Somm advice: The wine to drink with your favorite Tony’s Chocolonely
If I eat a bar of chocolate, my favorite is definitely Tony’s Chocolonely. And at the weekend, I like to have a glass of wine with it too. But which wine actually tastes good with all those Tony combinations, such as caramel-sea salt and raspberry-popping candy? Sommelier Bette Hamersma offers her advice.
White-raspberry-popping candy
“A fruity rosé goes well with this bar, with notes of raspberries and wild strawberries. Such as a white grenache from California, garnacha from Spain, grenache or cinsault from France. Or choose a light red bubblegum-style wine such as gamay from Beaujolais, which can also be enjoyed chilled.”
Milk-caramel-sea salt
With the popular caramel-sea salt bar, have a glass of bubbly. “Choose a blanc de blancs champagne, made from 100% Chardonnay grapes. A sparkling wine with high acidity and a bitter edge goes head-to-head with the sea salt. This gives you a beautiful combination of salt, acidity and bitterness. The bubbles provide a pleasant ‘palate cleaner’ against the sweetness of the chocolate and caramel. As a result, you’ll quickly want to take the next bite.”
Tony’s milk-cinnamon biscuit
“Choose an orange wine from Slovenia for this bar. It is a dry wine made from white grapes, but produced in the same way as red wine (the entire grape is fermented with the wine). Because it is a dry wine with a touch of bitterness, like the bitterness found in cinnamon, it ensures that the milk chocolate and biscuit don’t disappear.”
Dark-pecan-coconut
If you love the dark chocolate bar with its combination of pecan and coconut, choose a more robust Syrah, such as a French red wine from the Rhône region. “This bar can handle a wine with some power. A bitter, dark chocolate bar with nuts calls for a full-bodied red wine. Such as a more robust Syrah with an ‘animal’ edge. These wines consist of dark fruit, sometimes with hints of liquorice, tobacco and earth. They allow the more tropical and sweet notes of the coconut to shine.”
