Wine and Cheese Pairing
Do They Really Pair
Well Together?
Wine and cheese pairing is a
beautiful combination but only if the proper wines and cheeses are
served together.
To learn more about this please scroll down to the bottom of the page to read a
study conducted regarding wine tasting and cheese.
Many wines are simply overpowered by strong aromatic cheeses. When trying to select the right red wine and cheese combination keep it SIMPLE.
Hard Cheeses which are highly aromatic and sharp in flavor pair well
with red wines because the fat and protein content in the hard cheeses are
softened by the tannins in the red wine.
Excellent Red Wine Cheeses:
- Asagio
- Edam
- Longhorn
- Gouda
- Cheddar
- Parmesan Reggiano
- Gruyere
A great combination of wine and cheese pairing to try is a dry monterey jack cheese with Cabernet Sauvignon or try cheddar or gouda cheese with a delicious Bordeaux.
Soft Cheeses are those that are creamy in texture such as Brie, Fontina,
Gorganzola, Mozzarella, Muenster and Ricotta.
When eating soft cheeses stick to the lighter less tannic red wines such as
Chianti and Beaujolais wines.
Some of the best cheeses to serve with wine:
- Fresh Mozarella
- Pecorino Fontina from Italy
- Chevre
- Goat cheese
- Monterey Jack
- Parmesan Reggiano
*My Favorite Red Wine and cheese combination is Goat cheese with a delicious Sangiovese.
Blue cheeses are so strong that they overpower most wines except the dessert
wines. Try a strong blue cheese such as Stilton cheese with a "Port"
sweet red wine .
If you need some creative ideas for your next wine tasting party please visit Theme Party Queen.com. A very informative website for all your party ideas.
Wine and Cheese Study:
In the book "The Grapes of Wine" by Baudouin Neirynck, PhD, the following was said about wine and cheese pairing. " A popular food to pair with wine is cheese. Yet in a study undertaken at the University of California at Davis and published in both New Science and American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, Dr. Hildegard Heymann and fellow researchers found that wine tasters were unable to characterize the aromas, smells, and flavors of berry, oak, sourness, and astringency when wine was paired with cheeses.
Why are certain wine flavors indiscernible when tasted with cheese? One
possibility is that the fat content of cheese coats the palate and impairs the
function of the taste buds, as well as the retro-nasal palate. Another is that
cheese proteins bind with wine compounds, making the flavors more difficult to
detect.
Regardless of the reason, these findings challenge decades-long beliefs that
the pairing of wine with cheeses was a perfect match. Although it is certainly
possible to enjoy the two together, cheese should clearly Not be served
at a wine tasting or with a particularly high-quality wine. When wishing to
truly relish the wine's flavors and aromas, you may want to find a better food
for the accompanying meal than cheese."
