Talk-A-Vino

What’s so rare about wine cheese? Nothing, of course. “Wine and cheese” is one of the most abused “topics” of a social gathering. “Ah, let’s get together, I will bring wine and you will bring cheese”. Easy and straightforward, right?

So let me ask you, when was the last time you enjoyed yellow cheddar with a sip of a nice Chardonnay? Never mind Chardonnay, do you think yellow cheddar will work well with a random Pinot Grigio? Or maybe an inexpensive Rioja? I will let you ponder that enjoyable yellow cheddar pairing for a while – let me know when you come up with a good answer.

Wine and food pairing “that works” is an art. When wine and food pairing is attempted, one of the best general results is when wine and food don’t fight each other. In the rare cases when food and wine work together, that creates a pleasure of the next level, a pure hedonistic joy.

There are many books written on the subject of food and wine pairing, so I’m not going to try to cover the subject within a few sentences on this blog. On a basic level, wine and food pairing work well either by contrasting or complementing flavors. For example, an effervescent Moscato d’Asti perfectly complements an angel cake, as the flavors are similar, but Asti elevates the mouthfeel with light bubbles and a touch of acidity. Nice Kabinett Riesling perfectly contrasts spicy Asian dish with its acidity and sweetness, offering a welcoming relief to your fired-up taste buds. Many of the pairings would fall somewhere in between, but the whole point is that a bite of food together with a sip of wine should give you more pleasure than each one on its own.

So, how can you go about finding pleasurable combinations of food and wine? Wait, no, this is a topic for another blog post. Let me rephrase the question – how do you find pleasurable combinations of cheese and wine?

The right answer is: it depends.
Why, it always depends, doesn’t it?

When it comes to cheese, there is one easy hack (workaround is a nicer word :)) – if we are talking about artisanal cheeses, the pairing gets easier. Similar to wines, artisanal cheeses are also a product of terroir – many European cheeses have a protected area of origin. For most of the cases, that means that those artisanal cheeses had been produced in the specific area for a while, and that in turn means that most likely, the wines were produced locally right next to cheese, and therefore they is a good chance that wine and cheese from the same place might pair together well.

I had a perfect opportunity to test this theory. I got an unusual birthday present last month – a selection of artisanal cheeses from the local cheese monger – five cheeses from France and Switzerland. Obviously, that presented a perfect opportunity to try that difficult cheese and wine pairing and see how it would work.

Here are the cheeses I got with a brief wine pairing recommendations collected through an internet search:

– 1 –
Schallenberg
Origin: Switzerland, Alpine region
Milk: Cow (raw)
Age: 10 months
Suggested wine pairings:
White: Riesling, Ice Wine
Red: Pinot Noir, Beaujolais, Barbera

– 2 –
Hornbacher
Origin: Switzerland, Alpine region
Milk: Cow (raw)
Age: 11 months
Suggested wine pairings:
White: Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris
Other: (fortified dessert wines): Sherry, Port

– 3 –
Abbaye de Tamié
Traditional French cheese crafted by the monks at the Trappist Abbey of Tamié since the 12th century
Origin: France, Savoie, Rhône-Alpes
Milk: Cow (raw)
Suggested wine pairings:
White: Chardonnay, Savoie (Chasselas and others)
Red: Pinot Noir, Beaujolais, Gamay
Other: Champagne, other sparkling wines

– 4 –
Vacherousse d’Argental, double-cream Brie style
Origin: France, Lyon region
Milk: Cow
Suggested wine pairings:
Other: Champagne and other sparkling wines
White: Riesling, Grenache Blanc

– 5 –
Ovalie Cendrée
Origin: France, Loire Valley
Type: Goat (raw? Pasteurized?)
Suggested wine pairings:
White: Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling
Rosé
Red: Pineau d’Aunis

As you can tell, there was quite a range of wines suggested for the pairing, with Pinot Noir and Champagne being a common thread.
I get it about Champagne, as well-made Champagne possibly is the most versatile food pairing wine out there. Pinot Noir sounded a bit surprising, as I think many Pinot Noirs would easily overpower cheeses. And of course, Riesling makes perfect sense to pair with the cheeses, alongside the dessert wines.

While there is a good range of wines that might work with my cheese selection, the goal of this exercise was to get pleasure, not to conduct a comprehensive research of cheese and wine pairings, thus I had to limit the selection of the wines. I had a bottle of Champagne that I wanted to open for a while. I decided to go with Pinot Noir for the red, and luckily (for everyone), I settled on the Burgundian version and not Oregon or California. And last but not east, instead of looking for a right Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling, I settled on the beautiful rendition of Chenin Blanc from Loire (of course!) from one of the best (best?) producers, Domaine Huet, basing my decision on the fact that one of the cheeses was coming from Loire region, thus giving me hope that local wine will pair well with local cheese.

Here are brief notes about the wines and their pairing with the cheeses:

NV Champagne Domaine les Monts Fournois Premier Cru (12.5% ABV, 70% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay, 10% Pinot Meunier, Bottled in June 2016, Disgorged in September 2022) – superb. A classic nose of brioche and apples, followed by toasted bread and apples on the palate with cleansing acidity. Elegant, supple, delicious. Worked well with all cheeses.

2019 Domaine Huet Clos du Bourg Sec Vouvray AOC (13.5% ABV)
What a delight! Beautiful light golden color, elegant nose of whitestone fruit and a hint of nutmeg, inviting and enticing. Round, roll-off-your-tongue experience on the palate, an elegant white fruit medley, balanced acidity, a welcoming complexity with a medium-long finish. The wine was a riot paired with ashy goat, Ovalie Cendrée.

2019 Domaine Rebourgeon-Mure Cuvée de Maison Dieu Bourgogne (13.5% ABV, 14-18 months in partially new oak barrels)
Elegant would be the best descriptor. The wine was soft and approachable, with red fruit on the nose and more of the red fruit on the palate, medium body, soft and delicate. If I were just to open it to drink on its own, I think I would be disappointed. But paired with cheese, the wine shone, matching nearly perfectly pretty much all the cheeses we had in the tasting. I think my personal favorite was pairing with two of the Swiss hard cheeses, but again, this Burgundian Pinot worked perfectly with all 5 cheeses.

We also opened one more bottle in the evening – 1998 Mondavi Moscato d’Oro Napa Valley – we did’t pair it with the cheese (I’m sure that the pairing would be superb), but it was delicious on its own, with light sweetness of honey notes and still good acidity, still fresh – a delightful finish to the tasty night.

Here you are, my friends – a story of the rare pleasure – a successful pairing of the wine and cheese. Do you have your own stories about wine and cheese?