Winey Tasting Notes: Wyandotte Winery’s Vin de Cacao for Valentine’s Day 2015
Ahh….Valentine’s Day. One of my favorite times of the year. And when I refer to favorite, I am NOT talking about roses or fluffy heart pillows or little cupids flying around shooting at us. When I say favorite I am referring to chocolate and wine. Together. Because there’s no other time of the year when you are practically obligated to nibble on chocolate and sip wine. Know what’s even better? When they come in the same bottle, as they do when Ohio’s Wyandotte Winery makes their Vin De Cacao. My friends at Ohio Cellars (a Grove City, OH business that champions Ohio wine and beer and makes them available online to us all, bless their heart) sent me a bottle for my sipping pleasure.
But first a little quiz: what words do you think of when I mention “chocolate wine”? I’ll bet “sweet” and “thick” come to mind. But go ahead and banish those words right now. Are they gone? Good, we will continue with my review then.
Vin de Cacao (NV, 12%, Columbus, OH) is a very pretty garnet red color and gives off a nose of milk chocolate and cherries. It’s not an overwhelming nose, either. It’s just a light whiff of those yummy aromas. The first sip brings you flavors of cherries with a line of mocha running through them. The cherries aren’t the sweet ones – they are the tart cherry flavor of riper, darker cherries instead of the smaller, bright red cherries. The mocha is smooth and velvety and it plays very nicely with the cherry. There’s a crisp little bite of light tannin at the end of it all too.
Not too much red, not too much chocolate….this is a great blend of the two. Can you see why I wanted you to get away from thick and syrupy when I said chocolate wine? Nothing like that here – the wine feels like a smooth ribbon of silk. Wyandotte classifies this wine as a semi-sweet red infused with chocolate, and they are spot on with the blending of the two. The red wine is bright and the chocolate is rich, making them the perfect Valentine’s Day couple.
Buy this wine if you want a different sipping treat. Whether you fall on the sweet or dry side of the red spectrum, I can almost guarantee you’ll enjoy it.
A bottle of Vin de Cacao will run you less than $20, which will leave you with plenty of cash left over to buy your sweetie something else. May I suggest a second bottle?
Happy Valentine’s Day! Cheers!
Want to try more chocolate wines? Check out my review of Chocolate Shop Chocolate Red Wine.
I was given this wine for review purposes. The opinions are all my own.
