By his own admission, Duane Roy was a sceptic.
Pairing cheese and wine was one thing, but chocolate and wine? No thanks.
It was 2012 and Roy, a winemaker and general manager of Glandore Estate Wines in the Hunter Valley, was on a three-day P&O Cruise out of Sydney celebrating food and wine when the offer came to match his wines with artisan chocolates.
"Look, there's no point pretending ... I was pretty negative about the whole idea," he admits, pointing out he's not a real sweet tooth at the best of times.
"I was convinced the sweetness of the chocolate would kill the wines."
With great reluctance - which means he'd run out excuses - he agreed to pair his wines with some Adora chocolate and my, how things have changed.
Fast forward a few years and Glandore is now a leading light in chocolate and wine matching with more than 16,000 visitors a year coming through their Broke Road cellar door to sample the Glandore-Adora combinations.
Not only that, but these days Roy sends his new vinous release down to Adora's Sydney headquarters to see what chocolate creations they can come up with to match.
"They love it when wines turn up ... they call it research," he laughs.
So, how did the big U-turn come about?
"The cruise was a culinary celebration of food, wine and beer," Roy says.
"So, we had chefs and winemakers, brewers, cheesemakers, chocolatiers ... you name it.
"But the one thing that was common was that we were all really passionate about what we do.
"So when I sat down with Tina from Adora, the first thing I noticed was how serious she was about her craft - just as I am about wine - but more importantly about how good the chocolate tasted.
"I wasn't familiar with high-end artisan chocolate, and it was a game changer for me.
"Having said that I still needed to be convinced that they would enhance the wine-tasting experience rather than hurting it, so I still had my reservations."
Over the next 40 minutes or so there were enough 'hits' for Roy to realise wine and chocolate could not just co-exist, but be best buddies.
These days Glandore has a choice of tasting experiences (ranging from $15 to $40) but, to give you an idea, how does semillon with lime and coconut truffle sound?
Or maybe tempranillo with raspberry truffle?
"I'm a big fan of the white chocolate cinnamon chilli truffle ... it matches brilliantly with our off-dry gewurztraminer," Roy says.
To help cater for the increase in patronage, the once rustic cellar door is now one of the Valley's finest with a designated area for members, and a large undercover verandah area that overlooks vines.
Not that everything is perfect for Roy.
He's a Swans fan which means the grand final still haunts him - and could well do for years to come - and he's also president of the Maitland Saints AFL club who are still notching a lot more losses than wins.
"They're very young, just give them some time," he says. "There's loads of talent there."
On top of that Glandore's prized tempranillo vineyard at Broke - pretty much their flagship wine - recently underwent new ownership and the vines have been pulled up.
"Heartbreaking," Roy says. "I pleaded our case and tried to talk the new owners out of it, but no luck."
It's hard to overstate the significance because if chocolate and wine has been a winner, so too has Glandore's TPR Tempranillo, widely regarded as the Hunter's finest.
"I'm on the phone all the time searching for a new tempranillo vineyard, but there's not a lot of it about," he says.
"I really want to lock in a new vineyard so we have consistency of supply. In the meantime we are fortunately getting some tempranillo fruit from Hilltops which allows us to keep producing."
Roy has a diverse range of wines - the usual suspects, shiraz and semillon, as well as a sublime cabernet, a sparkling white, chardonnay, pinot gris, fiano, gewurztraminer, nebbiolo, sangiovese, malbec and a shiraz-malbec blend.
"We've always been quite adventurous and will continue to try new things," Roy says. "Next up we have a pinot noir on the way. But at the end of the day it's all about consistency of quality."
And the chocolate pairing?
"It's here to stay. Why not? We like it, Adora like it and the public sure do too."
Glandore Estate Wines, 1595 Broke Road, Pokolbin. Open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Sunday. Book a Chocolate and Wine Pairing Experience (six of Glandore's handcrafted wines are matched with an Adora chocolate); tickets $30 online at glandorewines.com.
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