Petite Sirah and Super Berries Chocolate Bar

We found this wine at Vino Simpatico Wine Shop in Pasadena, FL. (http://www.vino-simpatico.com) They just happened to have a bottle open to taste from their event the night before. Neil couldn’t believe what a big wine it was, considering that it had already been open for a day. Since he was enjoying it, his mom found a bottle of the Petite Sirah on the shelf and purchased it for him. We had been saving the wine for a day when we could really relax and enjoy it. During our grocery shopping at Aldi, we found this Super Berry Chocolate Bar and thought it would complement the rich, dark wine nicely. Let’s see if we were correct?

Since we remembered it being a big, full-bodied wine at the shop, we knew we should open it up a few hours before we were ready to drink it. Before swirling or sipping, Neil noticed that the color was dark all the way to the rim of the glass. Once he started to identify the aromas, he found blackberry jam and a hint of slate. I picked up dark fruit with a hint of earth or smoke, and then grapes and blackberry. Then my sense of smell went haywire. It seemed like I smelled a hint of antiseptic and then I found a memory of myself in the clothing department at Kmart. Why would wine remind me of Kmart? No idea! I also noticed evergreen aromas hiding in there. Although bizarre, it’s so interesting to see what wine makes you remember!

I had to take a couple minutes to reset after that but Neil was already enjoying his big blackberry jam, spice and something that seemed sweet on the edges of his tongue. I noticed dark fruit, spice, earth, raisins and that the wine was dry. Once I said raisins, Neil decided that the flavor that was sort of sweet, was dried fruit. When I swirled the wine, the legs seemed pretty heavy and slow moving down the glass. Guess that’s the 15% alcohol that I was watching.

And now on to the chocolate! It smelled like dark chocolate but not bitter, Neil described it as semi-dark chocolate. I couldn’t really smell the berries inside but Neil could. When we broke off a piece of the chocolate, we couldn’t see the fruit but we could definitely taste it. We could even feel it sticking to our teeth, sort of like a fruit rollup. I thought the balance between chocolate and berry flavors were pretty even. Neil said the chocolate was the majority of the flavor and although it was a little sweet for a dark chocolate it was still good. I enjoyed that the chocolate had a berry finish too.

When Neil paired the Petite Sirah with the Super Berry Chocolate bar, the wine made the chocolate seem like a really tasty cordial. Then he noticed that the chocolate made the wine taste like a tart cherry and killed the wine. Needless to say, he’d prefer to enjoy them separately. I thought there were more earth aromas in the wine and more berries in the finish of the wine. The chocolate seemed more chocolatey and less berry. For me it was a nice pairing where the wine and chocolate complemented each other.

Although Neil and I disagreed on whether it was a good pairing, he was more than happy to sit back and sip on his wine. And that meant more chocolate for me. It was a pretty fun treat to enjoy just before Valentine’s Day!