Match of the week

Chocolate terrine with Brachetto d'Acqui 2007

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on October 13 2008 at 10:14

It’s a mystery to me why we need a Chocolate Week. Surely no-one (except aberrants like myself who have an inexplicable preference for potatoes) needs encouraging to eat chocolate. But there we have it and you’ll find plenty of opportunities to enjoy your favourite food in the country’s classiest chocolate shops over the next few days.

So this week’s match had to be chocolate-related really and the best match I’ve had recently was at the Piemontese wine dinner I mentioned the other day - a rich chocolate terrine with roasted hazelnuts (above) with a Brachetto d’Acqui from Contero.

Now I’ve written many times before about the virtues of sweet reds with dark chocolate but it was extraordinary how well this very light (5.5%) sparkling dry red paired with such a rich dessert thanks to a bitter cherry twist that picked out the accompanying dark berry sauce quite beautifully. I suspect it would also go well with desserts that contained blackberries. You can find it in one of this country’s most interesting wine merchants The Flying Corkscrew and also in everywine.co.uk which charges £75.04 for a case of six.

If you want to pursue your passion for chocolate you can find out more about what events are being held this week in the events section of www.chocolate-week.co.uk. There seem to be tastings of chocolate with every conceivable beverage including wine, cognac, tea, sake and even a cheese and chocolate matching though I’m not quite so sure about the wisdom of that one . . .

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