2013 Wine and Roses Wine and Chocolate Experience With Merrill and Karen Bonarrigo

If like me you love wine and you love chocolate, then this event is for you!  Each year, I pick a different wine and chocolate experience for our festival goers. For this 29^th annual Wine and Roses festival it was the most fun ever because my daughter in law Karen helped me.

Aggieland Flowers and Chocolates, located at 4095 Highway 6 S Suite D, College Station, TX 77845, provided the chocolate experience. Our mission was to pick the best pairing of chocolate for three wines, the Blanc du Bois, the Sophia Marie Rose’, and the ReaGae Cabernet Sauvignon.  When I say best pairing, I mean that we look for something that stands out – something that says WOW.

We tasted 12 different chocolates with each of the wines and found our amazing pairings.

2012 Grandview Blanc du Bois – this wine is made from the Blanc du Bois grape grown at the beautiful Grandview Vineyard in Richards, Texas. It is 90% Blanc Du Bois and 10% Chardonnay and has no oak aging.  The wine is fruity, floral and creamy though dry. Of the chocolates tried, the Lavender Caramel and Sea Salt chocolate from Oregon was the most amazing! It made the lavender pop and brought out the floral component in the wine.

2012 Sophia Marie Rose’, named after our first born granddaughter Sophia Marie, is made from 100% Lenoir estate grown at Messina Hof Vineyards in Bryan, Texas. The grapes are harvested early in the season and wine made from first press free run juice. Sweet berry and cherry flavors in the wine made it a perfect match for the French produced Bovetti Milk Chocolate with Candied Rose Petals. Not only was l excited about rose petals with Rose’ but we were serving it at the Wine and Roses Festival! How perfect is that? The pairing made the wine taste more floral and actually brought out the rose petals in the chocolate.

2009 ReaGae Cabernet Sauvignon is dear to our hearts as it is named for two lovely people Reams and Gae Shofner who planted their grapes in Lamesa, Texas in 1985.Today it is managed by their children. The wine is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot. Aged 12 months in French and American oak it is a limited Single Vineyard 112 case production. The tannin in Cabernet Sauvignon can sometimes make chocolate pairing a challenge. Texas made Wiseman House Seville Orange Chocolate was the surprise mate. Not only did the orange subdue the tannin in the wine but the combination of the flavors created a rich Grand Marnier flavor in the mouth with a luxuriously long finish.

Try it yourself with friends and family and let me know what you think.  – Merrill