I am just now learning about wine, and am having a great time and really getting into it. I definitely prefer reds, and I prefer them dry. I love Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Shiraz.
Pinot Noir is my current favorite, since it is dry bit not bitter and has a tinge of sweetness, but not too much.
I have read that combining wine and the right cheese will produce amazing flavors. What wines go with what cheeses? What do you recommend?
Any serving/tasting tips?
Thank you!
Well I am no wine expert, I just remember groups of wines that I enjoy such as Poulet Fume and Chateau Neuf d’Pappe (sp?) for examples. But as for cheeses I recomend serving cheese on thin wheat biscuits to minimise changing the cheeses flavour. You can serve them with grapes as well as the wine since that gives you a nice flavour trio. Grapes goes with wine and with cheese, wine goes with cheese and with grapes, cheese goes with wine and with grapes. Then just experiment with a few favourite wines, a few interesting cheeses and a few friends.
I would like to point you towards a special wine cheese combo worth trying (but not suitable in the wine and cheese party idea above). Get an aged Portuguese imported Port, and serve in small glasses whilst eating an English imported Stilton. This is a combination most unlike other wine cheese combinations that I know of, and a true dinner party classic.
A nice strong chedder and a Shiraz.
I also like a Reisling and double cream brie.
And I don’t use crackers, I eat the cheese straight-up.
I had some “Two-Buck Chuck” merlot last weekend, as I was munching on crackers and bleu cheese. Not a bad little snack.
Cabernet Savignon and either a bleu cheese or Spanish Manchego. Awesome.
Champagne and Explorateur. Perfection itself.
Prairie Fume from Wolersheim Winery here in Wisconsin. Not too dry, not too sweet, has gone well with everything I’ve had it with and on its own. I don’t eat much the cheese so I can’t suggest a good combo.
Rancho Zabaco Zinfandel & Humboldt Fog blue cheese, if you want California-based perfection.
I also once had some Barbera with a truffle cheese that was an incredible together. Hard to find, but-- wow.
I like a can of Cheez Whiz and a bottle of Boone’s Farm myself.
I was drinking Chimay with Chimay cheese tonight. Perfect together, but Chimay is, of course, not a wine. We experiment with lots of different wine/cheese combos. Haven’t found the perfect one yet, but for a nice, warm summer evening I like Vina Alberdi and a queso Manchego. I also have an incredible aged Gouda right now (4 years old) that would probably go very well with a Lagar Albarino I have downstairs. Maybe we’ll try that on the weekend if it gets warm enough.
I don’t have a fave wine (I like probably all the wine I drink) but I do have an early fave cheese - Cambazola (brie).
I say ‘early’ because I am a cheese-amateur. I don’t know many smelly cheeses.
I don’t know a cheese to go with it, slivers of parmiagiano?, but if you can find Greco di Tufo, it’s a fairly dry (italian) white, it’s very good. It is my favorite and I just realized I’m out of it, I have a nice chianti though…
catnoe, see if you can find a good pecorino tuscano to try with the Greco di Tufo. It should work nicely.