ROYCE’ Chocolate & Wine Pairing @ Royce, Publika

An evening of fine chocolates and wines.
Why not? 🙂

This particular experience was initiated by premium Japanese chocolatier ROYCE’, one of my favourite chocolate brands with Nam Lee Cheong Wine Shop (www.wineshop.com.my). Needless to say, all chocolates sampled that evening were carefully chosen to match with suitable wines, most of which are sweet.

“When pairing wine with chocolate, you will need to keep the wine sweeter than the chocolate or a lighter chocolate with light-bodied wine to give you a smooth and full experience in each pairing.” said Mr Leong Keng Mun, Managing Director of Nam Lee Cheong.

We all listened attentively and obediently savored the Royce’ chocolate and swirled the wine in our mouth.
The 1st that I sampled that evening was NAMA Chocolate (Mild Cacao) with Montes Late Harvest. The late harvest was such a pleasant sweet wine and being a sucker for sweet wines I can’t find anything to complain about this pairing.
The mild cacao was actually a bit sweet for me since I’m a dark chocolate fan. Since this was the first, I waited for the next few chocolates so I could have a comparison of both taste and opinions of my fellow friends around my table.

I was late but luckily for me there previous wines from the first few chocolates that I missed was still available. Unfortunately the chocolates were finished so I just sampled the current chocolates with the earlier wines.
Out of the 3 wines offered that evening, my preference was the Pink Moscato, Late Harvest followed by the Sweet Lips.
Really, I have never heard of these wines! Such cheeky names! 😀

2nd pairing (for me) –>  Bar Chocolate (Black) – Montes Late Harvest.

Think of rich, bitter-ish delicious chocolateyness of dark chocolate. In that same mouthful, sip a nectar-ish wine and swallow. I washed down the velvety seductive smoothness of fine quality cocoa with the sweet wines; the moscato imparting a more refreshing aftertaste while the Late Harvest was pure dreamy sweetness with a long, honeyed and lingering finish.

We ended the evening with Royce’ Pure Chocolate (Extra Bitter). Superb with the wines.

The list of chocolates and wines featured during the pairing are as below (the earlier ones were the ones I missed):
R Chocolat (Milk Cocoa) – Gossips Sweet Lips Moscato
Bar Chocolate (Creamy Milk) – Warburn Estate Rumours Pink Moscato
Nama Chocolate (Mild Cacao) – Montes Late Harvest
Bar Chocolate (Black) – Montes Late Harvest
Pure Chocolate (Mild Bitter) – Montes Late Harvest
Pure Chocolate (Extra Bitter) – Montes Late Harvest

CHOCOLATES FOR THE NIGHT:
ROYCE’ outlets in Malaysia are located in Isetan KLCC, Bangsar Village, Tropicana City Mall, The Gardens Mall, Ben’s Independent Grocer at Publika, Empire Shopping Gallery and Tropicana Golf & Country Resort. ROYCE’ Malaysia also has an online e- store (www.royce.com.my) which allows customers within the Klang Valley, as well as those located in Penang, Kedah and Johor, to enjoy their chocolates delivered chilled right to their doorstep. www.royce.com.my
Location of the wine + chocolate pairing session: ROYCE’ outlet at B.I.G. Supermarket, Publika.

WINES BY:
Nam Lee Cheong
Nam Lee Cheong Wine Shop ventured into the wine trade and began importing international wines in the mid-nineties, with 12 agencies around the world from countries such as Australia, Italy, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, China, Korea, and France.
For online purchases and browsing, surf over to www.wineshop.com.my.