TONY'S BLOG

Wine & Cheese (December 22, 2008)

Have you ever tried a glass of Beaujolais with a grilled cheese sandwich? The pairing can lift that nursery food into the realms of a gastronomic delight.

But the best cheese and wine match I have ever experienced was on my first visit to Alsace some twenty-five years ago. In a small restaurant outside Colmar I ordered a Munster cheese dish that had been baked in layers of flaky phyllo pastry. It was sliced birthday-cake-style and served warm so that the cheese layered throughout the pastry was almost molten. The accompanying wine was a chilled glass of Hugel Gewürztraminer. I can still remember the combination in my mind's palate – the velvety, rank, salty cheese, the flaky, buttery pastry and the spicy, aromatic wine of contrasting yet complementary flavour. My mouth waters at the memory as I write.

Wine and cheese. Cheese and wine. Almost like love and marriage when the partners are carefully chosen.

There is an old adage in the Bordeaux wine trade that merchants swear by: "Buy on apples and sell on cheese." Try the test for yourself. Take a Granny Smith apple and a slice of aged cheddar. Taste them independently with a glass of any red wine – starting with the apple – and see what happens. Apples, especially Granny Smiths, contain malic acid, which tastes sour. In fact, winemakers in cool climate regions put their wines through what is called a malolactic fermentation in the spring – a secondary fermentation that converts the sharp malic acid into the softer, less aggressive lactic acid (the acidity you find in milk). This will make the wine taste rounder and less "sour." If a wine can overcome the malic acid in an apple when tasted together, it must have lots of concentrated flavour and is therefore a good, marketable wine.

On the other hand, cheese flatters wine. The fat in cheese coats the palate and smoothes out any rough edges in a wine, making the tannin in reds appear more supple and the acidity in whites seem less astringent.

But not all wines go well with all cheeses. There is a commonly held notion that red wines are best with a variety of cheeses whether they're soft, semi-soft, hard or blue. This misconception was compounded by the fact that most hosts offer the cheese tray after the main course, during which a red wine is most often served. The cheese is meant to "mop up" the remainder of the red wine. But in my experience white wines with light or no oak ageing are far more compatible with most cheeses. A simple rule of thumb would be:

• Dry white wines with white and runny cheeses (like Chèvre, Camembert, Brie)
• Light red wines with semi-soft cheeses (like Port Salut, Pont L'Évêque)
• Medium to full-bodied reds with hard cheeses (like Cheddar, Parmesan, Gouda)
• Sweet wines with blue cheeses (like Stilton, Gorgonzola, Roquefort)

The French, who probably eat more cheese than any other nation, serve their cheese tray after dessert; while the British, who adore French wines, eat their cheese before the dessert. I'm with the Brits on this issue, since there is usually dry wine from the main course left over that you can finish with the cheese. And by serving cheese immediately after the main course you are not moving from sweet back to savoury taste sensations. This menu sequence also allows you to finish the meal with a dessert wine to accompany "the pudding."

I offer the following charts as to the wine styles that best complement a range of cheeses.

Matching Canadian wine & Canadian cheese

 
Matching international cheeses with international wines

 
Matching beer & cheese