Pairings | Highlight

Pairing wine and cheese: 6 ways to do it better

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on January 15 2024 at 06:09

Ask most people what the best wine is with cheese and most would choose a full-bodied red. But is it really the best pairing? It depends on the wine, it depends on the cheese and it depends on you. If you LOVE red wine with cheese nothing is going to put you off the experience.

If however you’d like to up your game when it comes to wine and cheese matching here are some top tips (based on YEARS of wine drinking and cheese scoffing!)

Decide which is the hero, the cheese or the wine

Artisan handmade cheeses are harder to pair with wine than mass produced supermarket cheeses. Why? Because they tend to be matured longer and have a more pronounced texture and flavour. If you really enjoy your cheese at the point at which it’s running off the cheese board don’t pair it with your most precious wine.

If you have a special bottle pick a cheese to match

The more cheeses you have the more unlikely it is one wine will go with them all. If you’re putting together a cheeseboard to show off an expensive wine avoid strong blues and powerful, pongy washed rind cheeses. Cutting the rind off the cheese on your plate also helps to avoid bitter notes that can jar with a fine red.

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