Dark and bitter needs dark and sweet to temper its indulgent flavours: Port, of course, is wonderfully versatile, and Quinta do Noval’s superlative Late Bottle Vintage exemplar is a fantastic match for dark chocolate. Traditional LBV is bottled four years after the harvest, unfined and unfiltered, and is both powerful and pure, its aromas of violets and crushed blackberry presaging a palate where the sweet and the spicy are wonderfully juxtaposed, It’s a mirror rather than a foil to chocolate – and rather a resplendent gilded mirror at that.
2008 Berrys Own Selection LBV Quinta do Noval, £15.95 at bbr.com