Each year around the holidays Neil and I look forward to making cookies but this year we didn’t have an oven where we were staying. We had to get creative with what else we could make and have it be comparable to our tasty peanut butter Hershey Kiss cookies. We found this recipe for chocolate wine truffles on Pinterest and it seemed like just the treat. We had the correct cooking set up as well as access to the ingredients here in Costa Rica. Also it would be just the thing to bring to our holiday get together with chocolate and wine lovers!
After creating our Wine and Chocolate Pinterest Board, it got me thinking we should do another wine and chocolate pairing. As I looked into those links, it reminded me that the tannins in Malbec wines, work well with the tannins in dark chocolates. That settled it, I’d find a Malbec and some local Costa Rican chocolate. Strangely I had a hard time coming across some local chocolate. (Most likely due to the pandemic) Then, at a local coffee shop, we noticed a display with a few different options. The owner recommended the almond one, so we were ready to go.
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?
Last week we told you that we had tons of “wine fun” while we were in Reno, so here’s your next entry. Dorinda’s Chocolates (http://dorindaschocolates.com) was next door to Hub, the coffee shop where we spent a bunch of time working in Reno. On our first day there, I was gazing out the window and noticed the menu hanging on the wall for Dorinda’s. There were wine flights and wine and chocolate pairings so obviously I made my way over there pretty quickly. We spoke to Dorinda, the owner, and she let us know that they had a weekly wine and chocolate pairing event on Thursday’s so the plan was set.
Usually around Christmastime, Neil and I try out a sweet wine. Pretty much right on schedule, we were given this bottle by some friends of the family that happened to make their own wine. When we do these sweet wine pairings we typically choose a strong cheese so when I saw this at ALDI, https://www.aldi.us, it was an easy choice.
As a special treat for Valentine’s Day, we not only paired wine and cheese but added some chocolate. Not a bad deal if you ask me! We wanted to step it up a bit so the wine today will be a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. Since there is more than one pairing happening the entry will be wine, cheese, wine and cheese, chocolate, wine and chocolate. Enjoy!
Maria and Neil started wineandcheesefriday.com to learn more about wine in 2014. We’ve visited wineries, and creameries across the world to learn as much as we can about these two wonderful delacacies. We❤️🍷&🧀
