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Chocolate Wines for Delivery or Pickup
The Instacart guide to beer/wine/spirits products
About chocolate wine
Chocolate wine has been around for centuries and became a popular refreshment relatively recently. This novel wine makes for a perfect end to dinner as a dessert wine or as the most elegant gift to a wine lover with a sweet tooth. A good chocolate wine has a lot of depth to its flavor profile. While a chocolate wine should have a nice chocolate flavor, it should present a lighter, fruitier taste first and have a rich chocolate finish.
Tasting notes you're likely to find with a chocolate wine are cocoa powder, dark chocolate, black cherry, strawberry, and raspberry. Some chocolate wines can remind you of chocolate cherry truffles and have a soft velvety texture. Winemakers typically use grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Tempranillo, and Merlot, known for making tasty and complex wines.
Chocolate wine is generally made with a combination of sweet red wine and dry wines; sometimes, they use a dry wine with bitter chocolate and sugar. The oldest recipe, published during the 1700s, used a Port or Sherry, with baker's chocolate, sugar, and rice flour. Many recipes use red wines, milk, eggs, and cocoa powder, and some use flour or cornstarch as a thickening agent.
Types of chocolate wineÂ
There are several styles of chocolate wines. Some are fortified wines similar to Ports with a delightful, dark chocolate and berry flavor. Producing this flavor requires winemakers to mix chocolate directly into the wine itself carefully. Another style, much lower in alcohol, uses red table wine as its base. Other chocolate wines use cream in the wine-making process creating a drink similar to a milkshake or Irish cream.
Here are a variety of chocolate wines available through Instacart:
- Chocolate Shop Red Wine - 12.5% ABV, red wine, dark chocolate, and cocoa powder.
- Els Iced Coffee Chocolate - Â 14% ABV, grape wine, cream, and caramel color.
- Red Decadence Winery Chocolate Red Wine - 13.5% ABV, medium body, cherry, and chocolate.Â
- Cocoa Vino - 14% ABV, milk chocolate, red wine, cherry, caramel, and cream.
- Rapidan River Grape Wine, Chocolate - 12% ABV, dark chocolate, and rare white cocoa.
- Cocoa di Vine Chocolate & Wine - 14% ABV premium grape wine, natural chocolate flavors, and cream.
Tips on how to choose the right chocolate wine
Stay clear of flavors that will remind you of cheap syrup. Look for these types of chocolate when shopping for chocolate wines:
- Semi-sweet chocolate: This type of chocolate has been used to make chocolate wines since the 1700s. Semi-sweet or bitter chocolates tend to provide a pure chocolate flavor. Red wines have softer sweet or bitter flavors that can match well with these types of chocolate flavors.
- Cocoa: Regular cocoa is often used in chocolate wines creating a richer and strong taste.Â
- Dutch Chocolate: Dutch-processed cocoa provides a creamier milk chocolate flavor to the wine.
- Dark chocolate: Dark chocolate gives the wine a fuller and richer taste than milk chocolate. Not everyone loves this chocolate wine style, and dark chocolate doesn't work well with every wine either. Dark chocolate has a broad range in what makes it "dark," depending largely on location. Ideally, you would know the cocoa percentage used to make the dark chocolate to find its exact flavor profile.Â
Pair the right chocolate with the right wine:
- Milk chocolates: Find a light body, fruity red wine like Pinot Noir or Lambrusco.
- Darker chocolates: Look for a full fruit-forward red wine. Touriga Nacional and Cabernet Sauvignon can add rich depth to your chocolate wine.
- Sparkling wines: sparkling wines can add some light playfulness to your chocolate wine.
Pair your chocolate wine with something nice:
- Light pairings: The flavors present in chocolate wines make them a nice pairing with chocolate berry ganache or chocolate-covered strawberries. These light-hearted treats are perfect while you enjoy a rich chocolatey wine.
- Broader flavors: Luxurious chocolate truffles have an unbeatable taste. Try different chocolate wines with these sweets to find which combination works best your you.Â
- Non-traditional pairs: Place your chocolate wine in the fridge for a few hours until cold and drizzle it over any of these delectable ice cream flavors, coffee, salted caramel, blackberry, or chocolate hazelnut.
Chocolate wine is famous for its ability to stand alone as a dessert at the end of a nice dinner. So don't be afraid to enjoy this wine on its own.Â
Chocolate Wine Near Me
Buy your favorite Chocolate Wine online with Instacart. Order Chocolate Wine from local and national retailers near you and enjoy on-demand, contactless delivery or pickup within 2 hours.
FAQs about chocolate wine
No. Chocolate wines differ from traditional red wines in that they should be kept for no longer than two years. After two years, the smell and look of the wine will tell you if it is safe to consume.
A typical ABV for chocolate wine is between 12-14%.
Order some delectable dessert wines through Instacart using the Instacart app today, and you can get your night started in as little as 2 hours!