ight ideas br
27: left-field wine & food pairing Rebecca Palmer Corney & Barrow, London
In a nutshell: Don’t shy away from the
showing their wares, and again, just like
your own palate in the process.
product. The chocolate tastes wonderful
with wine, consumers want to learn about
notoriously difficult wine and chocolate
the provenance and the authenticity of a
pairing. You may even discover more about
and the packaging is absolutely amazing so
Tell us more …
of course it’s great for gifting.”
“A friend of mine set up Cocoa Runners
Will you continue with the tastings in
about seven years ago, doing what we do
for wine but for chocolate. He goes around
the Zoom format?
we started, for fun, trying to pair chocolate
don’t have to factor in the expense of a
the world seeking out artisan producers
“Definitely. I think virtual tastings are here
and wine. We tried to look for subtle
babysitter or a taxi. Cocoa Runners were
to stay. They are convenient in that you
who produce bean-to-bar chocolate and
already doing a lot of consumer events
pairings between really fantastic flavourful
before lockdown and then they were very
chocolate and both red and white wines, so not just the standard port or Pedro Ximenez wines.
“Over time we started to develop a bit of
an understanding of certain grape varieties
Chocolate: the ultimate wine pairing problem
that work and the styles or winemaking
might conche the chocolate, stir it and so
Would you say there is a natural synergy
parallel worlds of wine and chocolate you
techniques that formed an accord with particular chocolate beans.”
between wine and chocolate? “Yes! Just as in the wine world we have the thing of swirling the glass and allowing
forth. It’s absolutely fascinating and it’s really good fun. I think in pairing these
discover a bit more about yourself in how you taste and what your preferences are.”
The tastings are in November. Is this the
the aromas to come up and then holding
best time of year for them?
melt and understanding it’s not just about
difficult, maybe because people are
the wine in your mouth – it’s like holding
“I think Spencer at Cocoa Runners can
the percentage of cocoa, but about how it’s
thinking of their bikinis! But it gets to
the chocolate in your mouth and letting it
been made; the techniques or the variety of bean. The way we might extract tannins or
let the wine rest in oak and have batonnage and things like that to make something
more creamy, it compares to the way they
generally find the summer months quite about this time of year and people really want good chocolate. For example, there
was a chocolate fair last weekend at Kings Cross and they had 5,000 people pop in. “People behind the products were
up-and-at-them with their Zooms during lockdown so they had an established
format. We drew on some of the pairings we’d made already and rolled them out
into tastings. We can open a window onto a new experience and get people to taste
along with us. It’s a really fun experience. “Also, I find one of the most difficult
things about making wine accessible
and fun for people is that tastings can be
intimidating. We use an online tool called Menti. You can input things anonymously and they all come up on screen at once.
“Virtual tastings offer so many benefits
and learning opportunities that I hadn’t anticipated before lockdown.”
So chocolate and wine is a good thing? “I do think craft chocolate is a really good
add-on for wine merchants and it is an area that will develop. Chocolate made this way is better for you and for the planet.”
Rebecca wins a WBC gift box containing some premium drinks and (appropriately) a box of chocolates. Tell us about a bright idea that’s worked for you and you too could win a prize. Email claire@winemerchantmag.com
THE WINE MERCHANT november 2021 25
