Wine and cheese. When those two nouns travel together it usually means party, chill out, come and hang out, well done, something good. You don't do wine and cheese while waiting for an oil change, making a doctor's appointment or calculating a tax instalment.
With wine and with cheese, quality calls out to quality. Drinking better wines subtly stirs impatience with poor quality wines. My former bank manager told me that when he started drinking some better - under $20 - wines I recommended he find creative ways to discard the homemade wine his father-in-law kept giving him. Likewise with cheese. When you've experimented with smoked gouda, creamy brie, pungent Roquefort and five-year aged white cheddars, you don't easily go back to sliced plastic-wrapped Velveeta plastic and rubberized orange Kraft cheese blocks.
There's probably a wine for every cheese but not every wine pairs well with every cheese. Here are some things I am learning about cheese and wine that are enhancing this wonderful partnership.
Salty cheese accents the fruit in wine. Take a sip of your favourite white or red or rosé wine, try a gorgonzola or salty brie or feta, then another sip. You'll probably notice the enhanced fruitiness in the second sip of wine.
Pay attention to similar palate sensations when selecting wine and cheese. So if, for example, you have a creamy, buttery cheese, find a creamy buttery style wine, like a wooded Chardonnay or Viognier. A sharp, pungent cheese will probably match nicely with coarse, "rough" tannins in bold red wine grapes like Nebbiolo (mostly Italy), Cabernet Sauvignon (mostly everywhere) or Touriga Nacional (mostly Portugal).
The Most Congenial Wine with the Most Cheeses Award goes to sweeter style Riesling and Gewürztraminer wines. The sweetness of ripe fruit in these grape varieties dance with the savoury in more cheeses than any other grape varieties.
The Most Congenial Cheese with the Most Wines Award goes to harder cow milk cheeses. Try a four- or five-year aged white cheddar with most fuller/bigger style red wines and many white wines.
Special mention goes to the Sauvignon Blanc fool proof wine pairing with goat cheese.
Host an evening with some friends trying five or six cheeses (label each one), two or three wines, then try the combinations and note the star and less than spectacular pairings. You can call the evening "research."
Enjoy.
Doug Reichel
Check out our new web-site: FineWinesSask.com
Doug's Wine Picks of the Week
Selbach Detzemer Maximiner Klosterlay Riesling Spatlese 2010/11 - Germany ($17 - ID# 6065). Winemaker: Johannes Selbach. Description: Don't let the German description frighten you! It locates where the grapes come from near the village of Detzem. This wine has done more to turn Saskatchewan toward the rich, ripe honeyed fruit of mature, balanced Rieslings than almost any other wine. Food Pairings: Bring on the almost any cheese, spicy Asian cuisine, poultry, ham, pork ribs, curries, vegetables and far-out sauces or just by itself.
Generation Seven White VQA 2010 - Canada ($15.99 - ID# 16040). Winemaker: Paul Bosc Jr. Description: This is a Gewürztraminer, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc blend that is turning red wine drinkers toward white wines? All the beautiful perfumed nose of the Gewürztraminer, the rich, ripe fruit of the Riesling and the crisp refreshing of the Sauvignon Blanc. Food Pairings: all sorts of cheeses, things tempura fried, sushi, pork, chicken, salads and all manner of appetizers.
Torreon de Paredes Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 - Chile ($16.26; ID# 5575). Winemaker: Alvaro Paredes. Description: Grapes from older vines, eight to 10 months in new French oak, and a lot of care means that this one of the most consistently over-delivering Cabernet Sauvignons on the market. Food Pairings: strong cheeses, barbecued and grilled meats, including that grilled burger (minus the pickles).
All wines listed are available in Saskatchewan through your local government liquor store or rural liquor franchisee. If they don't have it in stock, request it by ID# - they'll bring it in.
