Black Forest Cake

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte: chocolate sponge layered with whipped cream and morello cherries, soaked in kirsch, finished with chocolate shavings and more cream. Bittersweet chocolate, cherry's bright tartness, the whisper of kirsch, the lightness of cream: a complex sweet dish where four flavour registers compete. The wine has to mirror or complement the cherry rather than fighting it, handle the chocolate's tannin and bitterness, and respect the cream's lightness without being smothered. Dry wines will taste harsh against the chocolate; low-acid sweet wines will sit thin against the cream.