For the final course of our #MerlotMe dinner, I decided to poach some adorable Seckel pears in Merlot and serve them in a pool of chocolate-Merlot sauce. Oh, delicious, chocolatey decadence was achieved! There seem to be two distinct camps: one who thinks red wine and chocolate are a darling pair; one who thinks that those should never be served together. I fall firmly in the first camp, with the proviso that I mean good, dark chocolate with a high percentage of cacao solids and good red wine. You need the flavor intensities to be equally matched or one is going to overpower the other. For this post, I poured and paired the Pope Valley Merlot* for serving though I poached the pears in a Chalone Vineyard Merlot. Merlot-Poached Pears in a Chocolate-Merlot Sauce Ingredients serves 8 For the Pears (you should poach the pears the day before you want to serve them) 8 Seckel pears 2 C red wine (I used the Chalone Vineyard Merlot) 3/4 C organic granulated sugar...