Wine Bill Knott
MATCHMAKING WITH CHEESE
‘Buy on apples, sell on cheese.’ This old wine merchants’ adage neatly sums up the contrasting effects of food on wine: the malic acid in apples will root out any harsh tannins or acidity in a wine, while the creaminess of cheese smooths over any rough edges.
It is the time of year when the sideboard groans with cheeses; so it might be timely to think about the wines that best suit them.
I am not an aficionado of intricate food and wine pairings – if you don’t especially like Gewürztraminer, say, you aren’t going to like it any better just because someone has told you it is a perfect match with a Goan fish curry – but, with cheese, there are definitely some perfect marriages, and some pairings that won’t even survive a first date.
To return to the apple-and-cheese rule, while a wedge of ripe Camembert might make a dodgy Soave or a run-ofthe-mill claret taste better than they deserve, it will also take away some of the character from a really good wine. So avoid anything too soft and creamy – or cheese with a strong personality, such as Époisses – with fine wines. A white wine with high acidity, to cut through the fat, is best: a dry Riesling from Alsace or Clare Valley would be perfect.
Hard cheeses are less hazardous, and can be a sublime match with wine. Parmigiano Reggiano, for example, is lovely with spicy reds from the Southern Rhône, such as Gigondas or Châteauneuf-du-pape, while Comté (eighteen months or older, for preference), aged Gouda and Mimolette are terrific with full-bodied Chardonnay: a Meursault, if you can afford it, or a Mâcon-villages if you can’t.
Perhaps the world’s best-known blue cheeses, Stilton and Roquefort, are traditionally matched with sweet wines – port and Sauternes, respectively – to balance the pungent, salty cheese. While pairing oysters with Chablis, for instance, is a case of like with like, sweet wine with blue cheese is about finding a contrast on the palate. Try the Wine Society’s own-label Sauternes (£20 a bottle; £10.95 a half-bottle) or splash out on the lovely Château Raymond-lafon 2010 (£30); for port, try an aged tawny, rather than a ruby: the splendid Quinta do Noval’s ten-year-old tawny, for instance, reduced to £19.99 from £24.99 at Waitrose until Boxing Day.
If all else fails, and your cheese is so strong, sticky or smoky that it will trample over any table wine you put in its path, then fall back on an old Christmas staple: a glass of sherry. Not the venerable Bristol Cream that has been on the drinks tray for years, but a freshly opened bottle of dry amontillado or palo
cortado: both have a nutty, spicy, dried-fruit character that works effortlessly with cheese. An old Manchego would be most appropriate, of course, but sherry with ripe Brie or smoked ricotta can be equally rewarding.
At any half-decent supermarket, you can cobble together enough good cheeses and wines to satisfy the most assiduous of dinner guests: in the 1970s, the phrase ‘cheese and wine’ struck terror into any gourmet’s heart. Bull’s Blood and sweaty Cheddar… on sticks, of course, with chunks of pineapple for company. Buy on apples, if you want, and sell on cheese, but leave the pineapple in its tin.