The pros’ favorite wine-and-cheese pairings
Master Sommeliers Keck and Rodil create balanced combos that let traits shine
Wine and cheese could arguably be a single word, wineandcheese. For some of us, it’s hard to imagine having one without the other. Well, at least cheese without wine.
But even my French friends, who rarely host a dinner that doesn’t include a cheese course, don’t put much thought into the wine that’s being consumed with same, and I’m just as guilty. Usually, we’re simply finishing up whatever we were drinking with the main course.
“And we don’t want to throw it out,” notes David Keck, the Master Sommelier behind Montrose Cheese & Wine, Houston’s first spot to get really serious about this often complicated dance of flavors. Yep, he’s been there, too. But customers at Houston’s aforementioned firstof-its-kind on-premise/off-premise wine and cheese shop, at 1618 Westheimer, will now have the chance to experiment with well thought-through flavor and texture pairings.
Keck and fellow Master Sommelier June Rodil, with much more than a 2 cents’ worth from wine director Ryan Cooper, have assembled a concise (125 bottles) and deftly curated list of wines —
many by the glass — that can be sampled with cheeses (17 or so for the moment) from both Lindsey Schechter’s Houston Dairymaids lineup and Andrea Cudin’s Lira Rossa soft cheeses, which are Texas made but Italy inspired.
Early on in my personal wine journey, I somehow jumped to the wrong conclusion that red Bordeaux was meant to be drunk with Roquefort and other blue cheeses. I was wrong, but I’ve moved on. However, I still wrestle with the pairings thing and tend to default to wines I like and cheeses I like, never mind if they actually belong together. The good news is pretty much everything works splendidly with champagne, both Keck and Rodil agree.
Anyway, I reached out to them both for philosophical advice and actual combinations that make sense. They were happy to oblige. It was comforting to hear Rodil concede: “It’s really hard to pair something that’s so variable in flavors and density.” But she was quick to add how well “stickys” — port, in particular — handle the saltiness of those pesky blues, most classically English Stilton. Keck, for his part, made an excellent point when he said, “If it grows there, it goes there,” meaning cheeses made from the milk of animals who graze near a particular vineyard tend to be can’t-miss pairings. “Cheese is a fermented fluid,” he also pointed out, “the same as wine.” Come to think of it … “I have totally stolen that from other people,” Keck admitted before continuing, “It’s about the power and intensity of a cheese itself. How does that compare with the power and intensity of the wine? A rich, powerfully aromatic cheese is going to need a wine that balances that out, whether it comes from some sweetness elements or the structural weight of the wine.”
Keck has known Schechter for some time and brainstormed the idea for Montrose Cheese & Wine having her wonderful array of cheeses specifically in mind. In fact, Shannon McCracken, formerly one of Schechter’s Dairymaids assistants, was hired to be the on-site cheesemonger and manager.
“For years, I’ve wished we’d had a Houston Dairymaids (in Montrose)” he said. “I asked Lindsey, ‘Are you OK with this? We don’t want to step on your toes.’ But because most of her business was wholesale, she was fine with it. You can’t do anything with cheese (in Houston) without talking to Lindsey Schechter.
“And Shannon is amazing, too. We’re not going to force anybody to have particular pairings, but we’re all definitely here to help.” Toward that end, Keck and Rodil each offered a couple of their favorites.