In late August, TasteTV organized a gathering of chocolatiers, chocolate makers and Crushpad. Crushpad, located in San Francisco, is a place where ordinary people can custom create wines, have it bottled and labeled, all to your exact standards. Amongst the tasters were from front left to left back: Patrick Hurley of Crushpad, Nina Luttinger of Tcho, Carly Baumann of Cosmic Chocolate, and Hayden Moulds of Crushpad. From right front to right back is Andre Krump of TasteTV, Dominik Schieweck of Schoggi, Charlotte of Schoggi, and Michael Zitzloff of Crushpad. Not pictured are me, Mindy of Jade Chocolates, who was busy taking this photo, and Art Pollard and Mr. Goble of Amano. They were late as they were getting in all the way from Utah.
The task at hand was to narrow down a sampling of 11 wines to the chosen few that paired best with 
everyone’s chocolates. It’s a tough job, but we were all ready for it….one white wine, a few merlots, syrahs, zinfandels, cabs, and even a pinot blanc were tasted all the while nibbling on chocolate bars and truffles.
My favorite was a Merlot by Alder Springs, but the majority of people favored the Late Harvest Cabernet from Vineyard X.
Chocolate Seizure will be held on September 11th at Crushpad. Join us and sample the chosen wines and see which wine you’d like to see bottled for chocolate pairings. Along with the admission into the event, you’ll get a reserved bottle of wine for Chocolate Seizure 2008.
