Break out the bubbly!
HOW TO PAIR CHEESE AND WINE FOR MAXIMUM DELICIOUSNESS
Cheese is surely one of life’s great culinary pleasures, complex in flavour and texture. Lucky for us, there are abundant varieties made by artisans from coast to coast. Add a selection of local wines, some accompaniments and a few friends, and you’ve got a pairing party of the nearly effortless kind.
With advice from “cheese sommelier” ( a. k. a. maître fromager) Vanessa Simmons and accredited sommelier Debbie Trenholm of the Ottawa- based Savvy Company, and Jesse Vallins, Complex Cheese Pairings instructor at George Brown College and executive chef at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Tavern, you’ll be prepared to create your own tasting party at home.
FLIGHTS OF CHEESE
Borrow a concept f r om the wine world and compose a horizontal flight of cheese: cheeses made in the same style, at the same age but from different cheesemakers.
Simmons suggests including various milks and regions, and tasting to identify similarities and differences within a single type. “The conversations that will happen will just be terrific,” Trenholm says. Have several bottles of different wines open so guests can experiment with their own pairings.
“Buy three different types of cheddars from three different cheesemakers. They will all taste different, they will all have a different flavour profile while still respecting some of the buttery, sharp and fruity characteristics that cheddar will have,” Simmons says.
“It ’s quite i nteresting when you buy the same type of cheese from different cheesemakers because then you really have an appreciation for terroir. It’s a journey, not a destination, so that’s the fun part about it.”
To set up a vertical progression, choose at least three varieties of a single cheese at various stages of maturity. For example, Alberta cheesemaker Sylvan Star Cheese Ltd.'s gouda at three months, seven to nine months, and 24 plus months of age. With a vertical flight, the focus is on subtle differences at various stages of ripeness. OR … RUN THE GAMUT “I think it’s more interesting to go with different styles of cheese in general. So you would have something fresh, maybe a fresh buffalo mozzarella or a fresh burrata. And do a goat cheese, say Grey Owl ( Fromagerie Le Detour) and then to something softer or maybe washed rind like Le 1608 ( Laiterie Charlevoix) or Upper Canada Cheese Company Comfort Cream ( Camembert- style),” Vallins says.
“Moving over to the harder cheeses, aged cheddar or gouda- style, and moving up to a blue. You don’t necessarily have to have six or seven but if you can, get one in a few of those categories and have a nice variety. And then different wines to go with those, it’s a lot of fun.”
V allins recommends ideally having five different bottles of wine open to pair with this type of board: a sparkling ( either white or rosé), such as Nova 7 by Benjamin Bridge; a highacid white like Charles Baker Riesling; a “richer, deeper white, something with a little bit of oak treatment” such as Le Clos Jordanne Chardonnay; a “rich and round” red with oak treatment and caramel notes such as Leaning Post Wines Merlot; and a dessert wine such as Icewine, late harvest Riesling or Mistelle ( a type of fortified wine), such as Lighthall Vineyards Muté.
EMBELLISH YOUR BOARD WITH ACCOMPANIMENTS
“Some people are purists and they don’t like having anything with their cheese. I’m a bit looser – I like having toast or crackers,” Vallins says. “The classic accompaniments are great – nuts, dried fruits, bread and charcuterie.”
If you’re setting out jams or other preserves, be aware that too much sweetness could affect the balance of the pairing, especially if you’re pouring dry wines, he adds.
Simmons suggests incorporating textural elements l i ke honeycomb or seed crackers, and thinking local with products like hot pepper jelly or honey.
“When you start adding in some nuts and some texture with sliced fruit and dried fruit, or a little pot of jam or honey, it becomes much more experimental and much more fun,” Simmons says.
“People have a chance to go, ‘ Oh! I’ve never tried that before. I wouldn’t have thought of putting honey on my board or even tried to bite into a piece of honeycomb. What does that taste like?’ With blue cheese, it’s divine."
BREAK OUT THE BUBBLY
Because of the level of fat in cheese, Vallins says the “cutting factor” of your accompanying beverage is an important consideration. A wine has to be able to penetrate the richness of the cheese and refresh your palate – something that sparkling wine does particularly well.
“For cutting, you want to think about carbonation, you want to think about acidity, you want to think about bitterness, which we don’t think about in wine a lot. But there are some wines that do exhibit bitterness,” he says.
“Sparkling wine a nd cheese is fantastic because it’s got that high acid, it’s got carbonation. On top of that, it’s got nice complementary flavours with cheese, like with the fruit flavours."
One of Vallins’ favourite Canadian sparkling wines is the aforementioned Nova 7, which is made by Benjamin Bridge in Nova Scotia’s Gaspereau Valley. It’s an off- dry, Moscato d’Asti- style wine that he says would make an excellent choice as an “across- the- board wine that could be just as comfortable pairing with a fresh burrata as a blue cheese.”
Trenholm likes to pair sparkling wine with cheeses, saying: “My favourite combination is something salty with sparkling wine. The salt crystals ( in the cheese) explode in your mouth when touched with the bubbles of sparkling wine – it’s kind of like fireworks in your mouth.”