We all love wine and cheese. They seem to be the perfect partners. Our parents used to throw cheese and wine parties. No serious meal is complete without a plate of cheese, a few crackers and a glass of nice red wine. Alternatively, throw in some crusty sourdough bread and you have a holy trinity, the simplest lunch of all.
A few years ago, I bought a big selection of cheeses and tried eating them alongside an equally big range of very different wines. My conclusions? It is a lot more complicated than I thought. Most cheeses go better with white wine rather than red. Some cheeses kill a wine stone dead, while others really enhance it. I have a bit of a cheese obsession and I’m fond of wine too. So, I’ve been working away diligently at it ever since.
Below, you’ll find a few broad outlines and a few of my favourites, but feel free to ignore them and create your own matches.
- In general, the softer, creamier and more acidic cheeses go better with white wines. So, young fresh cheeses, such as mozzarella, and fresh goat’s cheese are best with a white wine such as a sauvignon blanc, Riesling or Loire Chenin Blanc.
- Pungent full-flavoured washed rind and bloom rind cheeses such as Brie, Camembert and Livarot are best with powerful white wines or red wines with no tannins. Or you could try sparkling wines, or dry cider (Camembert is made in Normandy, cider country).
- Firm cheeses such as parmesan, Comté, Gouda, Cheddar or Manchego go well with red wines, even tannic reds. This can include your finest old Bordeaux and other Cabernets, syrah/shiraz and Malbec. They also go well with textured white wines such as chardonnay.
- Blue cheese, a favourite of mine, can go very well with sweet wines, amontillado sherry, tawny and vintage port, but the people at Cashel Blue suggest an Irish drink such as the Killahora Orchards Rare Apple Ice Wine or a mead.
- I am a devotee of Comté cheese and buy a small block every week. Happily, it is one of the best cheeses to drink alongside red or white wine, or rosé. Being a little nerdy for a second, I would usually have the older 16-month Comté with red wine, and white alongside the lighter, fruitier eight-month cheese. But it doesn’t really matter; both will go well with pretty much any wine, including Champagne.
- I also have some decent parmesan to hand for cooking and like Comté it goes well with most red wines and white wines. Chardonnay is possibly the best white wine with cheese and cooked cheese dishes such as macaroni cheese, cauliflower cheese, cheese toasties and vegetarian gratins.
- I buy a generous slice of blue cheese every week, generally Roquefort, Crozier Blue or Gorgonzola piccante. I usually have this with a handful of nuts and a glass of amontillado sherry.
- As most restaurants serve a selection of different cheeses, it can be difficult to find a wine that matches all. So, my nearest things to fail-safe options would be a rich white chardonnay, a light red Beaujolais or a glass of Port. Remember also that beer goes very well with cheese, and cider does too.
[ A light white and a tasty sparkling wine from Aldi to mark the close of summerOpens in new window ]
