Willy Wonka with Wine & Chocolate Pairing
- Tony Elvin
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
'You had the Golden Ticket!'
Thank you to everyone that joined us for tonight's wine and chocolate pairing event at The Mockingbird with our friends at Chouchoute. As promised, please read ahead for details on the wines, the chocolates, the trivia and our chocolate factory gallery.
Our Wine & Chocolate
Paired with 'Citron' - Lemon Cup - fresh cream and lemon oil in white choc
Fermentation is stopped by chilling the wine down during production, this retains the sweetness of the grape juice. The fragrant peach, citrus and orange-blossom character of Moscato d’Asti mirrors the lemon oil, while its gentle sparkle and refreshing acidity lift the creamy richness of the white chocolate. Matching sweetness ensures that neither partner overwhelms the other—creating a pairing that is bright, luxurious and beautifully balanced.
Paired with 'Guerande' - Salted Caramel Milk Chocolate
Dr. Loosen (Ernst) a real life Willy Wonka produces this crisp, off-dry wine. Bright pineapple, green apple and white peach flavours abound. The wine’s vibrant acidity slices through the rich, buttery caramel, while its residual sweetness enhances the bittersweet notes of chocolate and amplifies its salted profile. The wine acts as a palate cleanser to the deliciously cloying caramel.
Paired with 'Royale' – Milk chocolate with whipped hazelnut mouse with vanilla notes
Old vine vineyards in the Lodi region of central California. Using California's signature Zinfandel grape, the grapes are lightly crushed to create a pretty pink wine. The refreshing acidity and berry notes of the rosé cut through the rich, creamy milk chocolate, while the truffle's velvety texture softens the wine's crispness.
Paired with 'Truffle Blanc' - Swiss white chocolate with a fresh cream truffle
Mark West has been making wine from just one grape variety since 1978.
California where cooler evenings produce grapes with intense fruit aromatics and flavours. Aromas of black cherry, strawberry and plum. Medium in body with soft tannins. The high fat content in the cocoa butter melts on the palate, carrying the bright red cherry, strawberry, and raspberry notes of a light red wine. This creates a surprisingly harmonious contrast.
Paired with 'Ginger Noir' - Ginger enrobed in dark chocolate
Wiese & Krohn founded in 1865 by two Norwegians - Theodor Wiese and Dankert Krohn. Since 2013 the Fladgate Group of Taylors, Fonseca & Croft have owned the brand. Tawny Port’s barrel-aged qualities complement the dairy fats and the spicy sweet ginger inside the chocolate.
30 Scrumdiddlyumptious Movie Facts
More than half a century after its release, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory remains a wonderfully strange mixture of musical fantasy, dark comedy and confectionery-fuelled nightmares. Here are 30 of our favourite stories from behind the factory gates…
🎩 Gene Wilder accepted the part on one extraordinary condition. He wanted Wonka to emerge from the factory apparently leaning on a cane, stumble forward and then perform a perfect somersault. His reasoning was that, from that moment onwards, nobody would know whether Wonka was telling the truth.
🤸 The other actors weren’t told about Wonka’s somersault. Their looks of confusion and astonishment as he approaches the gates were therefore largely genuine.
👀 Director Mel Stuart knew almost immediately that Wilder was his Wonka. He was captivated by the humour in Wilder’s eyes and believed he possessed precisely the sardonic—and slightly demonic—quality the character required.
🧥 Wilder helped design Wonka’s celebrated costume. In a wonderfully detailed letter, he suggested changes to the jacket, trousers, waistcoat, pockets and hat. He wanted Wonka to look mysterious but tasteful: “part of this world, part of another.” Read Gene Wilder’s costume letter
📚 The film came about because of the director’s daughter. Mel Stuart’s young daughter Madeline loved Roald Dahl’s book and asked her father to turn it into a film.
🍬 It was partly financed to launch a real range of sweets. The Quaker Oats Company helped finance the film because it planned to introduce Wonka-branded confectionery alongside it.
🌡️ The original Wonka Bars encountered a rather fundamental problem. The chocolate formulation reportedly melted too easily on shop shelves, preventing the intended large-scale launch from going quite according to plan.
🔤 The title was changed from the book’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One commercial reason was to place the name “Wonka” more prominently in the public’s mind—and make it more closely associated with the planned Wonka Bars.
✍️ Roald Dahl received the screenplay credit, but another writer substantially revised it. David Seltzer was brought in for an uncredited rewrite, adding and changing important elements of the finished story.
😠 Dahl was deeply unhappy with the film. He disliked the emphasis placed on Wonka rather than Charlie, objected to several story changes and was reportedly disappointed by Wilder’s casting. He ultimately distanced himself from the production.
🇩🇪 Despite its American and British characters, the film was largely made in West Germany. Principal photography took place in and around Munich between August and November 1970.
🏭 The factory exterior wasn’t a chocolate factory at all. It was filmed at the Munich gasworks. Other locations around the city became Charlie’s school, his neighbourhood and Bill’s sweet shop.
🌍 Munich’s unfamiliar appearance was an advantage. Mel Stuart wanted the story to feel as though it might be happening almost anywhere, rather than in an obviously identifiable British or American city.
🍭 The children were kept away from the Chocolate Room before filming. Stuart wanted their first reactions to the enormous set to be captured on camera. Julie Dawn Cole, who played Veruca, was reportedly the lucky exception and received a secret preview.
🍄 Only about a third of the Chocolate Room was genuinely edible. The set included edible leaves, marzipan, gumballs, a chocolate watermelon and mushrooms filled with whipped cream—but many of its most tempting-looking attractions were props.
☕ Wonka’s famous edible teacup wasn’t actually edible. It was made from wax. Wilder would chew a piece for the camera and then discreetly spit it out after the take.
🧸 The giant gummy bears were mostly plastic. Their ears were edible, however, allowing the cast to nibble them convincingly.
🖼️ The lickable wallpaper wasn’t lickable either. Anyone tempted to taste the snozzberries would have been severely disappointed.
🤢 The chocolate river was cold, dirty and increasingly unpleasant. It consisted mainly of water, food colouring and assorted thickening ingredients. Michael Böllner, who played Augustus Gloop, later remembered it as decidedly foul-smelling rather than delicious.
🪵 The thousands of Wonka Bars in Mr Salt’s factory were made of wood. Wooden bars could be unwrapped repeatedly and were considerably cheaper than supplying the production with mountains of real chocolate.
🦆 Veruca Salt encounters golden geese because trained squirrels were impractical. In Dahl’s book, squirrels judge the nuts and dispose of Veruca. Creating that scene convincingly in 1970 would have been too difficult and expensive, so the Nut Room became the Golden Egg Room.
✂️ Everything in Wonka’s office was deliberately cut in half. The desk, clock, pictures, filing cabinet and other furnishings all follow the same bizarre design. Even Wonka’s irritated visitor has only half a chair on which to sit.
🚤 The children weren’t fully prepared for the terrifying tunnel sequence. Stuart withheld details so that their increasingly alarmed reactions to the lights, images and Wilder’s unnerving performance would feel authentic.
😡 Peter Ostrum wasn’t expecting Wonka’s full fury in the final office scene. Rehearsals had been relatively restrained, but Wilder became much louder and angrier during filming, helping produce Charlie and Grandpa Joe’s shocked responses.
🫐 Being Violet Beauregarde left a colourful after-effect. Denise Nickerson’s blueberry makeup was so persistent that she reportedly retained a bluish tint even after filming—much to the amusement of people who saw her away from the set.
🍭 Julie Dawn Cole took home some extremely desirable souvenirs. The actress who played Veruca kept a Golden Ticket and one of the film’s Wonka Bar props. Unlike Veruca, she didn’t demand them while stamping her feet.
🐝 Mike Teevee caused some real-life mischief on set. Paris Themmen released bees from a hive positioned near the gum-making machine—and was promptly stung. It was a suitably Wonka-like punishment for bad behaviour.
🐄 Peter Ostrum never made another film. After playing Charlie, he declined a three-picture contract and eventually became a large-animal veterinarian. Charlie Bucket therefore remains his one and only movie role. The cast reflected on the film for its 50th anniversary
🍬 “The Candy Man” became a bigger hit for someone who wasn’t in the film. Aubrey Woods performs it as Bill the sweet-shop owner, but Sammy Davis Jr.’s subsequent recording reached number one in America. Ironically, Davis reportedly wasn’t particularly fond of the song.
🏆 The film wasn’t initially the enormous success we now imagine. Made for around $3 million, it earned approximately $4 million during its original theatrical run. Its reputation grew through television broadcasts and home video, eventually transforming it into a beloved classic. The score received an Academy Award nomination, while Wilder was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Pure Imagination: Through the Chocolate Factory Lens 📸
Once again, thank you to everyone that joined us in the Chocolate Factory (Mockingbird Digbeth, not the Munich Gasworks), for our wine and chocolate pairing experience.
Thank you to Cat and Mark of Chouchoute for allowing us to collbaorate with you. You can check out our real life Willy Wonka's here: https://www.chouchoute.co.uk/our-chocolates/
Until next time, Charlie, Willy, Cat, Mark, Lucy and the Umpah Loompahs
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