Wine and Chocolate

With storms out at sea this past  weekend, our boating plans were put on hold for another day. This weekend also happened to be the first since June that we didn’t have family visiting from Ireland. With an open Saturday stretching ahead of us, we weren’t sure what to do so we decided to just head out and figure something out along the way. A quick check of our mailbox before we left revealed a postcard from Travessia Urban Winery where we are club members, telling us that we were missing a wine club event at that very moment!

In less than an hour, we were at Travessia, ready to taste their newly released Trapeze and excited to find out that there were chocolate pairings involved.

Grasiela from Brigadeiro Barn was at Travessia, sharing samples of her homemade Brazilian truffles.

Brigadeiro Barn truffles are all hand made by Grasiela with local and organic ingredients whenever possible. Available flavors change with the seasons, and truffles can be ordered for all sorts of special occasions.

We started our tasting with Travessia white and rosé wines, wines we tasted on our last visit and needed to stock up on after a hot summer. We eagerly looked forward to the reds and the chocolate pairing portion of the tasting.

First up was the just-released Trapeze which is made from 100% Washington state Pinot Noir grapes. The Trapeze was paired with one of Brigadeiro Barn’s raspberry truffles, made with fresh raspberries. We were instructed to taste the truffle, then the wine, then the truffle.

We were both struck by the smooth, gooey texture of the raspberry truffle and the way the berry flavors in the wine and berry flavors in the truffle brought one another out.

The second pairing was Travessia’s Bandit, a blend of Tempranillo and Touriga Nacional, with a classic Brigadeiro chocolate truffle. We thought the raspberry truffles were amazing, but the classic chocolate won us over even more. Brigadeiro Barn’s chocolate is not sweet, just rich, creamy, and silky.

The classic chocolates are rolled in Belgian chocolate flakes making for a simply melt-in-your-mouth treat.

We really enjoyed speaking with Grasiela about her chocolates and all the fun she has trying new flavors and wine pairings with a sommelier friend. She mentioned a white wine and truffle pairing. . . I would love to try that!

It was also great to see Travessia’s owner and winemaker Marco who has recently started winemaking as a full time job. He is doing great and has a few exciting things going on that we loved hearing about. Travessia has a few events coming up, including an Oktoberfest event we are hoping to check out. If you live in the Boston area and want to taste some great locally made wine, check it out!

What seasonal truffle flavor would you love to have made for you?