Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome you to a very special Valentine's edition of Barrel to Bottle with Binny's Beverage Depot. I am lovingly your host, Kristen Ellis, and with me is Jeff Carlin. What's up, Jeff? Hey, lovingly, Kristen Ellis. I've never experienced lovingly, Kristen Ellis. I'm excited. Don't get used to it. Ah. Yeah. Just for one day of the year. Just one day of the year, the Hallmark holiday. V-Day, V-Day, V-Day. Oh my God, that's awesome. I need to introduce another person I love dearly, Roger Adamson. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for having me. Are you happy about Valentine's Day? It's one step further out of winter, so yes, I am. Amen. Whatever you got to do to spin it. No matter how you feel about Valentine's Day, today you're going to feel good because we're doing chocolate and booze pairings. So we're teaming up with KOHLER Chocolates out of Wisconsin. We're going to head on down to the ROKON show later this month and talk about these pairings that we've discovered. Our colleague Hillary and I spent some time this afternoon. We put all this stuff on Instagram and we said, okay, these are the great chocolates they sent. Let's try to find some wine, some spirits, brandy, whatever that goes best with it. So we can tell all the lovebirds out there what works and what doesn't work together. What they sent us then were six different samples of chocolates we're going to talk about on the ROKON show. So we've got their Classic Terrapin, which is the Carmel and Pecan, you know, everybody knows. We have their Dark Chocolate Raspberry Heart, which is fantastic. We have their Dark Chocolate Blueberry One, that's actually really shiny and pretty. Radio does not do this justice. These are quite beautiful. They're gorgeous. Absolutely. They are. These are works of art in their own right. We've got their Cafe and Cream, which is my personal favorite. Their Butterscotch Hop. So, Roger, we thought about you when we tasted the Butterscotch Hop, and I was hell-bent on finding a beer, right? Because I was like, hop here. And I was trying to make it work, but I just couldn't. And I actually have another pairing that I liked. Moa. Oh, we also have another terrapin. That is cranberry, white chocolate and cranberry on the top. We have Poured in the Glass, the KOHLER Dark Chocolate Brandy, which actually on its own is pretty darn delicious. We have the Kelsey Creek Bourbon, the Reserve. I like bourbon with dessert. Some people don't because it's a little bit high in alcohol. But I just think that bourbon plays so well with caramel. It's something that I've always loved, so I had to choose a bourbon that I liked. We have a Red Wine. Now, dry red wine or dry wine and sweets don't really go together. But I chose one that is going to be, yes, it's high in alcohol, but definitely fruit forward, pulls a little bit from the Dark Berry Chocolate Notes. And that is, of course, the Earthquake zinfandel. We have then a Late Bottled Vintage Port from Quinta do Noval, which is a great producer. And then I, you know me, you guys, so I had to throw some bubbles in here. I've got quote unquote, the right and the wrong fizz. On the left is a Rotarer State Brute from California. And then actually something a little bit special. You have Illinois Sparkling Co., their Demisec, their Sweet Rosé. And I want to see how this plays with some of the fruitier selections we got from Kohler Chocolates up there in my native Wisconsin. So that's what we're sitting in front of. This is basically the laboratory in front of us today. Let's start then with kind of what not to do. A classic gift is milk chocolate and dry champagne. Now, separate from each other, if you serve them, you know, one in the beginning of the night and one later, that's fine. But together, they're just not a very good match. The rule here, you guys, that we're going to talk about with sweet food is sweet food, sweet wine. That's really the best way to do it. However, you should know the underlying thing is if you like the dry, dry stuff with the sugary sweet milk chocolate, then amen. Just do it. It's all good. If you like it, doesn't mean that you're bad or wrong. It's just for most people, the sweet food and the dry wine just does not work. So let's just try this kind of wrong experiments. Pick up your fizz, have a drink. Now just take a bite of any chocolate. Just a little smidge of one and come back to the wine again, and tell me what happens to it. Whoa, it's like super bitter. It is. So it takes all the fruit, the sweetness away, feel how tart, and acidic, and sour, which is isn't good. Ladies, when your boyfriend or actually boyfriend might be established, but if the new guy comes with some dry champagne and chocolates, just get rid, get the on tinder and find another one. It's Chicago. It's easy. So that's that. So love the dry fizz. Absolutely. When it comes to chocolates, it just really doesn't have a place. So let's take a look at this Illinois Sparkling Co. It's a couple hours away. They're doing artisanal stuff, traditionally made bubbles down there. Let's take a look and taste their Demisec, their sweet, medium sweet style. It's still not super cloyingly sweet. Right. It's got that sugar. Take a bite of just the raspberry, dark chocolate and go back to the Demisec Rosé. So that's good. That reminds me kind of a favorite drink of mine that gets riffed on the Coeur Royale. It originally can cease, but a lot of people put a framboise or raspberry liqueur in there, so they'll put like a Chambord or something. Right. That's a classic combo though, that nice jammy fruitiness. So I think, yeah, that raspberry, dark chocolate from KOHLER with the Demisec from Illinois Sparkling Co. It's a winner. Plus, you're shopping local. It's got a cool story and it's really great production and the prices are pretty friendly, if you will. So I like that pairing. I think we made that point. You feel good about that? Yeah, for sure. So dry and sweet, eh, eh. If you'd like to mimic what we just enjoyed in the beer world, I suggest you try a raspberry lambic on the sweeter variety, which would be the lindemans' very classic beer and Valentine's Day pairing that we like to suggest. That nice classic raspberry and chocolate is such a good combo. Actually, that was on the table this afternoon and it worked out very well. Yeah, so the raspberry lambic lindemans, yes? Delish. Okay, so let's move on. We're going to go to spirits here for a little bit. We've got the Dark Chocolate Brandy from KOHLER. So guys, give it a nose, give it a taste and tell me what your first impressions are here. It's still, it's not very viscous, right? So it's kind of a lighter-bodied liqueur. Pretty easy, but the dark chocolate is really apparent. You like that, Roger? Do you think it's pretty well put together? Yeah, it is really nice. It almost reminds me of like a, it's hard sometimes to separate it when you're used to hot chocolate being warm. Yeah. But it has like that aroma-wise. It reminds me of like a hot chocolate. Yep. Let's try this with the coffee. The coffee has the cream layer to it. That's the one I went for right away. It is not good. Oh yeah. This coffee and cream chocolate is just, I just want to walk away happy because this is so, so good. Yeah, and that milk piece of it, I mean that almost like you said, that hot chocolate or that roasted milk kind of flavor profile really comes through and it balances. It picks it up. Yeah. It gives it lift. Yeah, it makes it stand out even more so. I'm getting like tiramisu kind of effect too from that. Yeah, for sure. That chocolate was very, very good. When you taste the dark chocolate liqueur, it doesn't overpower because of the coffee and the cream flavor. It actually works very well together. When you're thinking today, it might be too, too much, but it's really not. It's really quite good. Okay, guys, so bourbon. I love bourbon. We have this Kelsey Creek Reserve. How long has this aged again, Roger? I think it's five years, right? We've got the terrapin. For any of you who have been lucky enough to visit bourbon country, this is a tried and true combination. Yes. If you go to any of the distilleries, they conclude most of their tours with a bourbon ball confectionary. Essentially like a truffle made with bourbon and pecans. That was the highlight of my trip to Woodford Reserve. Yeah. So you've been there, you've experienced, you know where we're going. We're going to the delicious town right now. One of my favorite things or to treat myself, mostly on my birthday or a tough day at work, is whiskey and chocolate, mostly bourbon and chocolate. I love bourbon and chocolate. Bourbon and chocolate chip cookies, you name it. A bourbon and dessert, man. It's just so good. The caramel, the chocolate and the nuttiness with the bourbon. The bourbon is not too hot. It really is playing quite nicely. It's lively. Man, I love this pairing. Sometimes I just want the bourbon though. I always just want the bourbon, but you have to make yourself feel better with a little bit of chocolate. Exactly. Yeah, I hear you. So that's good. So we like that, the turtle flavor with the bourbon. So next to them is the Earthquake zinfandel, right? So let's go back to that first example we had with the Brut Fizz, and we thought, man, that's not good, the sweet and the dry. This is technically a dry wine, but there is a very fruity characteristic to it that can kind of masquerade a sweetness sometimes. And see how it's just, it's round, rich, it's not too high in acid, but those great black fruit flavors really come out. And we've got then the blue chocolate from KOHLER Chocolates, which is a blueberry dark chocolate. Give that a try. Let's see how that works. And then taste this in. Did you get the same experience, Roger, with the dry wine from before? Not quite as much, no. This is definitely brought out more of that dark fruit flavor. Exactly. Blackberry, kind of. So it's fruits, the forest, just kind of playing together. And the chocolate sort of just adds a little bit to the tannin, I think, of the wine. It doesn't take it away because it's dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has tannin in it. So when your wine does, you're actually kind of having a good marriage. If you have super, super milky, super sweet, sugary, then that might not work as well. But since we have the dark chocolate component, I think that this is a home run pairing. So you got to do the dry wine. Your lover loves the Zins. Then these kind of fruitier chocolates might be best. Fruitier dark chocolate is a great pairing for dessert if you guys are going to get into that kind of a thing. Moving on, you guys. So we have this port. I really like port and chocolate. This is a Ruby port, right? It's late-bottled vintage port. So technically a Ruby style. It's got some nice kind of chalky grippy tannins, good acidity, full-bodied, sweet, red, fruits of the forest, blackberries all the way. Let's try go back to that raspberry chocolate. Do you guys have any more of that left? I just did that. That's awesome. Oh, heck yeah. That's the way to go. So again, for the unacclimated, some people might only be familiar with port as like a tawny port with ages on it. But what we're drinking is late-bottled vintage. So much more jammy, right? Exactly. So the rubies are ruby-colored, and they're just, think about ruby-colored fruits. And that's kind of what it's all about. The tawnies are going to be that tawny brown color age, and they're not going to have the same components that we have here in the ruby. You are exactly correct. And if you want to learn more about port, check out one of our previous episodes where we talked all things port with a gentleman who does port for a living. He makes wine there, but he hasn't actually do the port. But he has had a hand in port production. But he makes wine in the Douro. His name is Michael Cush. Chasing Harvest is his Portuguese brand that he sells. Fantastic. Roger, I thought about you this afternoon when we were doing these pairings. And I thought, remember, I'm going to get a beer. And so I texted you some options, and you sent the Boulevard Rye on Rye. And then, so this was with the Butterscotch Hops. Do you guys have the Butterscotch one in front of you still? It has the gold paint to it. It's like a hot rod metallic gold paint. It's pretty awesome. A lot of times when people try to pair a beer and chocolate, an easy go-to is to go towards beers that are actually brewed with chocolate, which isn't bad. That's a nice thing to do. Yeah, it's rocking on our chocolate brandy and chocolate example. Perfect. Yeah. Coffee beers, too. That's kind of a tried and true. But what I like about this beer, a lot of candies incorporate that classic combo of caramel and toffee. So I wanted to play off of that. And this is kind of a rye barley wine, maybe. It doesn't really even have a style. That's what's kind of neat about it. It's just sort of a really big, bold beer that's made with rye and aged in rye whiskey barrels. But butterscotch and toffee were the two main things about it that I really like. So let's try this butterscotch hop chocolate from KOHLER with the rye on rye beer. It's not good. It's like an extension of the chocolate. Like it's right. I mean, it really is. It's like, oh, I had some chocolate, washed out some beer. Oh, yeah, chocolate's still there. I gave it. It's really good. But the CO2 in the beer scrubs the tongue and it lifts up that that that sugar coating. And really kind of adds this sort of liveliness to the pairing. I like it a lot. I love it. Good call, ma'am. It was a really good call. We tasted it today. I was like, Roger's really smart, you guys. I think we knew that. About a thing or two. It's funny because, I mean, caramel usually when you talk it with chocolate and caramel, caramel has like that coating, that sticky flavor to it. This will give that and then it'll wipe it away, but then elevate it. I mean, it's a perfect pair. So we know what to do, we know what not to do. But I hope you guys enjoyed this particular segment to know what to do and what not to do for your sweet one on Valentine's Day. Speaking of sweet things, you know what's also sweet? Getting $20 gift card to Binny's Beverage Depot. Exactamundo. How can people do that, Jeffrey? I'm pretty sure if you write to at Binny's Bev on Twitter with a question and we use it, we'll give you $20 to come out to Binny's and try one of these or maybe impress somebody with a fantastic bottle. 20 bucks will get you pretty far on Impression Street. Absolutely. When it comes to Valentine's Day. We are looking at bernadette from Naperville. Yeah, I love bernadette. You know what? I love the name bernadette. All right. What do we got here? Bernie says, my boyfriend and I have a tradition of getting heart-shaped pizza on Valentine's Day. The restaurant is a BYOB. What should I bring to pair and impress my boyfriend? Pizza and beer, man. Right? I love it. It's just hard because I just think of all, like, what are these people putting on their pizza? Are they meat lovers? Are they vegetarians? Is she a meat lover and he's a vegetarian? The fact that they've even made it to Valentine's Day is impressive, if that's the case. But pizza, even though you can throw some varying toppings on there, it's pretty much salty and heavy oil. I mean, regardless. Tomato and cheese. Yeah, tomato and cheese. Okay, but I'm going to give you, okay, let's just do garbage pizza, right? So mushrooms, onions, green pepper, sausage, cheese. Sausage. Right, it's got to be sausage. I mean, say it one more time. Sausage. Thanks. And just, yeah, thick crust, right? All of it. So give me a good, good beer. That's impressive. I'm going to go with the Swiss Army Knife of Beer Pairings, a be saison. Oh, yeah, there you go. Good one. That makes great sense. Nice and effervescent. It's going to scrub your palate. So even regardless of the toppings, pizza definitely heavier, weightier, richer. There's fat that needs to be refreshed from the palate. Cut, yeah. Cleansed, especially if you're adding things like sausage and pepperoni. Some saisons are packaged in 750 milliliter bottles. It's a nice big cork, so has kind of that celebratory angle as if you were drinking champagne. Right. But yeah, a saison is one of those beer and food-friendly pairings where it works with almost anything. And it's nice and refreshing. It's not going to be super heavy, like some of your other Valentine's Day options, things like stouts and porters. You're still eating a meal. You want something that's, especially with pizza, that's rich and heavy. Heavy, exactly. You don't want to like bog yourself down. Especially if you're eating a nice like, you know, pizza, pan pizza. Sure, yeah, yeah. So for the BYOB, what do you recommend? I mean, Roger, Roger's got the full breath of Binny's at his bed. He grabs on the shelf. So Cezanne du Pont is the classic Cezanne. There might even be some of their phenomenal winter Cezanne, Avec les Bonvues leftover, if you can snag some of that. On point, yes. C'est fantique, fantastique. Boulevard, that we just drank, they're Rye on Rye. They make a phenomenal Cezanne. Their brewmaster is Belgian born. So that's called Tank 7. And that's a great option as well. Especially if you don't want to open a huge bottle, that comes in smaller 12 ounce bottles too. It's funny because Tank 7 is my nickname during pizza eating contest. So for real, I'm not kidding. What about sparkling wine? I feel like you could also have some sparkling wine with pizza. Well, you know, Fizz is kind of the default for everything. Especially in Kristen Ellis. Especially in Kristen Tank 7 Ellis' world. Exactly. No, it's Tank 7 all the way, bottle fermentation. Maybe a Prosecco? Go with the Italian theme? Yeah, I mean, could, but actually I would just go with a nice Italian red wine. For me, Carmoniano. I really like Carmoniano because it's a Tuscan blend. It shows Cabernet and Sangiovese and how they play together. I just really enjoy Carmoniano. They're just delicious. So Carmoniano would be my number one. If you can find it, it can be difficult to find. I think we've got only maybe one or two at Binny's, but I really, really like them. Or what else do I want with pizza? There's this wine that I really like by Hesse called the Lion Tamer. Man, that kills it with pizza. That's a great Valentine's Day wine. It's a good red. That's it. It's all I got. This has been enlightening. These pairings with the chocolate and the fizz and the everything was just great. Yeah, so to recap. The raspberry and the Illinois Sparkling Co. Demi Sec Rosé was awesome. Yeah? Absolutely. Oh, yeah, for sure. You liked it too? What else did you like? Well, bourbon, I'm partial to... Bourbon. I will, around the holidays, sit there and roll all the stupid little bourbon balls. I will admit, I would rather do that than bake cookies, I guess. So, bourbon balls is a classic combination, tried and true, and that's exactly what that reminded me of. So, our takeaway for this week would be, if you're going to pick something to pair with chocolate, don't run away from the flavors in front of you, compliment those flavors with similar flavors. Sure. I think the takeaway is, watch the dry wine with the sweet food. When we're going for desserts and chocolates like these beauties from KOHLER, we don't want to ruin either or your beverage nor your chocolate. So, try to get things that have a little bit of sugar to it, either match flavors or contrast flavors. But I think you're hitting on the head if you make sure to have a little bit of sugar into the mix with your alcoholic beverage. Also, I think we showed that just like the heart-shaped box is a bit cliché, if you're worried about just grabbing a bottle of champagne, like you may have year after year after year, there's a lot of other things that you can choose that are Well, for another week of drinks, spirits, and wine expertise, I'm Jeff Carlin, Barrel to Bottle. That's Roger. Roger Adamson. I was going to say it Adamson, so I got it right this time. I know you were. My name is Kristen Marie Ellis, and I've had a great time tonight. Happy Valentine's Day, lovebirds. Keep tasting and eating chocolate. Cheers.