It goes without saying that we love our wine and we love our cheese but we’re saying it anyway. Now the big question is: How do our favourite wine and cheese go best together? Is there a guide to how to set this out right? In other words, can someone please tell us which matches with which?
As it turns out, pairing wine and cheese is much a science as it is an art. A gorgeous platter with wines that enhance the taste of different samples can be the star of your dinner party. So read on for expert entertaining tips on how to do it right.
5 Ways to Pair Wine and Cheese with Ease
1. Selecting Your Cheeses:
Opting for cheeses with varying tastes and textures allows you to match a broader variety of wines. Sparkling wine, like Ruffino Prosecco, is a flexible wine to match and luckily it is a delicious way to start any occasion – enjoyed as it is or as part of a light cocktail. I like Ruffino Prosecco with semi-soft cheeses like Fontina, Oka, Goat’s Cheese or even Mozzarella.
2. Wine Matching:
Try to balance the intensity of the cheese with the intensity of the wine – strong cheese flavours need to be matched by strong wine flavours so they won’t overpower one another. Inniskillin’s Vidal Icewine is a perfect wine to pair with a strong, distinctive blue cheese. It’s a salty-sweet match made in heaven.
3. How Much Is Too Much:
If serving cheese at a dinner party, opt for individual plates of 3-5 cheeses before dessert. A small taste (15g) of a smoked gouda or cheddar alongside a unique, aged wine like Robert Mondavi Private Selection Bourbon Barrel Aged Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay will prepare the palate for something sweet afterward.
4. Serving Temperature:
Cheeses are best served at cool room temperatures. When it’s cold outside and big reds like Jackson-Triggs Reserve Meritage or Jackson-Triggs Reserve Merlot are on the table, try to bring your aged cheddars, or Beemster out of the fridge at least an hour before you plan to serve.
5. Pretty Presentation:
Choose cheeses with different colours, coatings and forms that will engage your guests. A soft goats cheese coated in cranberry or light herbs will add some colour and dimension to your cheese board and will stand up to an intense and fruity red like California’s Meiomi Pinot Noir. Other accompaniments like fruits (such as pears, apples and apricots), jams and chutneys, interesting breads and crackers and nuts also create visual interest and add to your pairings.
Wanna Know the Wine Details? Of course you do.
When it comes to the wine you pair with cheese, it’s all in the details. Here are a few we recommend for holiday entertaining.
Kim Crawford Limited Edition Holiday
Kim Crawford’s powerful, aromatic wines are a hit around the holiday season, undoing the ordinary and impressing palates. The Limited Edition Sauvignon Blanc is the perfect way to celebrate, offering fresh and zesty aromas of citrus and tropical fruit, with characteristic herbaceous notes for which Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is renowned.
$19.95
Robert Mondavi Bourbon Barrel-Aged Cabernet Sauvignon
The limited-release Cabernet Sauvignon brings together the craftsmanship of California winemaking and the Southern tradition of Bourbon whiskey aging.
$20.95
Robert Mondavi Bourbon Barrel-Aged Chardonnay
This Chardonnay is the first and only Chardonnay that blends the craftsmanship of California winemaking with the Southern tradition of Bourbon Whiskey aging, resulting in an incredibly bold sensory expression.
$19.95
Meiomi Pinot Noir has fruit aromas of bright strawberry, jammy fruit, balanced with notes of mocha, vanilla, and toasty oak. Meiomi Pinot Noir is the #1 selling Pinot Noir in Canada.
$27.95
Jackson-Triggs Reserve Meritage
This delicious Canadian red tastes like it’s a lot more expensive. Sip the rich, red fruit and oak flavours slowly.
$13.95
Elevate your holiday celebrations by welcoming your guests with bubbles, without blowing the budget. Ruffino Prosecco is crisp, clean and delicate with fresh bubbles.
$16.70
Icewines made from Vidal are noted for their affinity with honey’s flavours. In addition to aromas of tangerine, apricot and pineapple, when Vidal is aged in oak it takes on rich overtones of vanilla, almonds and fresh baked bread. It works beautifully as an accompaniment to holiday appetizers and desserts like fine blue veined and cream based cheeses, rich paté, chocolate biscuits, or a raspberry mousse.
$49.95
