Wine with Leslie: Wines that pair perfectly with chocolate

— recommendations for wines to sip with luxury chocolate, a Chocolate Orange, milk chocolate and brownies

Chocolate is not the easiest to match with wine but there are a few to consider.

There isn’t much to look forward to these days except perhaps dessert. Like many of you I have not found dieting particularly easy this lockdown so have decided to just wait until restrictions are lifted before I tackle those extra kilos (I’ve put on about five!).

Valentine’s Day is approaching and that means chocolate. Chocolate is not the easiest to match with wine but there are a few to consider. I’m going to show my age now but there is one legendary dessert that I first tasted in around 1994 in the River Café in London near Hammersmith Bridge run by Ruth Rogers and the late Rose Gray. A slice of their Chocolate Nemesis cake with a glass of Recioto della Valpolicella was revelatory and it remains one of my favourite food and wine matches. Recioto has been made for several centuries — unlike Amarone which only appeared in the mid-20th century. Good recioto will have around 90g residual sugar per litre. For comparison Port is usually 110g and Sauternes 120-150g.