Wine and Cheese!

I mentioned I had gone to a cheese and wine tasting the other day, and I think some more detail is required.

I came to wine a little late in the day. I think I was too young to appreciate it when I first tried it, and then when I started buying wine for myself it was in an overly cautious way. My logic was that since I didn’t know if I was going to like it I probably shouldn’t spend much money on it in case it went to waste. Naturally, cheap wine tastes like balls, so I didn’t like it.

Through the hard work of my parents and friends with more sophisticated tastes who helpfully provided me with samples of decent booze to try, I slowly came round to the idea that wine could be pretty tasty.

Cheese, on the other hand, is something I have always been a fan of. It always played a big part in our partially vegetarian household, and more recently I’ve got into artisanal cheeses in a big way. Pete got me this book as a birthday present a couple of years ago, and it’s just a thing of beauty.

This dude catalogues a list of his favourite cheeses, goes to meet the best producers, sees how they’re made, and then matches them with the most appropriate wine. His passion for cheese would be funny if I didn’t almost entirely agree with him. My favourite thing about this book is that it is so clearly a labour of love that things like formatting and spellchecking have been slightly left by the wayside. The photos look like holiday snaps and even the paper feels cheap. It feels like a homemade book. I like it.

Anyway, so this guy used to run Paxton and Whitfield the Cheesemongers. This is a very good cheesemongers. The best, in fact. And it’s close by in Stratford-upon-Avon, so I regularly pop along if I fancy a particularly posh cheese. You know what else is in Stratford? Vinology, which is a lovely little wine and spirit shop with a tasting room upstairs. They make sure they taste every wine they buy so you know you’re not going to get a duff bottle, and it’s run by an enthusiastic chap called Matt who properly knows his stuff. And what’s more, sometimes he gets together with Ross from Paxton and Whitfield and they have a Cheese and Wine evening. If I was a child I would say ‘Yippee’, but I am a grown-up so I only say ‘Well that does sound like a nice idea. I shall certainly sign up to the mailing list’.

The latest evening was based on the theme of ‘Summer Softs’, and I was accompanied by the excellent ‘Cheese’ Louise and Pete ‘The Meat’. I don’t think I have a food based nickname yet. Suggestions in the comments, please.

There were six cheese and wine pairings. Here’s some of my notes.

Buchette Cendre with Domaine Pascal Bellier Cheverny Blanc 2009. Buchette Cendre is a goat cheese in the shape of a thin log and coated in a fine dusting of ash. It had a strong ‘goaty’ taste with a sticky texture. It starts off feeling creamy in your mouth but ends with a powdery finish. The flavour accumulates until it feels almost peppery. The wine cuts through the stickiness admirably. It’s crisp and floral but also has a hard edge to it. Notes of blossom and apple, but also has a peppery quality, like rocket.

Brique de Brebis with Quinta da Avelada Vinho Verde 2008. Brique de brebis is a sheep’s milk cheese in the shape of a thin brick – hence the name. It is a mould ripened cheese and the first thing you taste is the rind. It’s like a very strong camembert. The paste is yellow and sticky, with a remarkable farmyard taste. It was like eating the soil from a petting farm, but in a good way. The wine, I thought, emphasised this taste. It was pale, light and grassy but oddly seemed to make the cheese taste stronger rather than cutting through it. It also had a slightly numbing sensation in the mouth – Louise called it anaesthetic and I have to agree. I quite liked the pairing but I don’t think I’d be crazy about the wine on its own.

Cerney and Familia Zuccardi “Q” Chardonnay 2006. This was my favourite pairing. Cerney is another goat cheese, but you can hardly tell as the traditional ‘goat’ taste was very faint. It was creamy and moussey. I think it tasted of sour cream with hints of lemon and herbs, but with a sweet honeyed finish. The wine was caramel on the nose, and tasted of a clean version of honey on toast. Notes of hazelnut, butter and lemon. Despite the flavours it wasn’t overly sweet but light, clean and refreshing.

Mahon with Quinta de Ventozelo Tinta Roriz 2003. Mahon is a semi-soft cheese, yellow iwth a washed orange rind. It’s fruity and nutty, but a little overly salty for me. The flavour grows in strength until it’s a lot like a peppery mature cheddar. The wine (the only red of the evening) had notes of fruit-wood (cherry wood, maybe) vanilla, and cassis. Perfectly pleasant and drinkable, and very nice with the cheese, but it had quite simple flavours. I would have preferred a bit more punch to it.

Beenleigh Blue with Domaine des Trottieres Cotteaux du layon 2008. Another very good pairing. The cheese is a soft blue sheep’s milk affair, very powerful to start off with but mellows in your mouth. Very similar to Roqufort, but less salty and slightly firmer. Sweet, grassy and herby. The wine is the sweetest unfortified wine I’ve ever had, as (like many dessert wines) it uses grapes affected with Botrytis or noble rot. This one is lighter and much more quaffable than a traditional dessert wine. Strong, warm honey and flowers. I’m not usually a fan of sweet wines but with a salty blue cheese this is lovely.

Perl Las with Weingut Lang Chardonnay Beerenauslese 2006. Another soft blue, full fat cow’s milk this time. This was more moist than Beenleigh Blue, but I think more powerful as well. Strong savoury, meaty taste. Lot’s of umami. The wine is a dessert wine, another Botrytized one (Botrytized is the correct term, by the way. I looked it up special). It’s more complicated than I initially thought. Strong honey flavours again, but also notes of butter, mango, maybe cherry pie.

There’s a ‘Summer Spectacular’ all evening wine tasting coming up at which I intend to further my winey education. As a consequence, I may become, as they say, “squiffy”, but it is all in the name of learning and therefore absolutely necessary.