Chocolate and white wine
Better than red, for the simple reason that it carries no tannin — and sweet whites are among the best chocolate wines there are.
White wine removes one of the three obstacles that make red wine difficult: there is essentially no tannin to compound with the chocolate's own. That leaves sugar and fat, and a sweet white addresses the first.
Late-harvest and botrytised wines are genuinely good with white and milk chocolate — they have the sugar to survive the comparison and the acidity to cut the richness. Dry whites are harder, and work best with white chocolate rather than dark.
The principle
Sweet whites work; dry whites work only with white chocolate. No tannin is the advantage over red wine.
Pairings
A late-harvest or botrytised sweet white has the sugar to match white chocolate and the acidity to cut its richness.
For example: Sauternes or a late-harvest Riesling with white chocolate
Blonde chocolate's caramelised character meets the honeyed notes of a botrytised wine on the same register.
For example: Sauternes with blonde chocolate
Commonly recommended, and frequently disappointing
A dry crisp white with dark chocolate. The wine is drier than the chocolate and has no weight to survive the cocoa butter — it reads as sour and disappears.
Related
Chocolate types this pairs with
- White chocolateA late-harvest or botrytised sweet white has the sugar to match white chocolate and the acidity to cut its richness.
- Blonde chocolateBlonde chocolate's caramelised character meets the honeyed notes of a botrytised wine on the same register.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)