Good Taste / August 2006

No Whine with Cheese

The never ending quest to combine just the right wine with just the right food can be eminently satisfying even if the perfect pairing remains elusive. Like surfers in search of the perfect wave, it’s the ride, not the destination, that is the real thrill.

Wine and cheese are natural partners, but the differing characteristics of each, subtle and not so subtle, offer multiple opportunities for exploration. Wine and cheese gatherings are common but they don’t have to be conventional–or boring. In planning a wine and cheese event, consider skipping the grocery store cheese tray and the overpowering pepper jack. Offer guests a genuinely flavorful wine and cheese experience that can be savored, not just salvaged.

Pair Swiss cheese with the spicy, fruity white wine named Gewurztraminer. A slightly sweet white wine with a flowery bouquet, a Gewurztraminer (pronounced just like it’s spelled!) is also good with sauerkraut and sausages or Chinese and Mexican food.

Choose a round of Holland’s most famous exported cheese, Gouda or Baby Gouda, and serve it with Riesling, an elegant, dry white wine, that also is a perfect accompaniment to fish. Instead of the usual cheddar and Chardonnay, serve Baked Brie with Chardonnay. The slightly fruity white wine offers an aroma with hints of butter and smoked oak that enhances the rich cheese.

If red wines are the choice, break away from the norm and pair Italian Chianti with the hard, nut flavored Gruyere cheese. A California Zinfandel goes well with Muenster Cheese, the tangy, ancient cheese originally made in monasteries during the Middle Ages. The traditional red Zinfandel bears only a nodding acquaintance to, not with, the trendy White Zinfandels on the market.

For a deeply satisfying wine and cheese combination, serve a Cabernet Sauvignon with well-veined, room temperature Blue Cheese. The distinctive black currant and pepper undertones of an aged Cabernet underscore and complement the full flavored, highly aromatic cheese.

The desert for a wine and cheese occasion is, naturally, cheesecake. Offset the very sweet desert with a Muscat, a musky, deeply scented wine made from the same grapes used in Asti Spumante. Muscat, one of the oldest known grape varieties, produces wine with the same aroma as the grape itself, reminiscent of dried fruits, raisins and oranges.

Take a wine and cheese party from mundane to sublime and turn tame into tempting with interesting, thoughtful selections of the wine and cheese.

 

 

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