The popularity of wine and cheese functions would lead one to believe that the matching of wine with cheese was a straight forward and simple process. However, there is no one wine which matches all cheeses, nor one cheese which suits all wines. Because the ideal match of wine to cheese can create a sublime experience for your taste buds, it is worth experimenting with a variety of cheeses and wines to find what you like best. As with all things in wine, your personal taste is the final arbitrator.

Here are some suggested cheese and wine matches to get you started on your exploration:

Blue Stilton. This strong English blue cheese is traditionally and wonderfully matched with Port, such as Taylors, Late Bottled Vintage Port, 2000, or for really special occasions Delaforce, Vintage Port, 1992. Stilton and other blue cheeses can be well matched with some red wines. Beware of tannic reds, however, which sometimes taste unpleasantly metallic with blue cheese.

French Brie. Mild, creamy, easy to love Brie pairs well with rich Chardonnays like our South African Rustenberg, Chardonnay, 2005 or with a white Burgundy such as Michel Paquet, St. Veran, 2005. For a special change of pace, try Brie with Bollinger, Special Cuvee Champagne or a more economical bubbly such as Bortolomiol, Prosecco di Valdobbiadene. In general, creamy cheeses such as Brie are not best married to red wines, but a good red Burgundy, such as Robert Arnoux, Nuits St Georges, 2001 can be a fine match.

Feta. Try this Greek sheep’s milk cheese with a nice crisp rosé, like the French Domaine de Beausejour, Chinon Rosé, 2005.

Emmenthal. A good white wine choice for this mild Swiss cheese would be the Californian Bogle, Chardonnay, 2004. As a good red wine match, try a nice Pinot Noir like the Mount Difficulty, Pinot Noir, 2004 from New Zealand.

Provencal. Matching herbed cheeses like the delicious Provencal can be tricky, requiring some experimentation to find what suits your particular taste. For a white wine match, try a Gewurztraminer like the Rolly Gassmann, Gewurztraminer, 2002, from Alsace. A good red wine match would be a Shiraz (also known as Syrah) such as the Australian Heartland, Shiraz, 2004.

Use the above recommendations to get you started on your wine and cheese epicurean adventure. If you have any questions about pairing wine with cheese, or if you have any fantastic wine and cheese matches that you’d like to share, please contact me at WineGuy@cwjamaica.com.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2007 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.