Winey Tasting Notes: Chocolate Shop Chocolate Red Wine and the Chat Party

After months of hearing about it and avoiding it because my winey mind couldn’t figure out what it thought about the whole idea…..I have finally sipped my first chocolate wine. This one comes from The Chocolate Shop (Red Wine, 12.5%, ~$15). Simply by their name, you know that they know their chocolate. Seems that they also know their wine, and know how to put the two together. To me, that would make a very admirable life goal for anyone on this earth. And they did it.

I got to sip this wine courtesy of Thirsty Girl, an on-line community of thoroughly entertaining women. They love their wine, their food, and their fun. And from time to time they have a Twitter chat party that is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. This past week, they hosted a party that was sponsored by The Chocolate Shop and asked me if I’d like some samples to tweet about. ARE YOU KIDDING? I said yes. About a thousand times…ahem.

Now, loving wine and chocolate as I do, I was surprisingly sceptical about putting them together in the same bottle. (I love Diet Coke and fried rice…but you don’t see me trying to pair them in a bottle, now do you?) I even mentioned to a friend the morning of the tasting that I fully expected to have to put it in coffee in order to drink it. I really thought it was going to be thick and creamy. (I was not the only one. Here’s a quote from another Tweeter that night: Pleasantly surprised it isn’t creamy.) 

So on to the wine itself. It’s a beautiful dark red color – very regal, which matches perfectly with the beautiful bottle and label design. (I usually will comment on a label only if it’s funny or naughty, but this was one sharp looking bottle!) The aroma was chocolate covered cherries. I love chocolate covered cherries. You know that moment when you open a box of them and that first whiff hits you – there it was in my glass!  Wow.

 On to my first taste. It was just like drinking those chocolate covered cherries. The wine was smooth and the flavors perfectly balanced – not too much wine, not to much chocolate. They got them together in such a way that they really played off one another. And – yippee – no thick, creamy wine here. It was supple and luxurious and silky in my mouth – definitely not cloyingly sweet or sticky. I kept on sipping. It was amazing. I was thrilled – and I wasn’t the only one. Another quote from a chatter: the wine is MUCH better than I could have imagined. Yup, it was.

Chocolate Shop won’t fess up to exactly what wine goes into their beautiful bottles (can you say “proprietary”?), but they will tell you it’s a blend of premium reds. The chocolate? It’s their own secret recipe AND you can buy the chocolate in its own separate box. Talk about overachieving. (By the way, the chocolate is added to the wine before they bottle it and then aged in stainless steel.)

Chloe 🙂

I had a little companion with me the night of the party…She made a few friends during the chat, so I thought you’d like to see her as well. Please note that as she is underage (in people years, anyway), the bottle next to her is NOT opened. And when it is opened, I’M NOT SHARING.

Cheers!!

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Must-do legal note, in case you missed it above: I was sent this wine for sampling and review purposes.