How to Pair Wine & Chocolate

Welcome to wine's toughest pairing. Here's how to do it right.

Pairing wine with chocolate isn’t quite the easy dream it sounds like. The sad truth is, they don’t always get along with the wrong combination making your glass of wine taste metallic and thin and the chocolate, purely of sugar. It’s a lose-lose situation - unless you follow a few key rules.

Wine and Chocolate Rules of Thumb

The first wine and chocolate pairing rule, and the most important, is to always match the levels of sweetness. Your wine should be as sweet as or sweeter than the chocolate. That’s why sweeter, luscious styles like Port go so beautifully with all kinds of chocolate. That said, darker, less sweet chocolate opens the door to drier reds, especially those with good structure, a hint of bitterness and a good dollop of fruit, like a ripe Cabernet Sauvignon or even a bold, spicy Zinfandel. Think of it like this: the more cacao, the more you can flirt with red wine tannin. Here are some perfect wine and chocolate pairings for you to explore. If you’ve discovered more, do let me know too and I will try them and share!

Milk Chocolate & Ruby Port

Milk chocolate is creamy, sweet, a bit fatty and low in tannin, which means it needs a wine that’s equally rich and smooth with enough sweetness to stand up to the fattiness so the wine’s fruitiness doesn't get stripped away. Fortified reds like Ruby or Tawny Port or Banyuls, which is a softer fortified red from southern France, work beautifully here thanks to their ripe red fruit, warming alcohol and natural sweetness that won’t be overpowered. It’s a pairing that’s like velvet on velvet.

Sea Salt Chocolate & Madeira

Sea salt chocolate, whether dark or milk, is a dream partner for a sweet Madeira. This is a fortified wine from the Portuguese island of the same name that’s uniquely aged through heat and oxygen, giving it a distinctively nutty, caramelised flavour and a signature brightness from a zingingly high, natural acidity. This mouth-watering, nutty tipple cuts through the richness of the chocolate while echoing the salty-sweet contrast. It’s like salted caramel with a backbone.

Orange Chocolate & Tokaji

Orange chocolate pairs beautifully with Tokaji Aszú, be it dark or milk because both share vibrant, zesty orange notes balanced by enough sweetness and complexity. Tokaji Aszú is a legendary Hungarian dessert wine known for its honeyed apricot, orange peel and marmalade flavours. Its bright, high levels of acidity lift the richness of the chocolate, while the candied orange notes echo and amplify the citrus. It’s harmony in high-definition. Spirits tip: Cognac is also an epic match for orange chocolate!

White Chocolate & Moscato

White ‘chocolate’ (yes, we know it’s not technically chocolate) is sweet, fatty, creamy and delicate, which makes it a natural match for the light, floral charm of Moscato d’Asti. This gently sparkling Italian wine is low in alcohol but high in aromatic intensity, bursting with notes of peach, elderflower and orange blossom. Its sweetness mirrors the white chocolate’s richness, while the fizz and acidity keep the pairing fresh and not cloying. It’s like biting into a cloud with a spritz of perfume.

Salted Caramel Chocolate & Tawny Port

Salted caramel chocolate is all about contrast: sweet, buttery richness with a hit of savoury salt and it finds its perfect partner in Tawny Port. Aged in oak, Tawny Port develops nutty, toffee-like, dried fruit flavours that mirror the caramel notes beautifully. The salt draws out the wine’s complexity, while the warmth and sweetness of the Port round off the edges. It’s indulgence squared.

So, those are some classics. Here are some other tried and tested pairings that work with flavoured chocolate, including the odd dry wine!

Rose Milk Chocolate & Amarone

Rose milk chocolate, with its floral perfume and silky sweetness, pairs surprisingly well with the bold elegance of Amarone della Valpolicella. This full-bodied, bold Italian red, made from partially dried grapes, has a touch more alcohol and ripe sweetness than other ‘dry’ wines, which is why it works. Its flavours of cherry, dried fig and sweet spice echo the romantic, aromatic lift of rose while offering enough depth to balance the chocolate’s creaminess. It’s a lavish, almost exotic pairing.

Dark Mint Chocolate & New World Cabernet Sauvignon

Dark mint chocolate, with its bittersweet depth and cooling herbaceous edge, is a striking match for a New World Cabernet Sauvignon from places like Chile, California, or Australia. These wines are bold and fruit-driven, often with notes of blackcurrant, eucalyptus and dark chocolate themselves. The mint in the chocolate picks up the subtle menthol or leafy tones in the wine, while the firm tannins cut through the richness. It’s a confident pairing with a refreshing twist that works because there’s a lot less sugar in dark chocolate and the astringency from the tannins are matched.

Have you found a perfect pairing? Let me know!