The Chocolate Shop Chocolate Lover’s Wine

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on May 1 2012 | Leave A Comment

I had walked past this Chocolate Shop Wine a few times before deciding it had to be tasted. As someone who used to taste wine for a supermarket chain part of me wanted to know if it was possible to combine wine and chocolate in the same glass, while another part of me was just shouting “No! It’s wrong!”

This rather elegantly labelled bottle contains an ‘aromatised red wine drink’, or as the makers prefer to put it ‘”a deep ruby red wine blended with rich, velvety chocolate flavouring.” There’s a little ‘sweet-dry’ chart on the back, and the arrow is almost right at the ‘sweet’ end. Checking the ingredients I find that only 89% of what’s in the bottle is wine. Additional ingredients are sugar and chocolate flavouring, as well as some preservatives, and that had me worried. If adding 1% salt to a bar of chocolate can radically change the flavour, what would up to 10% sugar do to a bottle of wine?

According to the label, this drink has ‘inviting aromas of black cherry and dark cocoa’ with ‘notes of creamy mocha’ lingering on a ‘smooth finish’. In the glass it looks like any other wine, but even while pouring it I was immediately aware of the black cherry aromas coming from the wine. It smelled like a slightly boozy Black Forest Gateau. My first mouthful confirmed what I had suspected about the sweetness, with the cherry flavour sitting right on top of a fairly light wine. It’s certainly sweeter than any wine I have drunk in a long time, but not overpoweringly so. The finish is a combination of vanilla, cherries and wine and taken in the context of ‘a glass of wine’ it’s a little odd. Taken in the context of a glass of chocolatey booze it’s less disturbing and kind of pleasant, although I doubt I could go a second glass – it’s far too sweet for that!

As a sweet dessert wine (possibly eaten with fruit or some sort of sticky, sugary pudding) I think this would probably go down quite well with a lot of people. Drunk on it’s own the high sugar content and unusual flavour make it hard to take more than a small glass. I suppose it would make the perfect companion drink to a classic Black Forest Gateau, but you’d never get away with having this alongside a cheeseboard!

Worth trying for the novelty value, but this is never going to become a regular purchase – for me at least.

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Comments On This Post

  1. Funny. I, too, tried this wine this past weekend.

    I am not particularly fond of it, either. We had it with dessert of a raspberry souffle and a marble ice-cream cake. It didn’t go exceptionally well with either and I definitely wouldn’t buy it again, nor would I recommend it.

  2. Lori

    I pick this wine up a few weeks ago. It was not what I thought it was going to taste like. Will not buy again but to use it up I add it to my beef dishes- the low and slow kind. Also chilli! I hate to waste money!

  3. fiona

    very different nice t o try would not buy often lol

  4. Annette

    I have just opened my first bottle this evening and nearly went to heaven when I tasted it. I’m not a wine connoisseur but I like what I like and this was gorgeous!!!
    I’ve had 2 large glasses and if I didn’t have to get up for work in he morning, I might have had a third! I shall be back to the Co-Op within the next few days to buy a few more bottles at £5.99 which I thought was a bargain!
    Bottoms up!

  5. H

    I was so skeptical about this wine .. friends in the US were raving about it and I have to admit to being a bit of a snob about it.. I like good quality Australian Cabernet Shiraz or a Merlot and really honestly gave them such a hard time about red wine and chocolate and thinking what a gimmick this was going to be! I saw it on special xmas last year in the Co-0p at £5.99 a bottle and figured may as well try it.. I had to eat a big piece of that humble pie and apologise to the friends openly on FB as that is where I had scorned them for drinking what I considered to be cheap trashy wine. I love it! I only ever have one glass mind you as it is fairly sweet but not unpleasantly so .. I have tasted far sweeter and I do not like any sweet wine as a rule and would not ever pay more than that price for it. Its my indulgence .. when I fancy a bit of choc or a glass of wine, I can get my kick from this one thing. I found it to be very smooth .. I get the red wine taste first.. the aroma of choc first and then the blend …..well it works for me is all I can say and yes I would agree its an acquired taste. My Dad, who was a bit of a red wine connoisseur would most likely have poured it down the drain and teased me for liking it ..but I am not professing to be anything.. like the review above.. I like what I like! I usually buy Lindemanns or Hardy’s… be open minded.. you never know……I learned the lesson about not knocking something til you try it! What is we preach to our children? 🙂

  6. Sarah

    I bought this as it was on offer and thought the label was ok. Although sceptical I thought I could cook with it in worst case. On opening the bottle the smell was overwhelming, yuck I thought. My boyfriend and I tried drinking it, but it was too horrible for words. Glasses of wine poured straight down the sink, I can’t bear to ruin a good pear in poaching in this stuff. When I can bear to open the bottle again the rest will be going down the sink. Unless I hear of a better use, like fertiliser.

  7. BECKY

    Yummy!

    For good chocolate and good wine connoisseurs!
    Smooth like a mellow pinotage then eeks out the bitter sweet chocolate aromas dancing on the top of your palette…urging another sip!

    Super!

  8. I live permanently in France and love both wine and chocolate. I was given a bottle of “Chocolate Lovers Wine” at Christmas and put it to one side to try after the excesses of the new year. I got around to tasting it today and, oh dear, it tastes neither like good wine or good chocolate. Imanaged a couple of sips, the second to confirm that it was as awful as the first, and poured the rest down the sink. My wife just sniffed at hers and tipped it into the sink without tasting it. From the other comments I have read it seems that this is not a greatly appealing product. A shame really as I suppose a lot of time and effort went into creating it. Ah well, no lives lost. I certainly won’t try it again.

  9. David

    It’s absolutely disgusting

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  11. Anna-Marie Dangerfield

    Yummy – LOVE this wine, so glad when I see it on the shelf at my local co-op or Sainsbury’s.

  12. Caz

    Surprised at all the negative comments on this wine I love love love it so any spare bottles will be greatly appreciated message me for address x

  13. B. G. Kennon

    I love Chocolate Shop! One of my friends turned me on to it a little over a year ago, and every Friday, I stop and buy a bottle. Love the taste. It goes down smooth and I drink it alone, as well as with various meals.

  14. Amy Baker

    OMG! You have to try this wine. I was also very skeptical and had it in my house for quite a while because frankly it sounded weird to me. Boy was I wrong! This wine was so good when we finally took it with us on date night! We loved it! I can’t wait to get more AND to tell my friends about it!

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