Parallel Passions: Wine & Chocolate
August 25, 2009
For those of us who enjoy a chunk of deep dark chocolate with our Cabernet, the joys of wine and chocolate are well known, but there is more to this than meets the palate. We bring together two San Francisco originals – TCHO Chocolate and Foggy Bridge Wine – to explore this legendary pairing on a deeper level and uncover the similarities in the seemingly diverse worlds of grapes and cacao.
The story of TCHO is a story of reimagining what it means to taste chocolate. The wine conventions currently used, like varietal, origin, and percentage, can be misleading, just as they can be in wine — the same varietal, for example, grown on the same farm in the same growing region can taste radically different depending on the season, how the beans were fermented, or how they were dried. TCHO proposes a better way to discover your chocolate — namely the flavors that are inherent in cacao. They have developed a flavor wheel in an attempt to make chocolate that is the purest expression of the flavors inherent in cacao.
Foggy Bridge is working to bring the winery experience back to San Francisco as it existed prior to the 1906 earthquake that chased many vintners from their urban wineries after barrels of wine spilled into the streets. We also seek out the best grapes from the finest growing regions for our wines and hope someday to crush, ferment and age them in San Francisco, just as TCHO is producing their finished chocolate at their location on Pier 17.
For our upcoming seminar we have brought together four Foggy Bridge wines as well as a couple of additional surprise wines, and four TCHO chocolates for you to taste and decide which combinations you think pair best together. This will be an exploration – there are no correct answers – rather an opportunity to learn about two of life’s pleasures. You may be surprised to learn that chocolate can also pair with white wines and that what you expect will go well together may not be a pleasing as the unexpected!
Please join us, Tuesday, September 15th at 6pm
Presidio Golf Café, 300 Finley Road, just inside the Presidio’s Arguello Gate
Tickets are $25 per person and may be reserved by calling 415.561.4661 x209 or write to mperry@palmergolf.com.
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