I have a particular love affair taking place with Tempranillo at the moment. Okay,so maybe I actually have a love affair taking place with many food and winelovelies right now, but will get to those later on.

I was first struck by Cupids arrow when I tasted the Tempranillo from Famila Gascon , 2008. Now that was love at first taste. Tempranillos are usually lighter, not heavy in bodyand easy to drink. This onehowever was different. It wasfuller bodied, spicy and full of personality. It seduced me completely and initiated a curiosity about howthe varietal expresses itself here in Argentina.

When I arrived at the winery OFournier and tasted their young Tempranillo I was intrigued once again. Here was another Tempranillo full ofspice, particularly cassis which I love. So I decided to experiment, surely there was a way to pair these whichchocolate.

Normally Tempranillo is not a wine that you would think to pair with the chocolate because it is lighter bodied. The go to wines are usually cabernetsor amarones, that have either lots of body and spice or lots of mature fruit. However I am convinced that any winecan be paired with chocolate, you just need to find the right chocolate andcombination.

So could this Tempranillo hold up to chocolate? I was about to findout. I began rummaging in mylittle wine fridge, that doesnt have a stitch of wine but instead is filled tothe gills with 15 kilos of chocolate. And yes, I do keep it stashed away in my bedroom.

I pulled out a range of chocolates, from 62% to 88%, different beans and different countries as well as the OFournier UrbanEco Tempranillo 2008 . This was a good starting point at least and I am happy tosay we came up with some fascinating conclusions:

88% dark chocolate from the Amazonia region in Ecuador: Here the wine brings out citrus notes in the chocolate, and the bitterness of the chocolate actually brings the acidity of the wine down, balancing itout. There were still someslightly astringent notes, but they were pleasant and created a harmony withthe citrus notes coming out. This combination was fresh and clean particularly onthe finish.

80% dark chocolate from the Carenero region in Venezuela: This is aninteresting match. The wine brings out all the earthinessin the chocolate that is not apparent when eating the chocolate by itself. It is a rich earthiness, reminiscent ofa forest. The wine remains thesame, the chocolate neither enhances it or makes it worse. However, with the addition of a bit ofbasil to the combination a transformation occurs. The fruit in both the wine and the chocolate come out, andthe wine balances out, the acidity goes down and there is no bitterness. Now add some quince and pear juice tothe mix. It goes up one morenotch. Both the chocolate and thewine have completely harmonized in the mouth, all the fruits in both explodeand it leaves you with a lovely fruity finish. It makes the wine better (not that it wasnt great to startwith).

72% dark chocolate from Moxos, Bolivia: this is also an interesting combination as the wine enhances the chocolate, bringing out all its lovely flavours of cinnamon andthe hidden fruit. However the wineremains somewhat flat. It isgiving itself up in this relationship, compromising its personality to allowthe other to shine.

62% semi-sweet chocolate from the Rio Arriba region in Ecuador: With this onethe wine remained completely flat however the chocolate really shined, bringingout all of the cinnamon and spicy notes in it. But it was a complete one-sided relationship, the wine inthis case losing itself completely.

It was an interesting tasting because we realized that the more bittersweet chocolates that had many citrus notes werepairing better than ones with a lower cacao percentage and more spice. Not something I think most people wouldexpect, but a lovely surprise. Iwas quite excited about the 88% and the 80% pairings and I believe I can createsome interesting combinations with these. You can count on that one as part two..