Our local wine store hosted a special wine and chocolate evening we were lucky to attend as a group recently. The owners teamed up with one of their distributors who selected a number of wines produced by a small vineyard in Central California. Then, they shared the selections with a chocolatier who is also a wine expert. The chocolatier, a sister team, then worked to create the perfect chocolate to pair with each wine. In some instances, they even created custom-made chocolates to pair with the featured wines.

We were greeted with wine upon entering the venue and then the organizers explained the idea for creating the event, which had much to do with the chocolate-making expertise and their familiarity with the vineyard. We received an overview of the vineyard and exquisite descriptions of each of the wines. So many adjectives! Leathery, muscular, sophisticated, robust, crisp, full-bodied, balanced, well-rounded, fruity, oaky…

While you may think we were there for the wine tasting - most of us were, I was actually there for the chocolate - and the company. The vanilla bean dark chocolate was everything you want out of a chocolate, with just the perfect amount of salt to balance out the sweetness of the vanilla cream. And, the lemon thyme milk chocolate truffle had a touch of honey making it a very unique chocolate. My surprise favorite was the rosemary dark chocolate truffle, which featured a unique blend of flavors. The other ladies enjoyed the chocolate AND the wine. Several bottles were purchased at the end of the evening, along with some chocolate samples as well.

It was a lovely, enjoyable evening. We are looking forward to checking out their next special event.