A perfect day to pair chocolate with wine

The reemergence of wine tastings this year includes Wine on the Rock, the local  wine with chocolate feast. And of course, one needed chocolate for Valentine’s Day, right?

And I learned something new about chocolate or single-origin chocolate to be precise. This is chocolate made from cacao beans harvested from one region. Cacao beans reflect certain characteristics of the region — like a wine’s terroir. Most of the chocolates tasted at this event were blended but a few were single sourced.

It was a very cool, sunny day in Bainbridge Island. Perfectly lovely for tasting wine and chocolate on a patio wrapped in a fuzzy blanket with a warm fire before us.

Fletcher Bay Winery, our first stop, had very impressive pairings. The 2021 Rosé from Columbia Valley is a blend of Cab, Merlot, and Syrah. This pale, delightfully crisp rosé was perfectly paired with  Bon Bon Confections' Vanilla Praline Fudge to my surprise. The next surprise was the wine comes in a refillable 1 liter “growler”.

Their 2019 Cabernet Franc was paired with Milk Chocolate Fudge. I resisted the fudge long enough to taste one of the best Cabernet Francs I have had in a while. Cab Franc often exhibits a strong herbaceous taste, but the spiced cranberry, plum, and red bell pepper made this one so well balanced!

Coffee Adoro Port, an unusual port-like wine, was made with Columbia Valley Riesling and flavored with coffee had aromas of butterscotch that aligned very nicely with the Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels.

Eagle Harbor Wine’s 2017 Walla Walla Cab is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Dwelley Farm Vineyards in Walla Walla Valley. It was aged 34 months in French oak and had a wonderfully big mocha nose that really drew us in.

The 2019 Homme Nu is their Super Tuscan-style wine. The term Super Tuscan came about 50 some years ago when winemakers blended Sangiovese, with non-indigenous Cab Franc, Cabernet, Merlot and maybe a smidge of Syrah.

At the time, these non-indigenous grapes were not allowed in Tuscan wines such as Chianti Classico or Brunello de Montalcino. Producers who deviated from these regulations couldn’t use the higher DOC or DOCG classification but the simple vino da tavola - Italy's lowest wine designation. But the price tag did not reflect usual table wine prices, rather $$$ instead of $. Eventually, tradition gave way to innovation and Super Tuscans now can be IGT, DOC or DOCG.

Eagle Harbor’s Super Tuscan-style wine is 50% Sangiovese from Ranch at the End of the Road Vineyard on Red Mountain, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon from Kiona Vineyards, Red Mountain and 25% Dwelley Farm Vineyards in Walla Walla Merlot fermented in stainless steel with an Italian yeast strain. A lovely nose and tart red fruit with hints of herbs made me wish for plate of spaghetti and meatballs.

The Condor is a powerful, left bank Bordeaux-style wine made with three of the five permitted red grapes, Cab, Cab Franc and Petite Verdot. The Cab Franc and Cab are sourced from Kiona Estate Vineyard and the Petite Verdot from Heart of the Hill, both in the Red Mountain AVA.

2019 Syrah was my favorite of the flight. More a northern Rhone than a southern Châteauneuf du Pape with its 100% Syrah from Kiona Vineyards. Rich and unctuous, it paired well with the Raspberry Peanut Butter truffle.

The gorgeous chocolates were from L’Atelier, located on Winslow Way. These sumptuous chocolates in order of wines tasted included Earl Grey, from Vietnam, the unlikely but delightful Raspberry Peanut Butter filling in a shell of white chocolate, Sea Salt Caramel wrapped in 64% Peruvian dark chocolate and my favorite - Sangiovese Caramel made with Eagle Harbor’s Sangiovese instead of the traditional cream wrapped in a Vairhona Majari (single origin Madagascar) dark chocolate. Pictures of these amazing chocolates are on their website, LAtelierTR.com

On to Rolling Bay Winery and long-time wine friends, Alphonse De Klerk, winemaker and Peter Barnett, tasting room manager. Speaking of single origin, many of Alphonse’s wines are sourced from the Upland Vineyards planted in 1979, which are some of the oldest grapes in Washington State.

First up was the 2019 Graciano, a Spanish grape from Rioja, is commonly used to blend with Tempranillo to add color and acidity to the wine. The rich color, great nose, and blackberry flavors with bright acidity paired well with both Pink Peony’s Dark Chocolate Caramel and Columbian Double Dark.

From Snipes Mountain, the 2018 Tempranillo is blended with Graciano and Grenache. Pass the Columbian Double Dark, please. From Verhey Vineyards in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA, the 2018 Malbec is rich, elegant and another excuse for the Columbian Double Dark.

The 2018 Cuvée Aldaro is 78% Cabernet from the south facing slopes of Upland Vineyards, planted in 1979 by Al Newhouse. Making this one of the oldest and prestigious vineyards in the state. The remaining blend includes Cab Franc and Merlot. It’s really, really good and with the Dark Chocolate Cherry, it was really good.

These sumptuous chocolates are handmade by Mary Kay and staff at Pink Peony on Bainbridge Island. PinkPeonyChocolates.com

Eleven Winery 2020 Yakima Valley’s Sugarloaf Vineyard Viognier with Choc Mo’s vanilla truffle. I had my daily ration of sugar so just the wine here. The 2020 Ratio Rosso is a Rhone-type blend with Syrah, Mourvedre, Lemberger and a pinch of Viognier and paired with a Champagne truffle. This was my favorite of Eleven’s flight.

2020 Malbec from Yakima Valley’s Sugarloaf Vineyard is a deep dark red that is intuitively paired with ChocMo’s red wine truffle. The variety is known as “the black grape” in France, where it is grown in Bordeaux to add color to their blends.

2020 Sweet Sarah is a Syrah-based port-style dessert wine named for the winemaker's wife, Sarah. Its dark color reminds you of this wine's best friend: chocolate. This 100% Syrah from Elephant Mountain Vineyard is fortified with neutral grape spirits just like a port or a Banyuls or a Rasteau. Sweet Sarah’s Residual Sugar is 9.8 and weighs in at 18.2 ABV, just like most fortified wine.

Banyuls, the French cousin to Portugal’s Porto, is a fortified wine from the Roussillon region of southern France on the border with Spain. Banyuls sits on the balmy, turquoise coast of the Mediterranean Sea and is a Grenache-based fortified wine that has been made since the 13th century.

Rasteau is an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) for wine in the southern Rhône wine region of France, covering both fortified and unfortified wines. The sweet fortified red wine is like Banyuls in that the wine is predominantly Grenache and plays very nicely with chocolate.

The next Wine on the Rock will happen Mother's Day weekend. Aperfect outing for all moms. Cheers!

Mary Earl has been educating Kitsap wine lovers for a couple of decades, is a longtime member of the West Sound Brew Club and can pair a beer or wine dinner in a flash. She volunteers for the Clear Creek Trail and is a longtime supporter of Silverdale.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Mingling chocolate with wine for day on Bainbridge Island