Merryvale wine-inspired truffles

On Easter Sunday, Merryvale launched chocolate tastings featuring  chocolate truffles designed to pair perfectly with six of its fabulous wines. And none of the chocolates have bunny ears.

The first delectable Easter delight was a Vanilla-sugar glazed Hazelnut Truffle infused with Merryvale’s Chardonnay. Oh, honey bun! I’m going to take this bunny thing as far as it goes….

The rascally rabbit (oops, wrong bunny) then had the audacity to create a chocolate truffle infused, not with carrots thankfully, but with candy cap mushrooms, which pair beautifully with Merryvale’s bright and earthy Pinot Noir.

That bunny sure was a bit nutty, not just about mushrooms and wine, but nuts and wine. Who would have thought. I mean nuts and beer, sure. But nuts and wine? And not just any nuts, Moroccan-inspired spiced nuts. Cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg lightly glaze the walnuts on Merryvale’s Merlot-infused dark chocolate truffle. Rock the casbah. Nothing to do with bunnies, but it just had to be said.

From glazed nuts to mushrooms and now olives. A bunny with a sense of adventure and a great palate. Infused with Merryvale’s own grassy and slightly peppery-on-the-finish olive oil, the Olive Oil and Sea Salt Truffle brings a state of grace to its Estate Cabernet.

Now, there’s nothing silkier and smoother than Merryvale’s Profile Cabernet, so our fair rabbit found something just as silky smooth: Chèvre. Goat cheese and chocolate? Mmm hmm. With a hint of cracked black peppercorns to give the softness a slight edginess, and gently rolled in cocoa powder. Rascally, indeed.

Chèvre & Antigua Truffles

And no bunny can resist dessert. Dessert wine to be precise. A luscious blend of Muscat and Brandy with the intriguing name of Antigua. What trouble could a bunny get up to with that? A milk chocolate truffle infused with Antigua and chile pepper, and coated in white chocolate. That kind of delicious trouble.

Thankfully, the wine-inspired chocolate truffles at Merryvale will be a regular feature in the tasting room well beyond Easter, so no need to go on an Easter egg hunt to find them.

I’ll admit it, I’m not a fan of bacon and chocolate together. I truly love bacon, and I definitely love chocolate, but I’ve never actually had a great experience of them together. So, when Dean Williams, the Tasting Room Director at Mark Herold Wines in Napa’s Oxbow District, asked me to create a bacon chocolate to pair with one of his wines, I was skeptical, but I agreed (mainly because I really like him).

Hickory-smoked Bacon & Flux Red Truffle

And now I not only get to eat my words, but I get to eat a really amazing bacon and chocolate truffle, infused with wine. And not just any wine, a “sexy, aromatic Latin wine.” ¡Ay, caramba!

The Hickory-smoked Bacon & Flux Red Truffle is one of six wine-infused chocolates I created for Mark Herold Wines.

Here’s the rest of the gorgeous line up: Ginger & Acha Blanca Truffle, Apricot & Flux Blanca Truffle, Flux Rose with Raspberry & Cranberry Truffle, Cardamom & Cinnamon-glazed Hazelnut & Acha Red Truffle, Blackberry & Collide Red with Black Licorice

Mark Herold Wine-infused Chocolate Truffles

When you visit the tasting room to experience the sexy wines and gorgeous chocolate truffles at Mark Herold, you may well see a streetside chalkboard sign that says, “Ladies are always welcome as long as they don’t bother the saucy broads we’re normally accustomed to….” I’m pretty sure I reached the status of “saucy broad” with my bacon truffle, but you’ll have to drop by the tasting room and ask Deano yourself .

Guests were swept away to the Alsace as they sipped white wines from the Anderson Valley, enjoyed luscious food pairings, and tasted chocolates designed to complement the wines. And all left knowing that white wine does indeed pair well with chocolate….

Trio of Wine-Inspired Chocolates

I designed a trio of wine-inspired chocolates for three featured wines. A dark chocolate truffle infused with ginger and the crisp, citrus notes of Handley Cellars’ Riesling delighted the guests. One rapturous fellow, who purchased a box of six (all for himself), commented that it was the best chocolate he had ever tasted.

A cardamom-glazed walnut truffle infused with Londer Vineyard’s dry Gewürztraminer was simply exquisite and a delightful surprise to many. The soft fragrance of the cardamom and the slight tang of the walnuts waltzed playfully with the Gewürztraminer. And who could forget the sweet-savory perfection of the fleur de sel caramel? Paired with a demi sec Muscat, it was simply sublime. A crowd pleaser to be sure.

We, who love chocolate and red wine know how well they go together, and now, lovers of wines from the Alsace can say with confidence, white wine and chocolate, but, of course!

White Wine & Chocolate Lovers

While her first book celebrated the kindred spirit of gentle souls who, while hiding from the world, find each other; this one explores a deeply lost soul, who on his deathbed seeks a flavor that is the “first and ultimate truth of [his] entire life” and that “holds the key to a heart” he has since silenced. It is a “forgotten flavor, lodged in [his] deepest self…as the only truth ever told.”

Even though he is a renowned and despised restaurant critic who has tasted some of the most fabulous meals in the world, he returns to his childhood memories to find the elusive flavor. He explores grilled sardines, perfectly ripe tomatoes, satiny smooth sashimi, fragrant sautéed shrimp, Moroccan kesra (bread), fine de clair oysters, bread and butter toasted together, fine whisky, sorbet a l’orange, even mayonnaise, but no chocolate of any kind…. Curious.

In the end, he remembers.  Chouquettes. Not the chouquettes from a patisserie, but rather the ones from a supermarket, creamy and crunchy with a sensual softness that fully embrace his mouth. He compares them to a mystical union, the attainment of God: “the apotheosis of authentic desire and unadulterated pleasure.”

For Pierre, it is chouquettes. It could be anything really (even or especially chocolate) because it is the essence of what it represents. For me, chocolate is that essence; it becomes a delicious vehicle to explore and express what is most essential about ourselves. It allows us to access a part of ourselves that we lost (or thought we lost) a long time ago. We delight in how it brings us back to ourselves. To the truth.

Casa Noble Single Barrel Reposado chocolates

Two recent sightings, one in Petaluma and the other in San Francisco, were very close encounters (of the chocolate variety)…. At the warm and welcoming Tres Hombres Long Bar and Grill in Petaluma, the spirit of Casa Noble Single Barrel Reposado slipped smoothly into the dark chocolate ganache and simply mesmerized everyone at the event. Tequila and chocolate became a truly spiritual experience.

Spirits were even more plentiful at the Old Mint in SF as Shanti.org celebrated its Breast Cancer Program with a riotous VIP Speakeasy. The old vaults did indeed have a ghostly, haunted feeling about them until the true spirits (Knob Creek Bourbon, Remy Martin Cognac and Grand Marnier) flowed and the chocolates chased away any lingering ghosts.

Bourbon & Caramel Ganache Chocolates

Caramel ganache infused with Bourbon was as smooth as a swing dance set, Cognac infused into milk chocolate was as dreamy as the Blues, and Grand Marnier in dark chocolate with orange spiced almonds was as lively as a Jazz riff.

While the ghosts of prohibition and inhibition were nowhere to be seen at the Old Mint or Tres Hombres, the spirit world was alive and well when paired with chocolate. Come and have a spiritual experience with us at an event soon….

Simply sublime

Creating an experience where chocolate and wine, when tasted together, create a whole new flavor sensation is my ultimate goal. Remember my tasting advice: sip of wine, bite of chocolate, another sip of wine? While the wine alone is lovely and the chocolate by itself is delicious, the two together are simply sublime.

And sharing how we get to sublime is all part of the fun. I recently designed chocolates for a private wine and chocolate tasting party and wanted to share why I designed a certain chocolate for a particular wine for those palates that are curious. Intellectually curious, that is….

Tasting Notes for Wine

I love to taste the wines before designing chocolates, but sometimes, time doesn’t allow me this luxury, so when I know the selected wines, I do research online to discover the tasting notes for each.

Tasting notes about wines tell you a lot about them: how sweet or dry they are, what aromas and flavor tones are most predominant, which varietals make up the wine, and how acidic or tannic the wine is. All those hints about a wine are so important when it comes to designing or selecting a chocolate that pairs perfectly with it.

My design notes on the pairings that we enjoyed that evening may just satisfy your curiosity.

Roederer Estate Brut paired with the Salted Caramel in dark chocolate sprinkled with French sea salt

Our first wine, the effervescent Roederer Estate Brut, was described in its tasting notes as “crisp and elegant with complex pear, spice and hazelnut flavors.” Aged sparkling wines (“Estate”) also often have a slightly toasted or brioche flavor to them, so I immediately thought of my salted caramel. I have to admit that I was also motivated by the fact that the hostess of the party specifically requested it (she’s a big fan)!

Very caramelly salted caramels

The bubbles of sparkling wines work well with contrast: foods with different textures are absolutely beautiful with them. In this case, the smoothness of the caramel and the pop of the sea salt created the contrast in texture and a tactile, almost sensual, experience in our mouths. As well, the high acidity of the wine made it a perfect match for the salty, creamy and buttery flavors of the caramel. Triple yum.

Since the Roederer Estate is Brut or dry, it needed a darker more intense chocolate couverture (coating). I chose high quality, French chocolate with 70% cacao in this case, but if the wine had been a demi sec or a sweet wine, I would have used a sweeter chocolate (one with less cacao and more sugar).

2009 Rubicon Estate Pennino Zinfandel paired with the Mayan Chile Pepper truffle rolled in cocoa powder

The tasting notes for the 2009 Edizione Pennino Zinfandel were beautiful (just like the wine): “ a concentrated nose of fresh boysenberry and raspberry fruit along with vanillin and mocha notes mingling with nuances of clove and nutmeg spice. The rich berry fruit flavors are generously followed into the mouth and continue into the finish with vanillin and spice notes. The texture is juicy and round with silky soft tannins providing both structure and a rich creaminess that lingers – enticing yet another taste.” Amazon.com (they sell wine too!)

Mayan chocolate pot & chile pepper truffle

Which flavor to choose for the chocolate? I simply had to go for the spice!  And yet I didn’t want to overpower the soft elegance of the wine, so I chose a 61% cacao with a lovely, nutty flavor for the ganache, which would softly envelope the smokiness of the chile pepper from Guatemala I so love. I was very delicate with the chile pepper, so the spice of the wine and chocolate had a long, gorgeous finish. Rolling the ganache gently in cocoa powder with a hint of chile pepper, kept the texture soft as well. No hard outer coating to bite through on this delicate wine and chocolate pairing!

A Trio of Cabernets

The evening got even livelier as we moved on to three very different and extraordinary Cabernet Sauvignons.

Cabernets are known for their black fruit and can also have nutty or mocha undertones. A few, which are deeper and sweeter, even have caramel, maple and brown sugar flavors. My chocolate challenge was to make three distinct chocolates that complemented the wines and didn’t overwhelm our guests with too much chocolate (usually a wine and chocolate pairing has four wines matched with four chocolates).

A winery client recently asked me to design six mini truffles for its wine and chocolate tasting on Valentine’s Day. “Mini truffles,” they said. Hmmm. “Just the ganache and no coating.” Even more hmmm on my part. I was used to making whole chocolates and enrobing them in couverture for gorgeous finish and texture. I was intrigued.

The mini truffles were not only just the right amount of chocolate, they also allowed the guests to taste the ganache with no distractions. Hmm, I thought, this might just work for the party. The chocolates won’t be quite as beautiful and won’t be my signature look and feel, but they will be the pure heart of the chocolate. So, I made mini truffles for three gorgeous wines from Blue Rock (well, in the end two wines…).

2006 Blue Rock Cabernet paired with Black Cherry mini truffle topped with dried cherry

The 2006 Blue Rock Cabernet, as described in Tastingroom.com’s notes, has “a nose of dark cherry and mysterious floral notes. In the mouth the wine brings blackberries and cherries and is surprisingly light on its feet, medium bodied, and beautifully balanced. Typical of Blue Rock Cabernet, it has nice juicy acidity and faint powdery tannins that lift the dark fruit flavors.”

Red cherry mini truffles

I knew from having designed a Bialla Cabernet chocolate for their harvest party last fall that it was full-on blackberry, so I took a chance, knowing that the Blue Rock Cab was lighter on its feet, and focused on the dark cherry. So as not to overwhelm the light and beautifully balanced wine with too dark of a chocolate, I chose a 61% cacao.

Seems I got this one really right as several guests approached me and said it was their favorite, and even one guest who shared that she normally doesn’t like chocolate with fruit, but she loved this!

2009 Blue Rock Baby Blue Cabernet with Black Raspberry hand-dipped chocolate square AND the Cinnamon-Glazed Walnut mini truffle

And then there was the added challenge of competing tasting notes and the disappearing wine….

Black raspberry truffle in dark chocolate

According to KensWineGuide.com, the 2009 Baby Blue: “opens with fragrant black raspberry bouquet with a hint of dried cranberry and cherry. On the palate, this wine is medium bodied, balanced, and smooth, yet juicy. The flavor profile is a tasty cherry cola and blueberry blend with hint of mild oak. The finish is dry and its moderate tannins are bit sticky and linger for quite some time.”

While Winehouse.com finds that the” innovative 2008 blend called Baby Blue, made of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc, 18% Syrah, and 6% Merlot, has a floral nose of red and black currants as well as spice box. Its seductive aromatics are followed by a silky textured, medium to full-bodied wine with loads of personality and soul.” Love the part about soul.

I found myself intrigued by the mention of black raspberry, which is sometimes all I need to be inspired, and I had a sense that the Cabernet Franc was bringing this fruit forward in the wine, so black raspberry it was!

Cinnamon-glazed walnut mini truffles

To add to the complexity of this pairing was a lone chocolate without a wine…. Right up until the night of the party, we were going to taste Blue Rock’s Syrah, but alas, it was totally sold out (good for them!), so we decided to be adventurous and try the chocolate designed for the Syrah with the Baby Blue. Syrah has nutty undertones and a little bit of spice, so I chose to go with walnuts to bring out the nuttiness and cinnamon to balance the spice.

The Syrah in Baby Blue came rushing forward with a big hug to meet the cinnamon-glazed walnut truffle. Wow. This little truffle got a lot of attention from guests, let me tell you!

2009 Bialla Vineyards Cabernet with Blackberry ganache in a decadent dark chocolate dome

Deeply seductive (so much so, it warranted Vito Bialla’s analogy of a perfect “kiss”), the Bialla Cabernet is a classic, big Cab with lots of full-bodied blackberry and complexity.

Wine Spectator raves about it being “deliciously dense, pure, rich and polished… beautifully focused…tiers of supple currant, red berry, blackberry and red and black licorice, with a long, gliding finish where the flavors are woven together in a seamless fashion. “

Blackberry dark chocolates

This “bigness” and its “firm tannins” had to be met with a bigger, more tannic (bitter) chocolate, so the ganache, infused with luscious blackberry, and the couverture were 70% cacao, which has a lot of complexity and holds its own with the chocolate. The beautiful glossy finish and gorgeous crunch of the chocolate coating, only added to the experience. In a wine and chocolate pairing, a big sensuous wine needs to be held firmly in the embrace of chocolate.

Vito and Linda Bialla smiled, and Vincent Valverde of Rubicon Estate said it was the best pairing of the evening. High praise from two wine and chocolate lovers!

The Long Finish

As I slipped away into the evening air, guests were still talking about their favorite chocolate. A chocolatier with a curious palate couldn’t ask for a better long finish….

In the gorgeous, candlelit wine cellar of James Cole Winery on the Silverado Trail in Napa, guests were treated to a veritable Valentine’s Day wine and chocolate festival. While Willy Wonka may have missed the festivities (he really was supposed to make an appearance), the festive spirit soared. I missed them too so, my apologies, the pictures here are not of the event, but hopefully, capture the beauty and spirit of James Cole Winery. For pictures of the actual event, visit the winery blog at James Cole.

Wine cellar at James Cole

Wonka Golden Ticket

Guests, with Golden Tickets in hand, were treated to a chocolate extravaganza: six scrumdidilyumptious chocolate truffles and a luscious caramel in dark chocolate, each paired perfectly with James Cole featured wines. And just to make things even more delightfully delicious, two chocolates were paired with one wine in a taste off….

The simply scrumptious pairings were:

1. 2008 “Umbral” Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon with Fleur de Sel Chocolate & Caramel
2. 2008  ”Aliento” Bordeaux Blend with Blackberry Truffle
3. 2008 “Il Mostro” Proprietary Red Wine with Black Cherry Truffle
4. 2008 Cabernet with Mocha Truffle, infused with Kahlua and Espresso
5. 2008 Malbec with Chile Pepper Truffle
6. 2010 “Jaden” Merlot Ice Wine from Okanagan Valley, Canada with Chile Pepper Caramel in Dark Chocolate and Ginger Truffle rolled in tiny morsels of Candied Ginger

Chile Pepper Caramel

For those of you who are new to Ice Wine, it’s a dessert wine made from grapes grown in colder climates, primarily Canada and Germany, that are left on the vine until they freeze. The result is a refreshingly sweet wine. The “Jaden” Merlot Ice Wine brings a hint of spicy heat with its sweetness, so we paired it with two savory chocolate truffles that balanced sweetness with spice. And the winner of the Ice Wine and chocolate pairing, by just two votes, was the Chile Pepper Caramel!

The day of wine and chocolate at James Cole was indeed deliciously delightful (or is that, delightfully delicious?) Guests were transformed by the beautiful tasting experience and left as good friends with just a little more joy in their hearts in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

Sculpture of "perfect balance" at James Cole Winery

In the words of Willy Wonka himself, ”a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

Nicole & Candi in the kitchen at Bloomingdales

Chocolate lovers gathered to “chocolaj”, which means to “drink chocolate together” in the language of the ancient Maya, who first discovered this refreshing and delicious elixir of the gods. So, in honor of this lovely tradition, we “ate chocolate together.”

Dark chocolate raspberry truffles

To a standing-room-only crowd, I demonstrated how to make two hand rolled truffles–a chile pepper chocolate truffle gently rolled in cocoa powder and a dark chocolate raspberry truffle with raspberry sugar. Samples of both deliciously decadent chocolates were handed out to keep the crowd happy and full as well as recipes to make at home in time for Valentine’s Day. And a draw to win boxes of my signature chocolates filled in any lulls while we were waiting for cream to come to a boil or chocolate to melt.

And just to keep people on edge of their seats, I tempered chocolate right before their eyes. For those of you who know how challenging tempering can be, it was great fun to do it live.

Adding to the fun, were the quips (and oddly shaped truffles) by Candi Austin, Culinary Specialist at Bloomingdales; my handsome assistant and husband, Scott; and friends in the front row, who know me just a little too well…. I should be grateful that there weren’t any real hecklers.

We’re planning another event at Bloomies soon, this time with wine! I’ll be the Galloping Gourmet Girl before long. Look for an upcoming evening of wine and chocolate tasting featuring Essence by Chocolate and Regusci Winery.

Regusci Winery

Joined by expert wine and food collaborators, Leslie Schwartz, Events Coordinator (and CIA trained pastry chef) and Dean Williams, Tasting Room Manager at Regusci Winery, we designed 6 signature chocolates to pair with Regusci’s fabulous wines.

A crack team of Regusci tasting room associates with exceptionally well-trained palates tested each chocolate along with its wine to ensure that the pairing was absolutely perfect.

Inspired by the unique flavor tones of the wine, we looked for spices, berries and even caramel with a hint of sea salt to balance and bring forward those flavors. When you taste a Regusci chocolate with the wine that inspired it, you will never drink wine with just any old chocolate ever again…. It is truly a sublime experience.

Regusci Wine-Inspired Chocolates

And we took sublime to another level by designing a chocolate with Regusci’s own Estate-grown, cold-press olive oil. The smooth texture and nutty flavor of the olive oil softens the intensity of the dark chocolate and is oh so subtly enhanced by sea salt, resulting in a voluptuously delicious chocolate.

Regusci signature chocolates are now available in the tasting room and as a specially designed box of 6 dark chocolates, which includes a limited edition Chile Pepper and Zinfandel-infused chocolate made with Regusci’s 2009 Zinfandel (this sinful Zin is so devilishly good that it’s only available through the Wine Club).

The Regusci Wine-Inspired Chocolate Box, available for $15 in the tasting room, features 6 artisanal dark chocolates:

1. Ginger and Estate Chardonnay hand-dipped truffle with candied ginger
2. Black Cherry and Estate Merlot dark chocolate
3. Regusci Patriarch-infused dark chocolate
4. Fleur de Sel Caramel ganache (as smooth as Angelo’s Hillside Cabernet Sauvignon)
5. Regusci Estate Olive Oil-infused dark chocolate with a touch of sea salt
6. Chile Pepper and Estate Zinfandel truffle gently rolled in cocoa powder

Visit Regusci Winery, on the Silverado Trail in the Stag’s Leap district of Napa, and succumb to the smoothness as each chocolate pairs perfectly with its wine or enjoy them all on their own.

A very special thank you to Rita Cervone and Gary Brandolino for introducing me to Regusci Winery.  You saw (and tasted) what was possible and like a good wine, let it breathe.

Photo by Anna Haight

The evening’s celebratory wine and chocolate flight at Wellington’s Wine Bar began with a glass of slightly tart, yet sweet and refreshing, sparkling French rosé (Allimant Laugner Cremant d’Alsace) that greeted the salted caramel in dark chocolate with a flirtatious tickle of the tastebuds.

Taking tartness to a whole other level, the second offering in the fabulous flight paired a Pinot Noir from Expression 44 (Williamette Valley, Oregon) with a dark chocolate ganache infused with red cherries. The slight acidity of both balanced each other so perfectly that no puckering was required….

Two glasses into the flight, the gathering at Wellington’s was deep into celebration. So, it was only natural at this point in the evening that the flight moved from tart, bubbly and flirty to a deeper, more full-bodied experience.

Deep and dark and full of rich blackberry tones, the Smith Madrone 2005 Spring Mountain Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and its signature chocolate were a smooth operator. No pert flirtiness here, just full on Rico Suave.

And that’s when I noticed how the celebratory nature of the evening had smoothly and effortlessly transitioned to more intimate conversations. There’s a reason chocolate and wine are meant to be shared together….

Languid, lingering and luscious. If I could have napped on one of the comfy couches in the bar I would have, after savoring Graham’s 2005 LBV Porto with a 70% chocolate ganache infused with sweet blueberries and a splash of Port. A soft, sweet ending to a delightfully decadent evening.

Signature chocolate boxes on the bar

Ah, but there was a bit more sweetness to come. Boxes of sweetness to savor at home with good wine and friends. Guests departed Wellington’s replete, arms full of boxes filled with buttery, sea salt caramels or wine-inspired signature chocolates.

To my delight, my first offering of boxed chocolates completely sold out. It’s back to the kitchen for me! But before I do, I wanted to give a very big hug to all the wonderful friends (and to my husband, Scott), who turned out for this event and have supported me beyond all expectation. You truly inspire me.

And another big hug to Jeremy, Julie, Ken and Justin at Wellington’s for their warmth and good cheer.