Do chocolate and wine go together

A.� Chocolate and wine are linked surprisingly often. Terminology in chocolate tasting often echoes that of wine: fruity flavours and long aftertaste, for example. Individual varieties of cocoa bean have particular characteristics, like grape varieties, and when blended, produce chocolate of distinction.

It's best to concentrate on chocolate the pure ingredient, rather than confectionary. Good chocolate has a cocoa content of at least 70 per cent, and sometimes as much as 99 per cent, with little in the way of additives. French and Belgian chocolate, such as Valrhona, Cluizel, Cacoa Barry and Callebaut, are among the best brands.

As a drink, we usually mix chocolate with milk or water, but when chocolate was first introduced in the seventeenth century, it was often mixed with red wine.

The general rule is that if you use chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids, you will find a good wine match. It's the sugar and fat in chocolate with a lower cocoa content that causes problems.

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Q.� What about dessert wine

A.� A new book, An A-Z of Food and Wine by Tom and Frances Bissell, suggests using a cream or mousse with chocolate of about 75-80 per cent cocoa content. Good quality sweet wines will match desserts with a high cocoa content.

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Q.� How do they tackle the issue in France

A.� Wine and chocolate are both beloved by the French. Many French patissiers say weak tea without milk or sugar is the perfect accompaniment to a chocolate dessert. The Languedoc actually produces red wine to match chocolate, Banyuls and the Maury Mas Amiel from the Cotes du Rousillon, made from the Grenache grape. The sweet fortified vin doux naturel from the Rhone Valley, such as Rasteau, comes from an area where much of the country's best chocolate is made.

Other experts have taken a diferent line. Edouard Hirsinger, a

fourth-generation chocolatier in Arbois specifically makes chocolates that can be eaten with wine. His method is to isolate the flavours found in wine, and then use these flavours in chocolate.Tea, liquorice, green peppercorns, sesame, gentian and aniseed, have all been used. His most unusual experiment is with a vin jaune, the dry white from the Jura region. Wine-tasters detect a hint of walnut and even curry in the wine, and so M. Hirsinger, has made a walnut paste, flavoured with a touch of curry, wrapped in the richest finest choccy.

Meanwhile, Roberto Bavo from a Piedmontese wine-making family has deemed red wine and chocolate are the perfect marriage. In particular, the Barolo Chinata his family has made for generations. Fragrant with herbs and spices, this wine is sometimes drunk as a digestif, but Bava has persuaded a chocolatier in Turin to make chocolates filled with Barolo- flavoured ganache.

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Q.� What else goes well with chocolate

A.� Late-bottled vintage Port and Australian Tawny Port-style wines go well with dark chocolate, as does the Cyprus dessert wine Commadaria. Try orange-flavoured liqueurs such as Mandarine Napoleon and Curacao. Among the spirits, Cognac, Calvados, Armagnac, kirsch, Marc de Champagne, grappa and rum, all work well.

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By Katharine MacColl