How To Pair Your Favorite Chocolate With The Perfect Bottle Of Wine

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*Sponsored by Bright Cellars 

Can you think of a duo more indulgent than wine and chocolate? We can’t. If you love pairing your wine with food, it’s only right that you keep a couple of foolproof wine and chocolate pairings hidden up your sleeve. Dark chocolate fans should know which wines highlight those rich and roasted notes while peanut butter and chocolate lovers should know what’s going to spotlight all of that cocoa-filled nuttiness. Luckily, a company called Bright Cellars can help you pair the perfect wine with your chocolate preferences.

Founded by two MIT grads, Bright Cellars is a wine delivery service that uses an algorithm to pair you with the perfect wines, based on your flavor preferences, through a quick quiz. You’ll be asked about everything from your favorite type of chocolate to your favorite style of iced tea to your favorite cocktail. Once you finish the quiz, Bright Cellars creates a profile based on your responses to give you the best wines for your palate.

You receive six new wines each month with the flexibility to skip or cancel whenever you want. And when it comes to pairing those bottles of vino with chocolate, we have some awesome starting points for you. Take the full Bright Cellars quiz to see which wines they recommend for you and then refill that chocolate stash!

Dark Chocolate — Malbec

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If you love deep red wines, you really can’t go wrong with a Malbec. The grapes tend to have an inky, dark color with robust tannins. This dry, full-bodied red has a good amount of acidity, too. You’ll get all of the jam vibes with notes of plums, black cherries and blackberries. The best chocolate for the job here would be a rich, dark Belgian chocolate.

The dark chocolate masks some of the earthy and dark fruit flavors, but it’ll let the acidity and strawberry flavors come right through. If you can’t get your hands on dark Belgian chocolate, any rich dark chocolate will do the trick. If you ask us, this sounds like a winning duo for a cozy night in.

Milk Chocolate — Pinot Noir

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If you live your life more on the mellow side and you prefer chocolate that doesn’t completely overwhelm your palate, milk chocolate never fails. And Pinot Noir, a dry red wine with a lighter color than most reds, is a lighter-bodied vino full of red fruit notes that compliment the smooth cocoa butter elements of the milk chocolate.

Those notes of roses, fruits and currants in Pinot Noir make the best of friends for a lighter and creamier chocolate. Take this pairing on your next date, and you’re bound to impress.

Peanut Butter And Chocolate — Syrah

Out of all the red wines out there, Syrah is one of the darkest, full-bodied options. It has dark fruit flavors that’ll range anywhere from blueberry to black olive with spicy peppery notes as an aftertaste.

The complexity of the Syrah helps to enhance all of the chocolatey nuttiness in a peanut butter and chocolate snack, so you’ll be on cloud nine with this pairing. Both milk or dark chocolate peanut butter desserts would taste equally amazing with a glass of Syrah in hand.

White Chocolate — Moscato

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No, white chocolate isn’t really chocolate. It’s a combination of cocoa butter, milk powder, sugar and other sorts of flavorings. But that doesn’t make it any less delicious. Even though it’s technically not a real chocolate, it falls into the category of chocolate-like sweets that make a winning duo with a glass of vino.

Pour yourself a glass of Moscato the next time you’re chowing down on white chocolate. The delicate chocolate is just light enough to work with those fruity and floral notes of this semi-sparkling wine.

Caramel And Chocolate — Lambrusco Amabile

If a caramel and chocolate candy bar alone can soothe your soul, let’s add wine to the equation. Lambrusco Amabile — a ruby red, aromatic and semi-sparkling wine — is an ideal dessert-pairing wine. It has just the right amount of sweetness to handle your favorite chocolate and caramel treat. We’re thinking this might be our favorite “home remedy” after a stressful week.

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