Chocolate is notoriously difficult to match with wine – it takes a bit of experimentation to find good combinations. As a general rule, when matching wines with chocolate, the darker the chocolate, the more full bodied and rich the wine should be. Here’s a few ideas of what to do with your left over Easter eggs…

White chocolate has the most delicate flavour of all chocolates and is the most difficult chocolate to match. Try and find light bodied, frothy wines or anything displaying the grapey freshness of Muscat which will pick up on the creamy notes in the chocolate. Try dipping strawberries in melted white chocolate and serving with a Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise.

Perhaps the easiest type of chocolate to match with wine is milk chocolate. Pair this with oxidative, fortified styles, whose nutty complexity both complement and cut through the richness of the chocolate. Raisined PX Sherry and Vintage or Tawny Port’s nutty richness and natural sweetness works well with the creamy chocolate. Milk chocolate pieces sprinkled over vanilla ice cream goes perfectly with Berrys’ William Pickering, 20-Year-Old Tawny Port.

Dark or bittersweet chocolate has rich, slightly bitter flavours so require a similarly rich, full bodied wine. Something to consider when matching wine to dark chocolate is tannin; the darker the chocolate, the more tannins it will display. If you pair a dark chocolate with a tannic red wine, the chocolate will often cancel out the wine’s tannins and allow more fruit character to show through. Look for a fruity Californian Zinfandel or Argentinian Malbec to test this theory! Another great match for dark chocolate is The King’s Ginger Liqueur which gives lingering flavours of delicious ginger-chocolate.

Read more about chocolate and wine matching and enjoy a 10% saving to sweeten our six-bottle mixed case of choice chocolate partners.