With a long history of winemaking in South Africa, it is odd to think of South Africa as also New World. But, in many way, South African wines are new to many of us in the US. That said, we will see more and more of them as imports have been growing. So, here is a little taste of what you might find from South Africa, which I wrote about in the Napa Valley Register and am sharing here.
South Africa has been producing wine for more than 350 years. It is one of the most prominent wine producing countries in the southern hemisphere and is the ninth-largest producer of wine in the world.
One can think of South African wine as the Old World meeting the New World. Despite is long history, South African wines have only recently begun to become more prevalent in the U.S., with double-digit volume growth in the past few years.
Although wine and chocolate seem like a cliché, the fact is that they do not pair easily together. Either the chocolate is too sweet or it is too bitter and dominates the wine. Chocolate, like wine, has tannins and tannin-heavy red can clash with a piece of dark chocolate. But, if you like dark chocolate and you like wine and you want them to work together, than the answer is Brix chocolate. I found harmony in a pairing of Brix Medium Dark Chocolate and a glass of McCay Cellars Syrah from Lodi. That is why pairing wine with Brix chocolate is the Please The Palate pick of the week.
Crafted to pair with wine, Brix chocolate is a single origin Ghanaian chocolate, known for its red fruit tones. The Ghanaian chocolate is mixed with confectionery chocolate to create four specific blends.