Finding a wine able to complement a range of different cheeses can be a challenge. Some outspoken gastronomic experts even deem it an impossibility given the sheer scope of flavours and textures on offer.
Most cheese falls into one of five or six family groups: goat and sheep’s milk cheese, hard or cheddared cheese, bloomy cheeses (camembert and brie), washed rind cheeses (epoisses, munster etc) and blue-veined cheese.
Generally speaking, certain styles of wine will work better with each of these groups, but a good cheese board will probably include examples from all of them. So how do you find a wine that can cope with a strong, salty cheddar, a pungent goat’s cheese and a ripe camembert? This was the challenge we set ourselves when choosing wines for our special Christmas cheese and wine cases.
The line-up of cheeses included representatives from both sides of the Channel. In the French corner, we had:
Brillat Savarin – a triple-cream, soft cheese, made with unpasteurised cow’s milk with a deep, earthy and salty flavour.
La Graine de Vosges – a washed-rind cow’s milk cheese; pungent but with an unctuous, creamy and earthy flavour.
Vacherin Mont d’Or – a seasonal cow’s milk cheese made on the Swiss border shaped in cloth-lined moulds then encircled with a strip of spruce bark and washed with brine for at least three weeks. The spruce imparts a resinous flavour to the pale interior of the cheese which becomes almost liquid as it matures.
Bleu de Chevre Cendre – an unusual ashed and soft blue goat’s milk cheese made from the milk of Alpine dairy goats.
… and in the British corner were:
Cornish Smuggler – a hard cow’s cheese with lovely acidity and creamy texture and a soft red veining through the cheese.
Sharpham Brie – soft, unpasteurised, full-flavoured almost fruity creamy brie.
Ragstone – creamy, pronounced flavoured goat’s cheese from Herefordshire.
Golden Cenarth – award-winning washed-rind organic cow’s milk cheese from west Wales Its smooth interior texture in contrast with its interesting, sweet rind.
We tried a raft of different bottles with the cheeses (the idea was to choose French wines to go with the French cheeses) but as the tasting went on, one wine seemed to bring out the best in all of the cheeses, French or British again and again…
Midsummer Hill took on all comers...
Yet another feather in the cap of a wine that’s been a patriotic Society favourite for some time now, so I thought I’d share the news. Should you wish to try it and indeed other English wines besides, The Society is currently running an offer enabling members to do just that!
Joanna Goodman
SocietyNews Editor