I remember once, many years ago, going to a summer evening dinner party at a friend’s house in London. He lived in a very good area, in a very nice house, and I thought he knew a bit about wine, so accordingly, I turned up at his door with a nice bottle in my hand. In fact, more than 20 years on, I still remember what the wine was….. a Pouilly Fumé from Domaine de Ladoucette (sorry, I don’t remember the vintage). To cut yet another long story short, it turned out that some of his guests enjoyed rather good ‘spritzers’ as an aperitif – he had diluted this beautiful wine with sparkling water and served it pre-dinner!

You might know that I am a bit of a purist when it comes to wine. For example, I prefer my Chablis (and my Albariño) without oak, and cringe at the thought of adding orange juice to Champagne. I don’t really like Cava, and I have to say that I think I would even baulk at the idea of adding OJ to Spain’s favourite sparkling wine. I just don’t believe in mixing a good wine with anything. What’s the point?

However, the other day I discovered a new product (new to me at least) that takes this idea to a new level – Chocovine! Yes, as the name implies it is a blend of red wine, cream and chocolate! Created in Holland it is apparently very popular, and its’ website claims that it is the number one selling chocolate wine in the United States. This claim makes me wonder, how many chocolate wines are there on the market? Perhaps I have been living with my head in a bucket, but I have never seen or heard of this product before.

Now, I do know that a robust red Zinfandel, or perhaps a powerful Cabernet Sauvignon might sit well with a bittersweet chocolate dessert, but the idea of actually blending them together makes my stomach turn. I’ll just stick to a nice glass of Sauternes with my Christmas dessert, or perhaps even a nice moscatel from Spain.

I remember once, many years ago, going to a summer evening dinner party at a friend’s house in London. He lived in a very good area, in a very nice house, and I thought he knew a bit about wine, so accordingly, I turned up at his door with a nice bottle in my hand. In fact, more than 20 years on, I still remember what the wine was….. a Pouilly Fumé from Domaine de Ladoucette (sorry, I don’t remember the vintage). To cut yet another long story short, it turned out that some of his guests enjoyed rather good ‘spritzers’ as an aperitif – he had diluted this beautiful wine with sparkling water and served it pre-dinner!

You might know that I am a bit of a purist when it comes to wine. For example, I prefer my Chablis (and my Albariño) without oak, and cringe at the thought of adding orange juice to Champagne. I don’t really like Cava, and I have to say that I think I would even baulk at the idea of adding OJ to Spain’s favourite sparkling wine. I just don’t believe in mixing a good wine with anything. What’s the point?

However, the other day I discovered a new product (new to me at least) that takes this idea to a new level – Chocovine! Yes, as the name implies it is a blend of red wine, cream and chocolate! Created in Holland it is apparently very popular, and its’ website claims that it is the number one selling chocolate wine in the United States. This claim makes me wonder, how many chocolate wines are there on the market? Perhaps I have been living with my head in a bucket, but I have never seen or heard of this product before.

Now, I do know that a robust red Zinfandel, or perhaps a powerful Cabernet Sauvignon might sit well with a bittersweet chocolate dessert, but the idea of actually blending them together makes my stomach turn. I’ll just stick to a nice glass of Sauternes with my Christmas dessert, or perhaps even a nice moscatel from Spain.