Fruit, Cheese and Wine
The season for comic pears is short. If you can find these pears at the grocery store – buy them.They are wonderful – sweet and very juicy! They bruise easily though, so be careful when you’re handling them. Choose fruit that is still firm and after a few days they will be perfect for eating. Mmmm.

Sliced Comice, Stilton Cheese & Ruby Port
Comice is a heavenly sweet pear that is custard-like in texture when ripe. It’s an especially good dessert pear with full-bodied flavor.

Stilton is a very strong blue cheese with a salty, slightly chalky or grainy texture. This cheese will contrast nicely with the sweet and strong Comice pear flavor.

Ruby Port is a rich wine with ripe berry flavors that partner wonderfully with the sweeter pear. The Port’s rich body contrasts with the strong forward texture of the blue cheese.

We recommend:
Graham’s Six Grapes Reserve Port
Deep garnet color. Aromas of ripe plums and cherries with a hint of chocolate. Flavors of ripe berries and cocoa with a hint of tobacco and earth. complex, good structure and a long, smooth finish. This wine is always a crowd pleaser – even with those who think port is too sweet. $20 from wine.com.

Comice, Roquefort Cheese & Sauternes
Comice pears are smooth and sweet with full flavors.  Roquefort cheese is sharp, rich, musty and has a mellow finish. The wine is bold and tannic with a rich body and smooth finish.

We recommend:
2007 Petit-Vedrines, Sauternes
Straw color. Aromas of pear, honey, stone fruit and a hint of citrus. Flavors of burnt sugar, marmalade and lemon with slight hint of spice. Full fruit finish.

Second label from Doisy-Vedrines. Its first label wine got 94-96 points from Robert Parker for the 2007. This is a great value! Previously $25 at K & L, now $20.

Serving suggestions from pearsusa.com

Wine & Chocolate
Wine and chocolate pairing has become popular – especially for Valentine’s Day. Many wineries will serve truffles from local chocolatiers that seem to match up perfectly with their port or late-harvest zinfandel or merlot. Restaurants and wine bars across the country have begun special wine and chocolate tastings. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have an upscale wine and chocolate experience.

Here in San Diego, the Hotel Del has an Eno wine bar – an upscale wine tasting room that offers affordable wine flights, as well as wines by the glass. They also have a ‘cheese and chocolate sensations’ menu. A great way to sample artisan cheeses and gourmet truffles from local chocolatiers to go with the wine.

For those of us want to have the ‘wine and chocolate experience’ at home, make a night of it with different truffles and a couple of different wines to taste.

If you don’t have a chocolatier nearby, you can order truffles online. Belgian chocolate is at the top of my list of favorites. Years ago I was in Belgium and bought my mom a pound of chocolates. Alas, she didn’t have the opportunity to taste them. I ate them all on the flight home.

With the internet, you don’t have to go to Belgium to enjoy their chocolates. You can order them online. Leonidas Belgian Chocolates are great, not only for special occasions but for wine pairings as well.

A few guidelines for your own pairings:
Wine should generally be as sweet or sweeter than the dessert.

Match elements in the wine and the chocolate, such as nuttiness or fruitiness.

Match lighter flavored chocolates with lighter-bodied wines and stronger flavored chocolates with more full-bodied the wines. For example, a bittersweet chocolate pairs well with an intense California zinfandel.

As in any tasting, if you’re trying several varieties of chocolate, work from light to dark. Start with white chocolate and end with dark or bittersweet chocolate.

Pairing Suggestions:
White Chocolate
White chocolate is buttery in flavor, and has no tannins from chocolate. This makes a good pairing with Sherry, a Moscato d’Asti, or an Orange Muscat. The Sherry and Moscato d’Asti will pick up the creaminess of the chocolates and the Orange Muscat will pick up any fruit tones present.

Milk Chocolate
A wine with low tannins, such as a Pinot Noir or a light-bodied Merlot will complement milk chocolate, a creamy chocolate mousse or chocolate accented cheesecake. Muscats or dessert wines usually work well with milk chocolates.

Dark Chocolate
Because of the high tannins in dark or bittersweet chocolates, ports, zinfandels, and some cabernet sauvignons are a good match for the darker chocolates. I find the higher the cocoa content, the more difficult it is to match the chocolate with wine – even a good port. Anything over 65% cocoa will be too bitter.

Valentines Day is a great excuse to buy some decadent chocolates, a few bottles of wine, and an evening to find your own favorite pairings.

Chocolate, Cheese and Wine
Okay, so you think it sounds weird, but it’s a great combination. We already know that wine and cheese are wonderful together. Chocolate and dessert wines are great together. What could be better than all three at the same time?

If you have a Port or a nice Sherry that you enjoy sipping, try it with a bitter-sweet dark chocolate. Then add a piece of salty Stilton blue cheese or Chèvre (goat) and your taste buds will go wild.

The Chocolate
Gourmet chocolate bars will cost more than a Hershey’s. Expect to pay anywhere from $2 – $5 per bar. Because the darker chocolate is dry and less sweet, you won’t be scarfing it down and a little goes a long way.
Suggestion:
Valrhona 71% Cacao Dark Bittersweet Chocolate
Find it at Cost Plus or Trader Joe’s.

The Cheese
Two suggesions:
- Point Reyes blue cheese
- Humboldt Fog
Soft, creamy ripened goat’s milk cheese. Has a mild tangy flavor. This cheese goes with so many different foods. If you didn’t like it with chocolate and sherry, you can enjoy it with pears or spinach drizzled with balsamic vinegar or a little honey, paired with a nice Sancerre or Chenin blanc. Mmm, mmm.
Find it at a cheese shop or Whole Foods. Not cheap, but you don’t need a lot. $20 per lb.

The Wine
2006 Banyuls Rimage Les Clos de Paulilles
Rimage is a Catalan word which means vintage. Therefore a rimage Banyuls is a fortified wine in which all grapes come from a certain vintage, much like a Colheita or vintage Port. Made of 100% black grenache, this Banyuls exhibits a dark black-purple robe, with intense blackberry jam and succulent rich flavors. This is France’s answer to Port, and the absolute best wine to pair with chocolate! $18 at K & L.

Other pairing suggestions:
- Gorgonzola with shaved bitter-sweet chocolate and marmalade
- Blue Cheese with dark chocolate truffles

La Caudrina Moscato D’Asti 2007
The single most dessert-friendly wine around is arguably Moscato d’Asti. Serve this slightly sweet, semi-sparkling, low-alcohol wine chilled with a favorite fruit or baked dessert. Aromas of peach, pineapple and citrus. Flavors of freshly baked brioche with hints of citrus and almond. Well balanced. It pairs well with Pannettone or a fresh pear upside-down cake. Serve the cake warm with the chilled wine. Yum. $17

Recipe: Pear Upside-Down Cake With Pecans

Pear Upside-Down Cake With Pecans
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup thinly sliced peeled pear
8 pecan halves
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup low-fat sour cream
1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

Place butter in a 9-inch round cake pan; place in oven 2 minutes or until butter melts. Remove pan from oven.

Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over bottom of pan. Arrange pear slices and pecan halves spoke-like over sugar. Set aside.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter, egg, and extracts with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add sour cream and half of flour mixture; beat well. Add remaining flour mixture and milk; beat well. Pour batter over pear slices, spreading gently.

Bake at 350 for 30 to 33 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Coolon a wire rack 5 minutes.

Run a sharp knife around edge of pan to loosen cake. Place a serving plate upside-down over pan; invert cake onto serving plate. Serve warm or cool completely.
From: CDKitchen

Rosenblum Desiree Chocolate Dessert Wine
An exotic blend of Zinfandel and Syrah, along with an infusion of rich, natural chocolate. Sipped, poured over ice cream or in coffee, it’ a delightful treat!

“It’s dark ruby and purple, and the aroma is like creamy cherry chocolate pie. The taste is crazy. It’s a candy bar in a bottle with a little alcohol. Pour it over some ice cream and have some fun. 90,000 points!” – Mark Tarbell, Arizona Republic, Feb. 14, 2007. $17

Tasting notes for this gold-medal winning wine:
An extraordinary dessert wine made of Muscat de Frontignan and superior Napa Valley pot-still brandy. Golden/amber in color from its long aging in French oak, the wine is a complex combination of nuts and orange-peel aromas. Thick and rich in the mouth, the nuts and orange-peel theme continues from the entry through the long finish, highlighted by the many subtleties from the fine brandy and time in the barrel. Easy to recognize in the black box. $29

The frozen grapes were picked in December 2007 and crushed outside so they wouldn’t thaw. The wine was released last July and sells for $80 or more for a half bottle.

The White House paired the sweet A Capella Riesling ice wine with huckleberry cobbler with caramel ice cream.

Black Star Farms managing partner Don Coe said Monday that former President George W. Bush and his wife served the winery’s 2000 A Capella ice wine to a governors’ dinner seven years ago.

The Bushes also served the winery’s Sirius Maple dessert wine during a May 2005 Rose Garden event celebrating Cinco de Mayo. A pinot gris was served once.

“It’s always exciting,” Coe said of his wine’s White House appearances. “We’re delighted.”
-By Kathy Barks Hoffman-AP