Wine Club and Lindt

So here I am, at a summer camp for especially gifted kids, living in a dorm with all the other teachers. Come the end of the day, the thing on everyone's mind is alcohol. So we started a wine club.

The theory is that we pay about $20 apiece and then we buy as much wine as we can, opening a bottle or two every night. I tend to steal the bottles afterwards to soak off the labels so I can paste them into my wine diary, but that's another miniature obsession altogether. ;) As a vegan, I have to supply myself with my own dessert, because living on cafeteria salads and overcooked green beans is only acceptable for the soul if you can have dessert afterwards. Cafeteria chefs don't understand non-dairy dessert like sorbet, so I've taken to carrying Lindt bars around with me. The one in my purse last night was a dark chocolate chili bar, which I brought out in a flash of inspiration when a Baron Philippe de Rothschild Mouton Cadet Bordeaux made its appearance.

The Bordeaux is a thinner red wine, without any defined legs to speak of. The Malbec from the other night had very visible legs running down the side of the glass; this one isn't half as heavy. It stands excellently on its own, and you can definitely taste the berry aromas, although my co-wine-lover thought she detected hints of chocolate. Naturally, the next step in the experiment was to try it with my chocolate.

This wine pairing is nothing short of stellar. It was knock-your-socks-off decadent. The chili kick livens up the chocolate and brings it up to par with the multilayered wine, and the wine isn't overpowering enough to wash away the wonderful chocolate chili flavors and leave you with chocolate winey goo in your mouth (yeah, I know, ew!). And the bottle is only $9.99 at Jericho Wine! It is a wonderful red wine, excellent for people who like their wines a little less deep and rich than Cabernet Sauvignons. "Round and crisp attack" at the start is a wholly accurate description, as is the expressive and long berry finish. Simply lovely!