Wine pairings with Chocolate Cake

[HitMan009]

Originally Posted by Caffe Napolitano

You could try Brachetto, Vin Santo , Banyuls or Tawny Port. However, I think you generally will enjoy dessert wines more with cheese or by themselves and dessert more without wine.
I never even heard of Banyuls but doing a wiki check makes me interested in it. Can you recommend a good brand to start off?

Originally Posted by Piobaire

But not everything costs as much as an Y'qem. Some very nice stuff can be purchased in the $30-40 range for a split. Ditto ice wine. Why I would pick the ice wine vs. a Sauterne or similar wine is the method of concentration. I find more citrus/acid in a wine from a frozen grape vs. one from a rotten grape. Just my taste buds, I have no technical data to back that up. I want the acid to cut through the cake. At the end of the day, and I'm not sure if it came through in my first post, but I am with the others about not pairing the cake with any wine.
I did think it was a bit of a stretch to do a wine pairing with a chocolate cake. As I think my wine knowledge is pretty decent but no where close enough to create a good pairing with something as difficult as chocolate. I even thought of just having a good whiskey after the having the cake but alas there will be females there and most females I know don't particularly like whiskey.

Originally Posted by horton

these are both excellent pieces of advice. if wine i'd suggest banyuls or something similar. i think it would be more impressive to either have a nice cheese course with wine before dessert, or even fancier would be two desserts, e.g., a creamy fruit soup (e.g., bluberry) or creamy sweet walnut soup each of which would go well with wine, and then serve the cake with coffee or espresso or the like
I was going the route of making a raspberry or whatever berries I can find coolie to serve with cake but a fruit soup is an interesting spin.

 

[Concordia]

Red and sweet. Real port is fine, although I have had some Cabernet "Port" from Pindar in Long Island that went down just as well on a summer evening. You could even stretch to some of the freakish California cabs that are just too fruity and alcoholic to serve with real food. For that, though, you'd need to know the wine and the cake really well.

Some Italian reds might work, esp with the almonds which the Italians like a lot more with their desserts than I do. Vin Santo or-- if you can find a cheap one--- Amarone.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by Concordia

...if you can find a cheap one--- Amarone.

I have to ponder that one. Interesting choice and possibly my favorite Italian wine style.

 

[horton]

Originally Posted by Concordia

Red and sweet. Real port is fine, although I have had some Cabernet "Port" from Pindar in Long Island that went down just as well on a summer evening. You could even stretch to some of the freakish California cabs that are just too fruity and alcoholic to serve with real food. For that, though, you'd need to know the wine and the cake really well.

Some Italian reds might work, esp with the almonds which the Italians like a lot more with their desserts than I do. Vin Santo or-- if you can find a cheap one--- Amarone.


To my mind Amarone is more for cheese. More important, Amarone has not been good for a while to my tastebuds at least.

fruit or walnut soups are ridiculously simplye to make -- typically you're infusing a cream (eg., walnuts) and then sweatening with pureed poached pears (along with some of the poaching liquid); often small portions because of the richness.

 

[why]

Amazza cafÃ

(espresso followed by grappa in the same cup).

 

[ComboOrgan]

I'd skip the wine, and try it with a nice high-malt, low hop beer.

Maybe Shelton Brothers Entire Butt or (on the lighter end) Leffe Blonde

 

[Concordia]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

I have to ponder that one. Interesting choice and possibly my favorite Italian wine style.

That's a long shot. I can't say that I've found the cake that would obviously work well with it. Still, the nut part might tilt it to the raisin juice.

 

[Caffe Napolitano]

La Cave De L'Abbe Rous and Domaine de La Rectorie are two very good Banyuls.

 

[pabloj]

Some kind of Passito or Vin Santo.
Or you could try Moscato

 

[Mauro]

without a doubt try tojka ( hungarian sweet wine) number 3 or better

 

[Britalian]

vin santo
sauternes

 

[Holdfast]

Originally Posted by HitMan009

I am trying to figure if it is possible to pair a dark chocolate with almond filling cake with a wine. Any recommendations?

This is a thankless task.

In my opinion, while a number of the suggestion in the thread might be acceptable (esp. the amarone idea), overall I think you're creating hassle where none needs to be created.

I especially think it would be a complete waste of time and good wine to try to pair it with a high puttonyos tokay or a sauternes. You'll just end up with a mouthful of sickly sweet chocolately goo and be unable to discern any flavours at all. YMMV, of course, but that's my tuppence worth.

 

[bowlhead99]

A few years ago I asked the sommelier at a decent restaurant what dessert wine he'd recommend with our chocolate soufflÃ

. They had a pretty extensive wine list and several expensive dessert wines.

But what he actually brought out was a simple raspberry liqueur. A small glass of crème de framboise is now my standard thing to serve with rich chocolatey desserts, and people usually like it.

I still like sauternes, port and ice wine/eiswein a lot, depending on the food and mood, but they don't particularly go with chocolate cake.

 

[HitMan009]

Originally Posted by bowlhead99

A few years ago I asked the sommelier at a decent restaurant what dessert wine he'd recommend with our chocolate soufflÃ

. They had a pretty extensive wine list and several expensive dessert wines.

But what he actually brought out was a simple raspberry liqueur. A small glass of crème de framboise is now my standard thing to serve with rich chocolatey desserts, and people usually like it.

I still like sauternes, port and ice wine/eiswein a lot, depending on the food and mood, but they don't particularly go with chocolate cake.

That's a great idea......

What brand would you recommend? I wanted to get a Briottet Crème de Framboise but I can't seem to locate a place in NYC that has it. Of course, I am just using the internet to find it.....

 

[Huntsman]

Astor Wines and Spirits has been my source for out-of-the-way European liquers...