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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2006 > January > 21 > Entry
Hah! I KNEW The Whole Wine-and-Cheese Pairing Was Overrated…
At least twice in my wine columns for the Dayton Daily News — once in 1997, once in 2002 (thank goodness for electronic archives!) — I have suggested that the whole wine-and-cheese thing was WAY overrated.
Now, I have a study to back me up. I mean, like, an actual STUDY. (Click on “Continue Reading”…)
Decanter.com tips us off to the story headlined “Wine and Cheese Incompatible, Says Research”. The story apparently appears in a publication called New Scientist, and the results of the test conducted at the University of California Davis will be formally published in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture in March.
Now, mind you, I fully acknowledge that there are a few classic pairings — goat cheese and Loire Valley sauvignon blancs such as Sancerre or Poully Fume, Roquefort and fine aged Sauternes, Reggiano with Nebbiolo-based Italians — that complement each other beautifully. In these pairings, the cheese makes the wine better, and vice versa.
But in a whole host of other haphazard pairings of cheese and wine, the cheese gets in the way, or does the wine no favors at all. A pungent, strongly flavored cheese and a young, tannic, oaked cabernet? Have MERCY…
Still, I KNOW I’m in the minority on this. Too many cheddars have lined up next to merlots over the decades for mine to be a prevalent opinion. But for one moment — one brief, shining moment — I can bask in a tiny ounce of VINDICATION.
Hah!
What are YOUR thoughts on wine and cheese?
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
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Comments
By CTheGee
January 21, 2006 11:51 AM | Link to this
I prefer to taste the cheese without the whine. Or wine. I’d pair a cellar aged screwtop 1972 Boone’s Farm Strawberry with Velveeta. As far as a fine chevre, if I knew it there was a goat involved beforehand I’d stay on the other side of the room when offered to taste. But I digress. I agree that pairings with cheese are for selling, and I find most are for selling cheese rather than wine. Now shall we move along to rich Reds and dark chocolates? because Hunny Baby Sweetie Day is only a few weeks away and they’re made for each other!
By cathy
January 20, 2006 3:36 PM | Link to this
Well, shut my mouth! I’ve been eating cheese alongside wine for decades! I am looking forward to conducting a little test of my own. I do believe that some wine & cheese pairings are heavenly… one of my favorite memories of Alsace was the cheese course, Muenster as well as other cheeses, paired with a luscious Vendange Tardive Gewurtz. Mmmm-mmm!
By Paul
January 20, 2006 2:25 PM | Link to this
Taste is a very personal sense. Some like one wine, others don’t. Some like one food, others don’t. I suspect paring wines with food — including cheese — is also a very personal choice. I can’t imagine drinking a fine Sauternes with Stilton — but I love Stilton with a fine Port. I love red wines with fish — including delicate tasting white fish like Talapia or Sole. I’m not big on white wine with cheese, but love red wine with just about any cheese that I enjoy by itself. Can’t imagine drinking any wine with a cheese I don’t like by itself! However, I suspect Jens is correct that cheese (or any other food with a distinguishable taste) can interfere with evaluating a wine. Fortunately, when I taste wines — even to evaluate them — my primary interest is enjoyment. So if my cheese masks a few faults, HOOORAAAAY! On the other hand, if you are in the wine trade, I suspect a “pure” palate is appropriate — sometimes.
By jens at cincinnati wine warehouse
January 20, 2006 12:29 PM | Link to this
I read this last year on a wine store website: “Buy on apples, sell on cheese.” Cheese can mask flaws in a wine and make it taste yummy, not that there is anything wrong with that, unless you are trying to evaluate the wine.
By james
January 20, 2006 12:26 PM | Link to this
I’m one of those who prefer wine with food, not on its own. And the whole wine/cheese thing is really a chance for my wife and me to relax, shut out the rest of the world and visit for a little while. Life is so busy, and wine paired with cheese seems like such a civilized way to take a break. Sure, sometimes the pairings work and sometimes they don’t. So what?
By Mark
January 20, 2006 11:27 AM | Link to this
Spratt: If I had “something against cheese and wine,” why would I wax rhapsodic over the classic pairings I mentioned: goat with Sancerre, bleu with Sauternes, Parmesano with Barolo? I’ve got nothing at all against fine pairings of cheese and wines. I’m suggesting that not all cheese and wine pairings work as well as those I mentioned, and that in general, the any-wine-with-any-cheese phenomenon is vastly overrated. Cheers! Mark Fisher
By spratt
January 20, 2006 10:38 AM | Link to this
Anytime you have wine with some food you run the risk of ruining both or having a little party in your mouth. Wine goes with cheeses as it does (or doesen’t) with other foods, say, RIBS. Just yesterday, Mark, you stated that “the Pillar Box made the ribs better,” so you recognized the merits of “pairing” by having a food that you felt was appropriate with the wine you knew you would be tasting. Obviously oyster and asparagus stew would not have done the wine justice. Do you just have something against CHEESE and wine?