The Wine and Chocolate Guided Tasting at Tradestone Cafe scoffed at conventional wisdom with its four-course matching, and deliciously so. Not quite the hoity wine and cheese party that mom and dad went to with their friends from the club, this tasting shook the foundation of everything I know about wine tasting. The good people of Penns Woods Winery in Chadds Ford brought along some heavy-hitters that, when paired with the craft chocolates from the confectionary artistry of chocolatier/owner Fred Ortega of Tradestone Confections, titillated the senses on many levels.
Some of the evening’s highlights included the 2013 Sauvignon Blanc along with an apricot pate de fruit. The confection was a petite square of very concentrated fruit, firm but not brittle with a texture much like hearty Jello. According to chocolatier Ortega, the sugar treatment is a way to preserve the fruit’s flavor. The sweeter, white-wine varietal was in lock-step with the fruity candy.
“Take a sip, then a bite, then a sip,” instructed Carley Mack, the marketing spark behind Penns Woods. Additionally, the deceptively sweet 2014 Traminette partnered well with a cute passionfruit bonbon. The crisp, honey-rich white is part Gewürztraminer and part Joannes-Seyve, producing a quirky grape that is clean and unassuming; up against the gentle bitterness of the chocolate shell parlaying with the passionfruit filling, there was both contrast and complement, bite after bite.
I recall a delicious chocolate-preserved strawberry bonbon and a ridiculously chocolatey espresso truffle that simply melted into cacao oblivion. Also on offer from Penns Woods: Lacrima Dolce, an impressive red dessert wine laced with “almost raisins, left long on the vine” to deliver a big sweetness, said Mack.
“Millennials are drinking what they want,” quipped Mack. “Don’t choke down stuff you don’t like. Make it relaxed,” she offered. “The best $15 I ever spent,” said Ellen O’Brien, in the crowd for the full house at Tradestone. O’Brien, along with friends Katie Kline and Sarah Benson traveling from Wayne, Pa., stumbled into the evening as “an impulse buy,” Kline proudly said.
What’s next to titillate the exuberant crowd? Look for Calabrian Chile Honey chocolate bars from the confectionary powerhouse. Maybe a return of Dad’s Hat whiskey-chocolate collaboration?
Tradestone’s chocolates can be found in and around Philadelphia at retailers like DiBruno Bros., the Pennsylvania General Store and Weavers Way Co-op, as well as Tradestone’s online store. Penns Woods’ Riesling and Merlot are available at retailers around Chadds Ford. The full catalog of wines is available at the winery’s tasting room in Chadds Ford.
Find Tradestone Confections at the Tradestone Cafe at 117 Fayette St. in Conshohocken; phone (484) 368-3096. Find Penns Woods Winery at 124 Beaver Valley Road in Chadds Ford; phone (610) 459-0808.
