Pinot Grigio Great with “Dark Milk”
September 25, 2010
Pinot Gris, or Pinot Grigio wine is light, crisp, and dry. I make a point these days to pair chocolate with any wine I happen to be drinking. Since I have never put any chocolate together with a Pinot Grigio before, I had to dig into my chocolate stash and pull out things I had on hand.
My first choice was a mid-range dark, 60% cacao solids, sourced from Ghana. I knew that the Pinot Grigio was on the dry side and I was curious to see if the fruity notes in the chocolate would complement the wine.
Oops. Wrong!
To start, the chocolate actually had more coffee notes than fruity notes. It was also too bitter for the wine. At first, the flavor was tolerable but I could not distinguish any specific flavor notes, just a clashing of “stuff.” At the end, the aftertaste was terrible (that, too, was indescribable which is probably ok since I didn’t want anymore anyway!).
Thank goodness my next choice was much better. I chose a milk chocolate with an Ecuador cacao content of 42% - which really made it a “dark milk” chocolate. I love that term; it isn’t very fancy but it is descriptive! Many typical milk chocolates will have between 10% (the minimum according to U.S. FDA standards) and 20% chocolate.
This time the flavors of the wine, predominately floral and fruity, matched up very well with the slightly floral and elevated fruity notes in the Ecuadorian without overpowering the wine. The creamy and caramel notes tempered the bitterness of the chocolate so I avoided the previous disastrous aftertaste.
Now you know what to have with a Pinot Grigio, if you’re so inclined. Enjoy!
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I have paired Pinot Grigio with Lily’s Dark Chocolate with Crispy Rice. It is stevia sweetened and the pairing is phenomenal. I highly recommend.