Dessert Wine Cheese Pairings
Europeans still serve the cheese course at the end of the meal . Perhaps theres a method to this madness, because its one of the most inspired pairings known to cheese. Even the most pungent blue cheese transforms when .
The older the vintage port, the stinkier the blue cheese you can get. What happens as Vintage Port ages are the tannins soften, and the acidity lessens, revealing a much sweeter tasting wine. The sweetness of dessert wine complements and shapes a stinky cheese.
Homemade Blueberry Brownies & Cabernet
Yum. Just Yum.
The joy gets giddy when a red has a touch of chocolate-loving blueberry, a flavor present in some Cabernet Sauvignons, including Bacio Divinos Janzen Cab or Rocca Family Coombsville Cabernet Sauvignon. Both wineries are small, family artisan enterprises that deliver reliable excellence.
And have we got the recipe for you! Brownies from a heritage cookbook and you just sprinkle blueberries on the surface prior to baking. Be sure not to over bake. Then pour the Cab and sing the blues, happily.
Carolines Chocolate Brownies
Serves: 6Cook time: 15 min. or more
Ingredients:
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.Add the eggs. Stir well.Mix in the flour, chocolate and vanilla.Add vanilla.Pour in greased 8 round cake pan. Sprinkle top with ½ cup blueberries.Bake in moderate oven for 15 min. Then check every 3 min. or so Do not overbake.
Chocolate and red wine pairings have left the station and have started a party. Youre invited! What will be your new favorite?
Grenache Blanc & Brie Cheese Pairing
Grenache Blanc is a full-bodied white wine with notes of dill, green apple, lime zest, nutmeg, and pear, as well as toasted, creamy flavours. Grenache Blancs creamy body complements the texture of Brie cheese, while green apple, pear, and lime zest blend with the Brie cheeses mild fruity flavours. Meanwhile, the toasted flavours of Grenache blanc pair perfectly with Bries nuttier side.
Grenache Blanc is a little more difficult to find in wine stores, and youll rarely find it in restaurants. However, if youre up for trying something a little more intense, give Grenache Blanc a try. Youll find excellent examples of this rich and green white wine grown in Spain, France , California and Croatia.
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Sauvignon Blanc And Monterey Jack Or French Goat Cheese
This cheese is known for its subtleness and needs to be paired with a wine that wont overwhelm it. Sauvignon Blanc is a light-bodied, dry and bright white wine that has citrus and grassy notes that complement the cheese. This wine also works well with firmer French goat cheese that has developed spicy flavors.
Pairing Wine And Cheese The Basics
Before we explore our three pairing paths, lets set the stage for how to pair wine and cheese at a high level.
If youve ever wondered what cheese goes with what wine?, the secret to success is mouthfeel! In general, cheese has a high fat content and makes the mouth slightly oily. The tannins in wine are astringent, making your mouth feel dry. Pair them together and everything is right in the world and right in your mouth.
Does red or white wine go with cheese? The answer is both! In addition to improving the perceptions of fruit aromas in wine, cheese reduces the duration of astringency in red wine and heightens the taste of white wine. With this in mind, a general rule about pairing cheese and red wine is to match intensities, and a general rule about pairing cheese and white wines is to match opposites.
To compound these rules, cheese flavor profiles can be complex, and options like Cello Rubbed Fontals offer 8 unique spice rubs and tasting experiences, especially when paired with your favorite wine.
Now, lets get on with our wine and cheese pairing adventure.
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Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc & Brie Cheese
With Brie Cheese, you can essentially serve any type of red wine, even heavier red wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Barolo, or Shiraz. The Brie Cheese will make these wines taste exceptional and smooth as the cheeses proteins and fat soften the wines tannin. Heavier red wines are not ideal for appetizers, where youll often find Brie, thus, reserve these reds for your main course, and save a little bit later for an after-dinner cheese platter with Brie.
Chenin Blanc And Cream Cheese
Chenin Blanc is a classic wine that was first made famous in the Loire Valley of France. It has many different flavors such as floral and honeyed aromas, quince, apple-like flavors with good, zippy acidity.
Cream cheese is a mild, sweet-tasting spreadable cheese that has the slightest tang. It comes in various flavors, including those with herbs and fruit blended.
Soft cow’s milk cheese such as brie, gruyere, and cheddar work with Chenin Blanc, especially cream cheese. The creaminess of the cheese creates a fantastic symphony of flavors with the wine’s fruity tastes. For something more adventurous, you can try other cheeses like herb-crusted goat cheese.
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How To Pair Wine And Cheese
Its National Drink Wine Day, so were celebrating the only way we know how with our favorite wine and cheese pairings. Armed with just a little knowledge and curiosity, you can learn how to pair wine and cheese at home. Here are some of our favorite duos:
Alpine-style cheese & RieslingGrand Cru® washed-rind Alpine-style cheese is complex, yet crowd-pleasing. Careful crafting brings out light floral notes, nutty undertones, a hint of fruitiness and a mellow finish. It pairs perfectly with sweet and dry white wines like Riesling.
Prairie Sunset® & LambruscoOften described as a cheddar-gouda blend, Prairie Sunset is made with the heart of the midwest and aged for 4+ months in our cellars in Monroe, Wisconsin. Its mild and approachable flavor profile makes is the perfect cheese to complement a bubbly and fruity Lambrusco.
Havarti & Pinot NoirHavarti isnt the first cheese you think of to pair with red wine, but the creamy texture makes it a perfect accompaniment. Havarti loves a good red wine like Pinot Noir and Merlot, and can even stand up to the high alcohol of a Red Zinfandel. White wine lovers will enjoy it equally well with a Sauvignon Blanc or a buttery Chardonnay to complement its buttery flavor.
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Goat Cheese Wine Pairing
Excellent choices for goat cheese wine pairing are Vermentino, Malbec, Pinot Noir, and Syrah. Goat cheese is known for being soft on the tongue and tart on the palate, which prompts interesting choices in wine.
Vermentino has low-to-medium sweetness, with fruity tastes of green apple, lime, and grapefruit. Its higher acidity and dryness balances out the dominant creaminess of goat cheese.
Malbec and Pinot Noir are two red wine types with raspberry, foresty, blackberry, and light oaky notes that contrast tart cheeses. Finally, Syrah–or Shiraz–has tobacco, blackberry, and blueberry accents that lay nicely over the palate. This broader selection of wines is proof that goat cheese can mix well with diverse flavors.
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Pinot Noir And Gruyere
Why it works: The ever-present red berry fruit of a is the perfect match for the nutty flavors found in a medium-firm cheese like Gruyere. Both have just the right amount of aroma and complexity to them, without running the risk of one overpowering the other.
Also try: and Jarlsberg, and Comté, or and Emmental.
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How To Pair Cheese With Amaro
Amaro, the name for a wide variety of herb-infused Italian liqueurs, is typically served at the end of a meal as a digestif. Since a multicourse feast is often finished with a cheese courseand because amaros complex profiles include a wide range of flavors like sweet, fruity, herbaceous, earthy, and medicinalthese two make a natural end-of-meal combination.
Cheery, orange-hued Aperolthe star of the trendy Aperol Spritz cocktailpairs beautifully with soft-ripened cheeses, especially sheeps milk styles. Pro tip: many amari include cardoon thistle as a bittering agent, so Portuguese cheeses coagulated with thistle rennet are a natural combo.
Sweet, herbaceous amari like Strega can play well with young, soft-ripened goats milk cheeses, while the caramel-plus-espresso punch of Cynar is a natural fit with crystalline, caramelized aged Goudas. With dozens of varieties of amaro to choose from, youre bound to find one that makes your favorite cheese sing.
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How To Pair Wine And Cheese Like An Expert
There’s never been a better time to explore wine and cheese in America.
Have we entered a golden age of wine and cheese pairings? Cheese is on the same journey as wine, with more cheesemongers ushering an array of classic and trendy new cheeses to American dinner tables. Some of the finest, award-winning cheeses are available in most local supermarkets, so divining a good wine and cheese pairing today is easier than ever.
Laura Werlin, a James Beard Award-winning author with six books on cheese including Cheese Essentials and Grilled Cheese Please, suggests the reason is simple. Wine and cheese are two very humble products that are both fermented and both taste like the place where they came from, she says. Pairing them together is really about having fun, she says. Dont let your head get in the way.
Werlin says that one simple rule is to be aware is acidity. The least successful pairings are most likely to happen with super oaky, low-acid wines, she says. Cheese tends to bring out the tannins in oak. What youre looking for in the wine is some degree of acidity to cut through the richness of the cheese. If youre uncertain about the level of acidity in wine, ask a knowledgeable friend or wine retail expert to guide you.
Read more: 15 Rules for Great Food and Wine Pairings
Washed-Rind Cheese: Berthaut Époisses
Wine Pairing: NV Bollinger Special Cuvee Brut, Champagne, France
Semi-Hard Cheese: Piave-Vecchio
Soft-Ripened Triple-Cream Cheese: Cowgirl Creamery Mt Tam
Cheese & Wine Pairings To Dine For
Whether enjoying our cave-aged gouda, cheddars, creamy havarti, or our share-worthy cheese curds, we recommend Scout & Cellar® Clean-Crafted Wines to help celebrate the every day!
From reds and whites to bubbles and mixables, find the perfect pairing right over here. There is no minimum order, but if you buy 6 or more bottles, you’ll get free shipping and 5% off! Planning a party, buy 12 or more bottles, you’ll get free shipping and 10% off!
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Pairing Tip #: Keep Experimenting
The most important thing? Dont get discouraged. If youve picked out a tasty-looking bottle and a sought-after wedge in the past but werent really wowed by the result, thats okay. Pairing is all about experimentation, and a wine that clashes with or drowns out one cheese in your fridge might sing with a different style.
Plus, wine is actually intermediate level when it comes to pairing cheese and beverages. If youre just beginning your pairing journey, you might want to start with beer, which is a little more flexible .
What Cheeses Go With Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon does pair very well with salami and pairs reasonably well with medium-bodied, firm-textured cows milk cheeses like Swiss Gruyere, Comté, and Beemster Classic. We also find that Taleggio, an aromatic washed-rind cheese from Northern Italy, also makes for a decent Cabernet Sauvignon pairing.
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Wine And Ricotta Pairing
Which wine to pair with Ricotta? Ricotta is a dairy product but it is not a cheese by law. In fact, ricotta is not obtained from the coagulation of casein, but from whey proteins .
Which wine to pair with ricotta? Like fresh cheeses, ricotta is suitable for pairing with delicate white or rosé wines, slightly aromatic and low in alcohol. White wines from Friuli or Alto Adige can be a good option in combination with ricotta.
White Wine And Cheese
White wines typically match with a much wider array of cheeses than reds. This is because white wines have no tannin, making it much easier to match them together. If theres one cheese that doesnt match up too well with many white wines, it would be blue cheese. It tends to overwhelm. Here are a few classic pairings to consider:
In the Loire Valley, where you can find many goat herds. The goat cheeses from the Loire arent as soft or as fresh as goat cheese in the US. French goat cheeses tend to be firmer with a chalk-like taste texture due to high calcium content. As they age, the cheese develops a spiciness that will match up fantastically with a Sauvignon Blanc or an unoaked Chardonnay . Check out cheeses like Crottin de Chavignol or Humboldt Fog as great options for a white wine cheese.
Around Veneto, youll find Garganega , which makes the wines of Soave. Soave is crisp, like Sauvignon Blanc, with a slightly bitter almond note on the finish. This wines bitterness makes it a fascinating match with a young asiago . The aged versions of Asiago go surprisingly well with a fruity, off-dry Prosecco or Moscato dAsti.
Off-dry , such as a German Riesling from the Mosel, match up wonderfully with fondue. The sweetness and acidity complement the nutty, robust fondue flavors and make everything taste delicately sweet and salty. Hungry yet?
Pairing Challenge:
Think your palate is good enough to be a ?
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Cabernet Sauvignon Or Malbec With Hard Cheese
If a wine has big flavours, high alcohol levels and ripe tannins, youll want a cheese that has the boldness to match. Put simply, red wine and cheese pairings should be like for like in terms of flavour. Hard, salty cheeses that intensify with age, such as aged cheddar or Parmesan, will work well with intensely flavoured wines a such as Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 or a malbec such as Terrazas de los Andes Malbec 2018.
Sweet Wine With Blue Cheese
A blue cheese pairing might seem tricky as the flavours as so intense. But stinky blue cheeses or veined Roqueforts pair exceptionally well with sweet wines because the high sugar levels in the wine help to make the cheese taste creamier. Next time you want to find a Roquefort wine pairing, think Sauternes from Château dYquem.
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Pairing Secret #: Texture Match
I believe the single most crucial factor in creating a successful pairing is pairing cheese and wines in the same weight class. Because we’re striving for balance, pairing a light and creamy goat cheese with a massive, dense red wine would be a serious fail. Instead, try these harmony pairings that I have matched for their compatible textures:
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Young, fresh soft goats milk cheese with a delicate and aromatic white like Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling
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Semisoft cows milk cheese with a medium-bodied white like Chardonnay
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Funky washed-rind cheese with a rich, floral and honeyed white such as Roussane or Viognier
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Alpine-style cheeses like Gruyere, Emmenthaler, or Comte with a fresh and fruity red like Pinot Noir, Barbera or Gamay
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Hard sheeps-milk cheese with a rich and full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon or Grenache/Syrah blends
Mac And Cheese Wine Pairing
If you need a great mac and cheese wine pairing, youâll do right with a Chenin Blanc, Riesling, or unoaked Chardonnay. This classic dish is a crossroads of creamy and tangy, meaning it needs these zippy types of white wine to balance it out.
Chenin Blanc is a medium-dry white wine that pairs well with mac and cheese. The wine works to cut through thick, cheesy recipes, while the bubbles amplify the soft texture of the macaroni.
Riesling is more fruity and floral, offering stronger peach, lemon, and pineapple tastes. Similar to Chenin Blanc, itâs a dry white with plenty of acidity and a light body. This is a natural counterpoint to the melt-in-your-mouth characteristics of fresh mac and cheese.
Chardonnay–a white wine with medium tannin levels and full-body–offers tropical fruit flavors for your mac and cheese dish. Taking sips of mango-, pineapple-, and papaya-flavored wine between tart bites of creamy pasta is an excellent way to enjoy the evening.
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Kevin Descombes Cuve Kk Beaujolais Nouveau
- Winery Kevin Descombes
- Country/Region France, Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau
- Type French Beaujolais
- Aroma Cherry, Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackcurrant, Grass, Licorice, Clove
- Grapes Beaujolais
- Taste Blackberry, Redcurrant Charred Wood, Game Meat, Cinnamon Spice
- Alcohol Content 13.5%
- Pairing Cheese Fondue, Beef Steak, Pork Chops, Duck, Clams, Pizza, Indian
Round and syrupy, Kevin Descombes Cuvée Kéké Beaujolais Nouveau shows big red fruit aromas and flavors with balanced, well-presented acidity. As a classic Beaujolais Nouveau, expect to find fragrances of cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackcurrants on the nose, combined with nuances of grass, licorice, and cloves. In the mouth, the wine turns ruthless, as macerated blackberries, redcurrants, and charred wood, join gamey tones, and delicious complexity. The medium tannins are soft and unobtrusive, while the acidity is crispy and fresh but not persistent. Then, it pushes through into the long, cinnamon-influenced finish.
After learning from his father Georges, Kevin Descombes released his first vintage in 2013 from vineyards gifted to him by Georges. He bottles Morgon, Old Vine Morgon, and Beaujolais, which he calls Cuvée Kéké. Like his father, he advocates organic viticulture and ferments only in native yeasts, with minimal sulfur intervention. Fermentation is semi-carbonic, and aging takes place in a blend of old and new oak barrels.
Does Cheese Pair Better With Beer Or Wine
Quite a few cheese experts feel that, by its structural nature, cheeses are more harmonious with beer than with wine: the nut and caramel aromas found in aged cheeses are also present in malty beers like brown ales, stouts and porters. Beer is also much less acidic than winemaking a pairing with creamy cheese more harmonious.
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