of southern France. Or consider a late harvest Zinfandel, along with the heady fortified wines like Malmsey Madeira or a Tawny Port; all add together weight and residual saccharide levels to deport the dry style of the chocolate. Prefer a dry out wine to cater to night chocolate, then opt for reds with a fruit-frontward style that tin mask every bit sweet on the palate. Pinot Noir, Merlot and Zinfandel are favorites as the tannins in the vino cancel the tannins in the chocolate and allow the pure fruit to shine through.

The all-time vino and chocolate pairings elevate both the chocolate and the wine. When a pairing is off, it tastes biting, particularly with chocolate. To maximize this unique pairing, ever kickoff with a vino that is sweeter than the chocolate and similar in palate weight, with lighter styles of chocolate partnering with wines that carry a more frail body contour. Once you are having success with the basics, then starting time experimenting with dry out, only fruit-driven reds and darker chocolate finds or mixing things up with semi-sweet sparkling wines and chocolate-themed desserts.
Past Stacy Slinkard

Wine Expert

**Grabbed from: http://wine.about.com/od/servingwines/fl/Pairing-Champagne-and-Chocolate.htm