The best wines to drink with your Christmas chocolate

Celebrations for breakfast? Terry’s Chocolate Orange for lunch? Christmas is the only time of year when there’s so much chocolate lying around that it ends up replacing a meal.

There’s plenty of wine around too. But which kind of wine should we drink with these low-maintenance chocolate dinners? After all, pairing wine and chocolate isn’t totally straightforward, because the sweetness of chocolate and its palate-coating texture often make an enemy of wine.

Fear not, I have glad tidings – there are some clever chocolate matching wines around and I’ve rounded up the best for you here.

Whether it’s Matchmakers or Terry’s famous fruit, orange is a pretty good flavour for wine to pick up on. The spoiling option – it is Christmas, after all – would be tokaji. This luscious dessert wine from Hungary takes on a honeyed apricot and orange flavour as it ages, making it a seamless pairing for orange chocolates. A South African straw wine would also pair well, and of course, there’s always Cointreau.

For pralines or other nutty flavoured chocolates such as Ferrero Rocher and Guylian Seashells, we’re looking at a winter wine favourite – port. More specifically a tawny port, which has been aged for longer (than other ports) in oak barrels, giving it the faded tawny colour and nutty flavour. If you fancy something stronger, what else but amaretto?

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From Roses to Celebrations to Quality Street – if the selection boxes are open, it’s best to pour a versatile wine that isn’t too heavy. Ciao lambrusco! This red sparkling wine from Italy has buckets of red fruit flavour and a perky hit of fizz, even though it’s dry. It’s the perfect drink to adapt to the Russian roulette of chocolate flavours in a box.

And finally, how about a creamy yule log? Slathered in sweet buttery icing, it’s aching to be paired with a wine that packs some serious punch, such as the richest, darkest and sweetest of sherries: Pedro Ximenez. If you want to go a little lighter, track down a fortified sweet red from France called maury. And when you’ve maxed out with all the chocolate, maury is – usefully – also gorgeous with blue cheese.

Christmas chocolate wine pairings

Eat Terry’s Chocolate Orange

Drink with Chateau Dereszla Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos 2016, £32.49

A powerful punch of luscious apricot, peach and candied orange flavours.

Eat Ferrero Rocher

Drink with Fonseca 10 Year Old Tawny Port, £17.99

This glides over your palate like a professional skier, with roasted nut and chocolate flavours.

Eat Celebrations

Drink with Ca de Monaci Lambrusco Salamino, £9.99

A fanfare of cherry flavours lifted by the energy of little bubbles.

Eat Yule Log

Drink with Fernando de Castilla Antique Pedro Ximenez NV, £34.99

A dark, sweet potion guaranteed to put you under a treacle-and-dried-fruits spell.

Welcome to the Metro Wine Club

Metro’s Wine Club, in association with Virgin Wines, is a brilliant way to save money on your Christmas tipples. Join now and you’ll get 12 bottles usually worth £171.88 for £65.88 (a 60 per cent saving), with free delivery. That’s just £5.49 a bottle.

Available as a mixed, all-red or all-white selection, the case is the perfect introduction to Virgin Wines’ WineBank service – including benefits such as £1 extra for every £5 saved, free express delivery and total flexibility – no contract or membership fees, you’re in charge!

Join the Metro Wine Club and get 12 bottles of world-class wine for just £65.88 – that’s £100 off!

To order, visit Virgin Wines or call 0343 224 1001 and quote the code VF2247

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