Millions of French and Italians can't be wrong – wine and cheese are always a perfect pair and the best choice for a quick dinner, a gathering with friends, or the start of a long feast! Consuming them together opens up a whole new palette of previously unknown taste sensations. How to combine them? Which cheeses pair with which wines and how to serve them to fully experience the pleasure?
Cheeses and wines from around the world
Wherever ideal conditions for raising milk-producing mammals existed, strong cheesemaking traditions have also flourished. Aromatic Swiss and Austrian cheeses, salty sheep products from Scotland and Podhale, and the extraordinary and diverse range of dairy products from France and Italy are just a fraction of what different regions of the world offer. In many of these cultures, cheese with wine is an ideal, hearty meal – in Poland, it is usually treated as a party appetizer.
But which wine to choose for cheese? What does it depend on? What to prepare for a party or a gathering with loved ones so that wine with cheese plays the main role? It is worth knowing all the best pairings!
Soft cheeses and wine
Shop shelves are filled with soft and hard cheeses, matured for a long or short time, with specially cultivated mold and entirely delicate, goat, sheep, cow, and increasingly often also... vegan. Fortunately, to know which wine to choose for cheese, you just need to know two golden rules!
Soft cheeses, such as Edam or Gruyère, are characterized by a flavor that is difficult to detect immediately. It takes a little more time to get to know and appreciate them. For this reason, one must be careful not to overwhelm their aromas with wine.
Here, dry or semi-dry white wine for soft cheeses will be an excellent choice – as subtle as they are. Fresh, even slightly sparkling and chilled – especially for the most melt-in-your-mouth varieties – without dominant floral notes, this is one of the best pairings.
Hard cheeses and wine
When choosing wine for hard cheeses, such as Parmesan, Bursztyn, or Džiugas, one must consider their intensity. The more aged and sharp or smoked they are, the better they will pair with heavier and drier red wines. This is the other end of the spectrum, where soft and delicate dairy products are at the beginning. So, one can follow intuition, choosing more intense aromas of the drink, the harder and richer in flavor the cheese is. Does this answer, however, apply to the question of which wine to buy for blue cheeses?
Blue cheeses and wine
Unlike the two previous cases, wine for blue cheese is chosen based on slightly different criteria. This is one of the few cases where a sweet drink is paired with a salty appetizer. Its strong taste complements the surprising sensations that are the domain of this dairy variety.
Besides which wine to choose for blue cheese, it is also important to know how to consume it so that the dairy melts in the mouth. After biting into a piece of mold-covered blue cheese or Camembert, one should quickly take a small sip of a very mature and sweet drink. This completely new experience for the taste buds will help one understand the delight of the French or English with the most "fragrant" varieties of cheese!
The perfect wine for a cheese board
For both an evening gathering with friends and an elegant party, it is worth preparing a cheese board! The selected dairy products – along with nuts, fruits, herbs, and even meat appetizers – thoughtfully arranged on a piece of wood will look fantastic. But which wine to choose for a cheese board?
When preparing this type of appetizer, one must keep in mind the second golden rule for pairing both products: cheese and wine taste best as a duo if they come from the same region. So, if the platter contains Italian, German, or French dairy, the drinks should also be produced in those countries. Such a conscious choice will also provide additional knowledge about different varieties of both cheese and wine. It is also an excellent opportunity for culinary journeys!