Pairings

Wine and Cheese Pairing

If you want artisan cheeses to taste their best, let them warm to room temperature before serving. Take the cheese out of the fridge at least several hours ahead. Better yet, do it before you leave for work, or the night before. Serve with crusty bread. According to Joshua Wesson and David Rosengarten in their great and sadly out-of-print book Red Wine with Fish: The New Art of Matching Wine with Food, white wines match better with cheese than red wines.

Their unusual and intriguing wine-cheese-pairing rules are:

• Firm, dry cheeses (including chevre) stand the best chance with red wine.
• Cheeses that are soft, fatty, or creamy make red wine taste dull.
• Smelly cheeses overwhelm red wine.
• Salty cheeses, particularly blue-veined types, overwhelm red wine. [Try a sweet wine like a Sauternes or Alsatian Vendange Tardives.]
• White wine pairs well with most cheeses, and Pinot Gris (Alsace, Oregon, Virginia, Austria) is the universal match.

If you must pair red wine with cheeses, look for dry, mild cheeses and rich, fruity young reds. [i.e. Beaujolais, Cotes-du-Rhone, Sangiovese]