A French Wine to Match Chocolate

I mentioned in the entry about Ozzie Liqueur Muscat that I encountered a French wine which is also a good match for chocolate too. This is a picture of the label- a bold brash purple exclamation mark! Maury is one of the vin doux natural appellations of South West France. It is a fortified Grenache sweet wine, very similar to Banyuls. I had this wine in December 2000 and I took down these notes: wonderful with chocolate truffle cake, very good with Baci di Dama (hazelnut macaroons filled with chocolate cream), fresher & fruitier than port (presumably in combination with chocolate cake).

I had forgotten the comparison with port, only remembering that with the Ozzie Muscat which brought out the nuttiness of the hazelnut macaroons. As you may have noticed, only fortified wines seem to have the oomph to stand up to chocolate, but that is not the only choice. With strong chocolate desserts, wines with bold flavours and strong personalities are needed, but with a light mousse, some would pair it with something like Asti. This is not something that I'm used to, but I'll give it a try and describe it in another entry.