What's the best wine to drink with dark chocolate? - Pinkies Up Ep. 6

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome everybody to Pinky's Up. Nick was really excited there. So excited! If you're new here on Pinky's Up, we aim to answer questions that regular people, like me, have about wine. Nick is our wine expert, so he helps us out. And this month we are asking what wine pairs best with dark chocolate.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome to Pinky's Up, a series where we answer questions normal wine drinkers like Bridget have about wine. I'm Nick, and I'm here to answer these questions in a way that makes sense, whether you drink your wine with your pinky up or you drink it in a solo cup. Let's see what's going on this month. Alright, everybody. This is gonna be such an exciting episode. We're going, we're releasing this in February 2021, or as some people would say, day 400 of 2020. Seriously. And we all need a little dark chocolate in our lives. It's a great everyday indulgence that you can enjoy. And it's just a nice thing for Valentine's Day as well. Indulgence? I mean, yes, every day. This is something I would eat every day. Everyday indulgence. And coincidentally enough, if you at least before this, we had an interview with Julie Waterman of Indulgence Chocolatiers, one of Milwaukee's coolest businesses. They win all these awards for their chocolate and they make some of the best chocolate around. So we are gonna have some of her dark chocolate sea salt, 54% cacao.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Cacao. Also to note, we mentioned it's February. I think that these treats we're having are perfect for a date night, say Valentine's Day, or any date night as you listen to us maybe in a month that isn't February.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

In addition to our dark chocolate sea salt bar that we're gonna try and pair some wine with, we also have some dark chocolate pretzel crisps for a little something different. So nothing better. The dark chocolate sea salt bar is very bitter, um, very refreshing, rich, little, you know, what would you say, chalky almost? Uh it could be.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

I mean, like if you're new to dark chocolate, that's that you're right, that's a good description, but it it's delicious, so don't think chalky is bad.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

So it also has a little bit of tannin in it. Fun fact dark chocolate uh cacao and red wine are two of the only foods in the world that have tannin in it. Um whereas the pretzel crisps have that dark chocolate, so still a little bit of bitterness, but then they have some of the pretzel-y richness and more salt because of the pretzels. And texture, a little bit of crunch, which always helps with the wine. So when we talk about pairing wine and food, and this goes for anything, in addition to the chocolate, you can either do contrasting and try and refresh between bites, or you can try to do similar and just play off of the strengths of something. And today we have five wines that we are going to do uh a little pairing and see what works best.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

I'm sad about this tannin's comment because I know that some of my favorite wine has tannin in it.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Yeah, Bridget and the Cabernet. So I'm gonna go right off the bat. And the first person we asked, what should we do for our pairings, was my wife Sarah. Sarah is an expert at all things wine and chocolate. She loves both. She likes to have a little bit at night, especially these dark chocolate pretzel crisps. She said, Nick, you cannot do this episode without the pretzel crisp. I said, okay. I like your style. Yeah, we were kind of working on one of my favorite things here. It's a chalkcuterie board.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Oh, you guys, I we were just chatting off air about this, and I think this is maybe the best thing, best idea ever, right? Like, we know charcuterie boards, they're the best thing ever. I would eat them for dinner every night, but we're gonna call this a chalcuterie board.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

And I think we just should have added um some dark chocolate covered strawberries.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Something else. Maybe like some tigger tails. What's that? You don't know tigger tails? Aren't that isn't that donut?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Oh god. No, no. So you go to the German chocolate shop in Epcot in Walt Disney World and get your chocolate-covered strawberries. They're so good there. And then the Tigger Tails, the long pretzel rod with the chocolate on the end of it, and then some white chocolate wrapped around the outside. So you get a little bit of sweetness from the white chocolate as well.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Uh, my favorite uh chocolate dip pretzels, sorry, to these dark chocolate pretzels, are Andersons. Anderson's are delicious.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

In Richmond, Illinois. So we're gonna start with my wife's I know the shape of this bottle. This is Pinot Noir. So yeah, Bridget.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

But not Bridget's favorite wine historically, if you're new to me. Um historically, Pinot Noir is not if you're new to Bridget. If you're new to me, welcome. It's me.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

She likes her hot drinks hot, her cold drinks cold.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

And Cabernet.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Here we are. All right, so this Pinot Noir is La Charmel. It's from France. It's about $10 to $12. Everyday great wine. We're trying to go with the everyday indulgences uh type of wines. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

I'm drinking in my very important pinkies up glass. So this is just a nice light Pinot Noir with a little bit of nice bright red fruits. This is a nice everyday wine.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

So it's actually I like this for a Pinot.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Okay, sorry. So trying to um balance out the idea of let's try the richness of the chocolate with a lighter red wine. Okay. So let's Is there what are we doing first? Sarah suggests dunking the pretzel into the wine. Yeah, she says this is the way to do it. Dunking food? Do you normally dump Oreos and milk?

SPEAKER_02 5:16

But why do you dump is there other food? Nope, I'm not above anything with chocolate and wine. This is still the first time I've ever dunked food in my wine, to be clear.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Purposefully.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Okay, yeah, on purpose.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

This is good. Okay. You get to hear me crunching. This is surprisingly better than I thought.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

I will hold my judgment back.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

I like the Pinot Noir with it because um it is light. It's just refreshing. It adds a little bit of fruit to the chocolate. It's kind of like when you do um I like like raspberries and chocolate, you know, where it's not a super sugary sweet fruit.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

It's just uh don't know why I'm dipping this back in my wine. It gets refreshing. It adds a little bit of wetness to the thing. But it like doesn't absorb. It's just kind of repelling on the chocolate. Alright, let's try it with the bar. Nope, I'm still junking pretzels.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

I like it with the bar too, because it kind of cuts through some of the like very sugariness and very richness. Okay, I gotta go to the bar.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

That was a big pretzel bite. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

That was a big pretzel bite?

SPEAKER_02 6:35

I think this just does the same that we talked about with the pretzel, that it just like adds wetness. I know that sounds silly, but it makes it refreshing because it's just like washing down your chocolate. You know? I know that sounds, but like, you know, your mouth gets coated in chocolate, and this just kind of is a nice wine to rinse it down.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

You know, some people like to do Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio white wines. Those don't have tannin. You might say, Nick, why don't you pull any dry white wines? And quite honestly, it's because I don't think the flavors go well with chocolate. I think red fruit goes well with chocolate, black fruit goes well with chocolate. I don't think the like peach papaya type of stuff goes as well with chocolate. That's not my favorite. So that's why I pulled red wine. If you want to try white wine, I mean it was.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

And you know, I j I just think people were here to help the regular people like me. And all the time I think red wine and chocolate. Red wine and chocolate.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

So red wine is such a nice, relaxing thing. Let's be honest, you're probably not pounding a couple bites of chocolate in summer when it's a hundred degrees outside. Sure, man. Let it melt in your hand. Rub it all over. Okay, maybe Elliot is, but I mean, and he's not having it with wine. You're cuddled up by the fireplace. Yeah. Fall, spring, winter, red wine. Plus red wine is what you're going for.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

I think this is the question people have too. I mean, I know I do all the time because I I like this pairing. I like after going out to dinner somewhere, finding a separate like wine bar that serves just wine and dessert and figuring out what to have.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Some people do a cigar bar, Bridget goes to dessert.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

There was a place in Milwaukee when I used to live there that was it was on Milwaukee Street, and it would that they purposely like stayed open late and were kind of meant to go there after you had a date night dinner.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

It's like the greasy spoon that attracts all the bar flies, except it's classier because it's wine and chocolate. That's right. We felt classy going there. All right. So I know a lot of people also like to do a red blend, something like apothic red, menage a tois, something big, bold, jammy, juicy that's just easy drinking. That I like it at the end of the night thing. I don't particularly love that style of wine. No, like you hate those wines. Um that's cool if you like it. No judgment. Uh I'm happy you like it. It's just not my thing in our stores. We kind of try and represent um wine that has a little bit more art put behind it. Um that's not to be a snob. It's just, you know, there's places for everything. More art. Made more complicated way, or what do you think made with a little bit more respect to the soil that the grapes come from and uh winemaking skill and not computer skill and Franken wine. That was a nice way to put it. I think that helped explain things. But what we do have is this Renaissaire Malbec punto final. Uh comes to us from Argentina. The layer of Charmel's from France, nice south of France. Um, and this is that really rich, smooth style of Malbec from Mendoza that is gonna be It's just a chunk of chocolate in the bottom of my cup because I was dunking food in my wine. So this is gonna have those big blackberry, big violet type of things, really rich, really smooth, where the Le Charmel was light bodied. This is gonna be richer, fuller bodied, but not so much tannin like this Capernet we're gonna have. So we're gonna kind of go with the do we like a richer red body with this, or do we like something a little, you know, lighter?

SPEAKER_02 9:50

I'm starting with the chocolate bar. I have to get a jump start on you. I don't, you know, I savor my bites. Oh. Kind of don't like this together. Yeah, I don't either. I don't I'm not a big like I love chocolate-covered strawberries like we talked about, but I think that you said blackberry, right? Maybe that's the pairing. I don't like the fruitiness.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Honestly.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

And like it's getting really bitter. Dare I say it's getting really bitter. So far, the Pinot's better. Oh no. Who am I? It does, you're right. It just is bitter on the back end. Yes, on the back of the tongue. It's so bitter. Ooh. That surprises me because judge me if you want, people, but before I met Nick, I drank apothec all the time and menace to because I was like, I don't know, this is easy.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

And then you said, huh, I can buy cheaper wine. That's better. That's better, and doesn't have all the sulfides and all the books that have in it.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

I do now that I now when I'm at a store that isn't like Shane Country Meets, I'm like, ah, which wine would Nick tell me would give me a headache and which one wouldn't?

SPEAKER_01 11:02

I always forget. There's a lot of things you can do that make industrial wine. Well, I need a list of industrial wines so I know enough to buy it.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Can you make me a business card size for my wallet? It's like when you're in high school and you gotta have a one, you gotta use one sheet of paper for your test. Doesn't matter how small the font is.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Can you fill can you make a red?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Can you fill it out?

SPEAKER_02 11:21

I'll do that for you. Um, I'm surprised by this. So I again like thought, oh, this is easy. If I can't figure out what red wine to have, I will just have a red blend.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

And it doesn't seem like it's a bad pairing necessarily. I think if we would have started with this, we'd be like, you know, it's fine, it's nice separately. It's like an okay wine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

I mean it's like it's I I I'm saying this because never would I normally pick a Pinot over a red blend. And right now I am.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

So, all right, so the Malbeck is a very typical thing.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Wait, mallb Maulbeck, but not red blend.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

It is I mean, a lot of people do a Malbeck or a red blend. They're kind of interchangeable, that really rich stuff. I didn't really realize that. Bold.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Okay, I didn't honestly realize. Yeah, they're you know you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Now a lot of red blends are either like malbecks and fidel petit sera, something like that. Okay. Because they give fruit richness, boldness. Okay. I'm excited for this cab.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

This would 100% be where I go normally.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Now, one of the things you want to do is remember that not all Cabernet tastes the same. Not all mallbec taste the same, not all Pinot Noir tastes the same. There is Pinot Noir that has tannin, so look for a lighter Pinot Noir if you're doing this.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

So, but how would someone know it's a lighter Pinot Noir?

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Um, look for a lower alcohol percentage. Okay. Don't buy Miomi. Um did that's that's got a little over the top. Um, things from Oregon are generally gonna be a little bit lighter, a little bit more of that red fruit, really nice. Stuff from France is generally gonna be a little bit lighter bodied, and New Zealand is also gonna be a nice light-bodied, really great pairing for your dark chocolate. That's a good tip, man. Josh. So this is their passo robles. It's not Paso Robles. You would think it's Roblace, but it's Paso Robles. Okay. This is a Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon. And so Paso is a little further down the sunny California coast from Napa. California cab, my fave.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

I I know I would, I'm gonna like this wine by itself.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

So this has uh more bright red fruits than some of the Napa stuff. It's gonna not have quite as much of the uh little bit of vegetable green notes that some Napa cabernet will have, and there's a very desirable characteristic in that. You're not gonna have so much of the like kind of minerally notes, but you're gonna get bigger, bolder fruits. Um, still, there's gonna be some tannin to this on the back end, good structure, a little bit of vanilla. So this is like your jam. I mean, this is my kind of wine. This is Bridget's jam. Like, I'm gonna cry if I don't like it. This one's a $20 wine. This is like boom, right in Bridget's alley of a nice bottle of.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Yeah, it's a nicer, so again, perfect with your chocuterie board. It's a little bit of a date night. You're spending 20 bucks, not 12. I mean, I'm being serious. I realize I sound sarcastic right now, but I think that's a great, like, especially in day 400 of year 2020. It's a great opportunity to like, in if you don't want to go out and you don't want to find that special dessert place, do it at home. I think it's a fun dessert or date night. The wine I like. You're scared to tell me you don't like this, too, aren't you? It's okay. I mean, sadly, I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I think the Pinot tastes better with the dark chocolate.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Yes!

SPEAKER_02 14:36

You'll get my complete ranking at the end, but complete ranking at the end.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

But again, this works fine. We really if you want to do Cabernet with your chocolate, it's fine. It's great. Drink what you want with what you want. But if you really think are going for the best possible pairing of a red wine with chocolate, you gotta go with something a little bit lighter.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Yeah, and it's what I I enjoy this because I really like this wine. So, like, I'm like, I can drink this wine and have this chocolate separately, but they don't really do much for each other, they don't repel one another like I think they did with the Malbec, but they are just kind of they exist more in their own silo.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Yeah, and again, I purposefully selected this to be not a super dry Cabernet. If you like Cabernets that are a little drier, definitely not gonna work with chocolate.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Yeah, good. I wouldn't dunk that. Like I just tried to put them in mouth at the same time. And it doesn't that doesn't that's not true.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

It's not terrible, but that's not as good as the penal was dunking my pretzel. If there's some other lighter wines you can look for, um wines from Sicily, red wines from Sicily are generally a little lighter body, nice. Um, grenache based blends from France, uh Gamay, Beaujolais, things like that. Better with chocolate, a little lighter, a little bit lighter, they're gonna work just fine. So you can look for those two.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Yeah, I like this one. I would maybe I would get this as my second bottle for my date night. We'll see. I know where we're headed next, though.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

So now we're gonna try out the idea of let's just put some sweet dessert wine with the chocolate.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

And Nick has changed my mind before with port, which is where we're heading next. Um, I've never been a real port drinker because I've never really understood it. I mean, to be honest, it's not to me, you don't like, hey, I'm gonna sit down and have a glass of wine. Hey, I'm gonna sit down and have a glass of port. Those aren't like necessarily interchangeable to me.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

You know, maybe if you went to the cigar bar instead of the wine bar, they'd have to be a big one. They would have port and no wine.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Port, cigars, and whiskey.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Grandminier. Tyler. See? Good night. So we actually just did a virtual wine pairing dinner with our friends at Simple Cafe, uh, featuring Rieslings, this last Riesling we're gonna do, and they did this goat cheese course, baked goat cheese course that kind of threw sugar on sugar on sugar on sugar, and it was delicious. So good. Everyone we talked to loved it. So uh we're gonna try it out with this and just see if you know this still works. So, first we'll do the port. This is a tawny port.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

And we were talking about this too. Like, port to me, I don't drink much of it at a time because it's so sweet. So, how long, like, wine? I gotta drink quick before that bottle goes bad. What about port? Yeah, like that's a problem for you.

unknown 17:09

What?

SPEAKER_02 17:10

I am disciplined.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Uh, how long will port last? Port will last about a month to two months in the refrigerator.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Um, in the fridge once you open it?

SPEAKER_00 17:18

So it does just fine. That keeps it longer. A couple weeks on the counter. Oh, I was like, I don't know. The more you have in there, the better it stays because there's less oxygen in there. Okay. So yeah, it keeps a long time. So it's nice to have around the house for it.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

But is it you just made a good point? Is it meant to be drank at room temperature?

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Drink at room temperature.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Okay, so take it out of the fridge.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Yep, take it out of the fridge, let it come up a little bit. All right. Just you know, one of the things I like about stemless glasses is if it's a little cold, just Oh yeah, snuggle it.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Snuggle it up. Just snuggle your glass. I'll just snuggle my teacup.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

So this port, uh, it's a tawny port's got some kind of like almond notes, um, candied almond, rubies, or I'm sorry, not ruby ports. Diamonds and rubies. Compared to Ruby port, more of the candied almond.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Um that's what I like about it.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Yeah. Some, I don't want to say like I'm trying to think of what I'm trying to say. Um, there's a specific fruit I'm thinking of on blanking. Let me have some chocolate.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Oh, let me try some more. Um, excuse me. This is like, to me, maybe even the dessert on the dessert. So this is great with the chocolate. So good with the chocolate. This is very good. So sweet on sweet.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Never normally would be my jam, but that's oh, it's like very refreshing, and it actually like whereas I think you said the the wine kind of repelled the um liquid. I feel like this goes together.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

It does. I kept I had the chocolate bar in my mouth with this, and it feels it made it feel like creamy.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yeah, almost yeah, almost like uh truffle in some ways. Like it almost made a ganache, you know what I mean? As you're eating it.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

We're making a ganache in your mouth. Sounds gross. Super delicious.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Um pulling it together. I think what really pulls it together is the sea salt. The sea salt on it actually really helps with the sweetness too.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

So this one to me, a plus with the candy bar or the chocolate bar.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

A little different with the pretzel. It's fine with the pretzel, but that with this with like a good candy bar. So from somewhere like Indulgence, awesome. Um, is this expensive? That one's like $12. What? $12. I feel like port to me has always been this like terrifying, expensive thing that I could have one sip of and then be done.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Well, there is terrifyingly expensive ports.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

But like this is better than I feel like. Yeah, it's very good.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Uh, you know, the cool thing about port is like you can get birth year ports. Uh, like I have a case of port from my birth year. We're not gonna talk about exactly how old it is. He's so old. So old. He's younger than me. Maybe. Maybe. Uh, you know, it's delicious. It gets better with age, so it's fun to keep around. It's actually, especially if you start early, it's fairly affordable to have around and keep forever because it lasts forever. Forever. It's so good.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

So good. So great with the chocolate bar.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Okay. And then I thought this might be a little bit better with the um pretzels because you get a little bit. This has got more of the like peach and honey notes than the like red fruit and almond notes. Okay. So this is a barren ouslase.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Yeah, Nick is constantly surprising me with clawingly sweet wines that I think I wouldn't like. But I was part of the wine dinner that we did this tasting for. And this one was, I mean, it was a surprise. I can't say again, I'm gonna drink a whole glass of it, but it was a nice little treat.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

I don't think anybody other than Tyler could drink a whole glass of it.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

No one except Tyler could slam a bottle of it. Just kidding. Everybody.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

So uh yeah. So this is a bare now Slisa, a very late harvest picks recently when there's a ton of sugar in the grapes, they raisin up a little bit, so really concentrates all that sugar in a small amount of water, small amount of grape.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

That is so refreshing. I mean, what this does serve it ice cold for sure. Perfect for me. What this does with the chocolate is refresh and you know, brighten it if you will. That's good, you know?

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Sugar with the, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

The problem with this, it it tastes like juice, which is my issue with all sweet wine, is like, oh, I'll just chug this juice. It's so delicious, and then you just want to like vomit. Um, yeah, that's that's great. It's great in a totally different way. It doesn't do anything that any of these other wines did, you know, make it creamy. It didn't like wasn't dippable, but it was just like honestly, this would be a great as the very last thing. Yeah, it feels completely like it cleansed my palate.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

And I think if you have someone that really only wants to drink white wine, you're probably not gonna find a baron slice sitting around. Like it's hard to find. It's more expensive. Yeah, these are very hard to find. I didn't realize that. Yep, very hard to find. Um, that one's $20 for a 500 ml bottle, which is a steal. Yeah. But do the math out, it's a $30,750 milliliter bottle. So it's not expensive. Yeah, but it's great for date night. And you're also not gonna drink that much of it because it is very sweet. You will have gut rot. I mean, my God.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

Will this last long any longer?

SPEAKER_00 22:12

This will last because of all the sugar in it, it definitely will last in the refrigerator for two, three weeks.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Okay. Oh, so so you'll drink it over that time. So it's totally worth the money, I think. It's great for a date night.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

This was this was a really interesting pairing to me. Hey Bridget, I actually got one surprise left for you. Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Do you see my if you're watching a video, you all just saw my face drop.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Oh my god!

SPEAKER_00 22:36

You guys we have of maplewood beer to go with this. So if you listen to the last episode we released before this with Julie Waterman, she said her preference for pairing, she said she loves wine. They're all her favorites. She's more of a wine drinker. She can always pair something that always goes well. But she thinks beer often pairs better with chocolate.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

What? Wait, but this is not just normal maplewood.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

This is October Fest. It's like my favorite maplewood. So what she pointed out was that chocolate has sweetness and bitterness. And she very astutely pointed out that the bitterness on the tannin and chocolate don't often go with the bitterness in the tan in red wine. Beer doesn't have tannin, but it has malt, which is sweet. And the bitterness it does have is hot.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

So it's a different type of bitterness that brings some fruit to it. I like don't believe this though. So Julie suggested maybe try some beers. So the obvious one to try is an amber, but who would have a boring old amber when you could have an Oktoberfest beer?

SPEAKER_02 23:35

When Bridget's here and we know she loves Oktoberfest. This is I was so excited really just to see this can because I knew what it was. This is really, I'm my mind is a little bit blown here.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

This is a teacup full of beer. Everybody in my face. So we're usually, you know, a wine-based podcast. Not today. We're gonna try the beer. We're gonna see. Does this work better or worse with the wine? I'm so excited about this.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

Slash terrified. You know what it's great with. A pretzel.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

It just tastes like Oktoberfest. Tastes like Germany. Tastes like Germany. German cell beer, German child chocolate, German cell pretzels.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

I have no complaints. I don't know how to pair things with beer in any sense of the word, but like this was better than that mallback was with chocolate. You know, in my opinion. So I I I'm gonna have to try it with the candy bar. Or the chocolate. Why do I keep calling it a candy bar? Can I have Willy Wonka?

SPEAKER_00 24:40

I think it's better with the pretzel than the bar.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Yeah, because it's Oktoberfest. Oh, yeah. Ooh. Significantly. Significantly better. I think because it's a germ. I mean, because it's Oktoberfest. I do, I could see that if it was an amber, that like it would be a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Maybe like a border or something a little darker that might be fine. Yeah. Like a roasty something. I mean, this Oktoberfest beer, though, you guys. Okay, Brandon. Let's wrap up this episode. We tried five different wines with our chocolate. We tried red wine, some lighter, some heavier. We tried dessert wines. What's your verdict? What is the best wine to pair with dark chocolate?

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Are we including the beer? No. I'm sorry I interrupted you. So I will recap everybody. No beer. No beer. What wine pairs best with dark chocolate? The definitive ranking from me. We'll go backwards. Number five, my least favorite. The mallback. Not my favorite, a little too fruity. Just really didn't like it. Number four is the Riesling. Um, I liked it. It was great. It was a good refreshing um note at the end of the meal. It would cleanse your palate, but I wouldn't be drinking it the whole time with all of the chocolate. Um, this one was tough. So I actually went with the cab as number three. Um, I it was between the cab and the port. So number two was the port here. Um, but I think the port was just like such a nice treat and such a surprise. The cab, like I talked about earlier, was good separately. Like this was a great glass of wine and this was yummy chocolate, and they were okay together. But the port really complemented the chocolate much better. Number one was the Pinot, because man, you can dip chocolate in wine. Sarah wins. Good job, Sarah. Good job, Sarah.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

You won me over on a Pinot finally. So to wrap it up from the wine expert side, I guess maybe I shouldn't call myself an expert, but let's just put it on us. Um, if you're gonna have your dark chocolate at home and you want a glass of wine with it, get a red wine that's a little bit lighter, not a ton of tannin, something like a Pinot Noir. We'll put in the show notes some other suggestions of other grapefritals you can look for if you really hate Pinot. Um, but there's lots of Pinot Noirs out there. Find something lighter, cooler climate. You're gonna like it. After that, maybe just go with a dessert wine, like a port. You can find some that are really affordable, like this awfully. And they're beautiful wines to enjoy with your chocolate. It's just a very nice end of the night treat. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

It was delicious. Like I would be pleased if anyone put in this much effort to just listen to this show and then go purchase these things and present it for a date night for me. I would love both wine and port. Anything else?

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Tyler, are you listening? Boys, listening.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

This is an easy date night we're giving you. Do it! Do it now. We hope it was helpful. This was these are always fascinating to me because we talk like, of course, food and wine pair together and they make a difference. But I've never noticed that until we really started doing these and drinking specific foods against particular wines. So we hope you try some of those things that we're trying.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

You can follow us on all your favorite podcast platforms or go to our website, dinnerplusdrinks.com, to get all the links. And make sure you're watching us on YouTube because you can see Bridget's beautiful heart shirt, all about love today. All about love, love of food, love of chocolate, love of mostly Oktoberfest beer.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

But also wine. Um, make sure to find us on Instagram and Facebook at Dinner Plus Drinks Podcast as well.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

You can always send us an email at hello at dinnerplusdrinks.com with your thoughts about your favorite dark chocolate and wine pairings. We love to hear them. We love to interact with you, and we appreciate all the feedback we get.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

So thank you guys, and we hope you have a wonderful date night with some of these suggestions.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

See you soon.