One of the most luxurious desserts on earth are truffles with really good wine and there isn’t much that can improve on that unless you add wine to the truffle mixture and pair that with wine. Meerlust Rubicon is a classic wine with a deliciously woody and smoky nose and seriously hectic spicy fruit on the tongue – it is with the greatest of respect that we accompany this wine with these truffles. We  love the character, the depth, the roundness and the sheer darned sophistication of the wine and the recipe for these truffles is one of the best we’ve seen in a long time. Valentines Day is around the corner, why not test the recipe now.

Ingredients

• 200 g dark chocolate (70%)
• 150 g dark chocolate (60%)
• 160 crème fraiche
• 100 ml Meerlust Rubicon or something similar (cognac is also good)
• 50 g butter, softened and cut into tiny pieces
• 200 g bitter cocoa powder

Method

• Grate the dark chocolate finely;
• Add the wine to a pot and boil for about five minutes;
• Add the crème fraiche and bring it to boiling point, remove from stove and whisk in the chocolate;
• Add butter and stir all the ingredients briskly until everything has mixed well into a shining mixture;
• Put the ganache into a dish lined with baking parchment, cover it with cling wrap and put it in the fridge for about three and a half hours;
• Turn it out, roll it into small balls – they don’t have to be perfectly equal, just do your best;
• Sift the cocoa powder into a plate and roll the truffles in that using a fork so that your fingers don’t touch them.
• Put on a plate and refrigerate until you are ready to serve them with the rest of the wine;

Thanks to Mariska Nienaber for this recipe.