One of the best feelings in the world is finding a perfect wine and food pairing. That said, I never thought I’d find myself looking for a pairing that worked well with chocolate covered crickets! But now that I’ve had the chance to try this very, very unique pairing, I think I’ll have an answer should anyone ask me what wine goes well with crickets.

The opportunity for my cricket tasting came about because I was invited to an event for Argentina’s Trapiche Wines. The first half of the night was a chance to taste the Pure Malbec from the winery’s line. For that, we enjoyed a lovely reception at Toca in the Ritz Carlton. We tried the Malbec with cheese, dark chocolate and (for those who eat red meat) small chunks of rare beef.  It was lovely and I really enjoyed the Malbec – especially with the chocolate. I’m a sucker for a good Malbec and this was one I would definitely like to enjoy again.

Winemaker Sergio Case spoke at the event and I had the opportunity to chat with him a little at the tasting. He was able to tell our table more about winemaking in Argentina and a bit about his history. I very much enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about their methods of production, as I hope to visit Argentina’s wineries in the future.

After that tasting, we moved on to the iYellow Wine Cave to experience a much more unique pairing opportunity with Trapiche’s Extravaganza red blend. For this, local restaurant Sliced had prepared some truly unusual pairings – frog’s legs, duck tongue tacos and chocolate covered crickets. As a quasi-vegetarian, I passed on the frog’s legs and duck tongue (though I understand those who had them were very impressed), but I had no real reason to turn down crickets. Well, besides the obvious reason that crickets are icky.

And, to be fair, these were super icky. They weren’t actually covered in chocolate – more sitting on top of the chocolate on a homemade donut. And while the chocolate did mask the taste, it couldn’t hide the crunch – or the sight. I did brave a few bites, so I can tell you that Extravaganza does pair quite nicely with chocolate and crickets. In my opinion, the Pure may actually have been the better bet for this off-the-beaten-path delicacy, but I also just really like Malbec.
This was such a fancy and fun event – not at all the traditional wine tasting. Everyone was chatting throughout the night and truly excited about the wine and what went well with the food. Kudos to the organizers for trying something different.  The Pure Malbec and the Extravaganza red blend both retail for $15.95 and are available at the LCBO in Ontario.