The principal aim when pairing cheese and wine is to find an enjoyable match and to avoid clashes between all elements involved.
I can count on my fingers the number of cheese and wine pairings that have taken me to an ethereal level. My favourite was a pairing of Bolney Wine Estate’s Kew Gardens sparkling rosé with a youthful Mont d’Or. The stone fruit and crème fraiche flavours in the cheese brought out the fruit flavours in the wine, and the cheese’s fatty paste was cut beautifully by the bubbles.
When pairing cheese and wine, we are looking mainly at two methods: the complement and the contrast. You can pair cheese to wine or wine to cheese, however the outcome should be the same, where neither dominates the other.
The cheese flavour wheel shows the flavour relationships between different types of cheese from around the world. Use it to understand what styles of cheese you like and to make new discoveries.
From ‘The Cheese Wheel’ by Emma Young (Ebury Press, £14.99)
Complementing
This involves matching like for like in intensity, structure and flavour. For example, a fresh goat’s curd with its simple, dairy flavours will not match up to a full-bodied, intense Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Pair lighter cheeses with lighter-bodied wines, and bold and powerful cheeses with wines of a similar intensity.
Think about the condiments and accompaniments which work well with cheese and choose wines which host similar flavours within.
For example, Comté pairs well with walnuts and therefore also
