The Artful Diner catches up with Divine Chocolate’s master chocolatier, David Greenwood-Haigh, to find out a little about Divine’s history and an exciting collaboration initiated by Blueprint Café with Le Pont de la Tour’s master sommelier. So, if the sound of wine and chocolate in the same sentence gets your heart racing, read on…

When it comes to matching chocolate and wine, there’s a basic rule you need to follow: the wine must always be sweeter than the chocolate. There’s an art and science to matching all food and wine, and chocolate is no different. The flavours should blend perfectly and complement each other.

David shares the pairing of milk chocolate with sherry matured in oak barrels as an example. “Sherry is sweet and with its hint of red berries it would go really well with milk chocolate,” he says. “If the wine is more bitter than the chocolate you’ll get conflicting tastes. It’s all about the easiest and most pleasurable pairings.”

A taste from afar

Divine’s story is an intimate one: the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa farmers in Ghana own 45 per cent of the chocolate company. So, there’s a level of integrity to the company that many other chocolate suppliers don’t have. It also means Divine is aware exactly how their cocoa is handled.

David himself has made a trip to Ghana to meet the farmers, and once a year Divine will invite two farmers to the UK. With an environmentally friendly and wholesome approach to chocolate making, Divine sets itself apart from other competitors.

“We have 12 flavours in the range and everything we do is natural,” explains David. “There are no artificial flavours, ingredients or palm oil. Packaging is minimal and we always give consideration to the environment.”  

New partnerships

Having begun his love affair with food at the young age of 15, David is well equipped with the skills required of him as Divine’s master chocolatier. On any day his responsibilities might involve developing new recipes, tasting different flavours or creating pairing notes with wine connoisseurs, such as the master seller from fairtrade and ethical wine company Ehrmanns.

In an exciting new collaboration David is now teaming up with Le Pont de la Tour’s master sommelier, Nicolas Clerc, for an indulgent chocolate and wine-matching event at Blueprint Café. Here the focus will be on developing guests’ wine skills and providing a special experience for how to pair wine with chocolate.

“Within the world of gastronomy, one of the greatest pleasures we have is tasting chocolate,” says David. “When people are tasting chocolate you can hear the pleasure in the room,” he laughs. Sounds like fun!

David’s three top tips on matching chocolate and wine

1. For dark chocolate try red wines such as shiraz, zinfandel and tokay.

2. For milk chocolate opt for sherry or port.

3. For white chocolate sweet and fizzy combinations work best, so try sherry or champagne.

Further information

If you want to learn more about how to match wine and chocolate don’t miss this decadent event at Blueprint Café on Tuesday 31 January.