Wine and Chocolate Parties, the Newest Trend

The newest trend in theme parties are wine and chocolate parties.. At first you may think, that the two may not go well together, but alas, they do. There is a simple rule to follow if you want to do a traditional wine and chocolate party:

Sweet dessert wine, yes that is it, the simple rule, the wine list for your party should be sweet wines, and dessert wines work the best.

The idea on pairing chocolate with wine is becoming so popular, that numerous articles be found through the internet. A few example of some articles about the subject can be found at:

http://wine.about.com/od/winerecommendations/a/winechocolate.htm has a whole article dedicated about chocolate and wine pairings, along with some suggestions, on pairings.

http://www.starchefs.com/wine/features/html/wine_chocolate.shtml has an story on a recent wine and chocolate party that was held.

http://www.thewinenews.com/ originated the idea. It started out as a challenge could chocolate be paired with wine. The idea proved tough, but after much trial and error, sweet wines proved to be the best pairing with chocolates. If you think about it, wine and chocolate are a perfect combination. Both can act as an aphrodisiac, both can traced back as far as the Aztec and Mayan age, and lastly chocolate and wine are antioxidants.

Some sites to consider for your research on dessert wines are:
http://www.americanwinecompany.com/
http://www.finewinehouse.com
http://www.cffcheers.com/dessert-wines.asp

The alternative way to host a wine and chocolate party, without doing a lot of research, is to have half your guests bring a chocolate dish, and that can be anything from, dipped strawberries to a chocolate cake. Then have the other half bring a bottle of a dessert wine.

The best policy when choosing a dessert is to keep the sweetness level of the dessert at a lower threshold than that of the wine, according to Simi Winery Resident Chef Mary Evely.

"I often replace the sweet chocolate that a recipe calls for with bittersweet chocolate,"

No matter which way you have the party, it sure to be memorable, so move over cheese, it looks like wine has a new pairing.