Chocolate + Wine Pairing // October 2019
For the last year and a half Estelle Tracy of 37 Chocolates has made me a “chocolate connoisseur” by graciously inviting me to her chocolate + wine pairing events. It’s always a pleasure to photograph her events and to see the incredible growth she’s made since I attended her first pairing event at Galer last February.
This most recent pairing event was at The Inn at Grace Winery - a stunning property located in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. Estelle and winemaker, Andrew Yingst, worked together to create a delightful pairing of chocolates and wines.
We had four pairings:
1) Grace Winery Cuvée + Castronovo Chocolate Sierra Nevada 63% Milk Chocolate
2) Grace Winery Rosé + Amano Chocolate Dios Rios 70% Dark Chocolate
3) Grace Winery Merlot + Åkesson’s Madagascar 75% Dark Chocolate
4) Grace Winery 1734 + Castronovo Chocolate Arhuacos 80% Dark Chocolate
My thoughts:
1) The Grace Winery Cuvée was my favorite wine of the evening, closely followed by the Rosé. This was my second favorite pairing overall. The Castronovo Milk Chocolate had a hard snap, yet creamy taste and it paired well with the bubbly Cuvée.
2) Estelle knows that I absolutely love the Amano Chocolate Dios Rios bar and I was finally able to purchase one for myself! The bar has notes of: burgamot orange, blueberry, lavender and spice… all of which comes from the cocoa beans themselves. There are absolutely no added flavors! The floral notes of this bar were enhanced with the Rosé. If you didn’t look at the wine when drinking it, you would have thought it was a red - it was 75% merlot and 25% cabernet franc. This was my favorite pairing of the evening.
3) Red wine is so complex (my palette for red wine is slowly evolving) and this pairing definitely had a punch to it, in a good way. I would describe it as the most bold pairing of the evening.
4) The last pairing was another complex and bold pairing with Grace Winery’s 1734, a red blend primarily Syrah/Shiraz.
Rating the pairings in order: 2, 1, 3, and then 4.
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Estelle’s chocolate + wine pairing events are a must for anyone looking to expand their knowledge on chocolate. Put down those Hershey bars immediately, I promise this will change how you eat chocolate going forward.
As always, thank you Estelle.
Below are a few photos from the evening.
