Wine and Cheese Pairing
Allie Childress
Wines:
Aravail Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc: 2021, California, $18.99
Les Florets Rose Sec: 2022, Rhone Valley, France $10.99
Yosemite Road Vineyards Moscato: no year on bottle, USA, $5.78
Cheeses:
Smoked Gouda
Wisconsin Sharp White Cheddar
Swiss Baby bell cheese
I has some of my friends come over to join me in this experience! Maya and Cortney were excited to embark on the journey towards becoming a sommelier with me :)
Pairing Notes:
Sauvignon Blanc: On it's own, this wine is very citric and earthy to the nose. The aroma most closely reminded me of grass clippings and lime. It has a sweetness to it, but mainly has flavors of high acidity and citric lime and lemon.
Paired with the sharp white cheddar, it definitely cut out some of the sharpness of the cheese and created a smoother, less acidic taste of the wine. I noticed it also leveled out some of the citrus taste, which seemed to be the main flavor when tried on it's own.
With the smoked gouda, I feel like the smoky flavor of the cheese became much more emphasized when paired with this wine. The citrus once again calmed down a bit and created a much smoother and sweeter taste of the wine. I liked this combination a lot, because both the flavors of the cheese and the flavors of the wine melded together to create an entirely new flavor profile.
The swiss cheese was probably the worst combination with this wine. The tartness of the swiss only magnified the tart citric flavors of the wine, making an extra sour taste. I feel like the cheese eliminated all of the other complexities within the wine, such as the earthly, minerally flavors, and only highlighted the tartness.
Rose: The Rose on its own has a sour scent to it, with hints of jammy berries. The taste is pretty robust, but not too overpowering due to the hints of berry sweetness to it. The aftertaste seemed pretty earthy, lingering almost a metallic taste to it. I'm not sure if that is a good taste to be picking up on, but regardless, I enjoyed this wine a lot on it's own.
Sharp white cheddar: With the cheddar cheese, the sourness of the wine seemed to be cut down a lot, and a much more sweet flavor became prevalent. I personally liked the sharp acidity of the wine on it's own, so this pairing was not my favorite.
Smoked gouda: This combination was pretty bitter. The smokiness of the gouda seemed to get lost when paired with this wine, and I was left with a pretty tart, almost tannic like taste in my mouth-- which is quite a difference from the tastes I got from the wine on it's own.
Swiss: The swiss paired with the rose really changed the smoothness of the wine. I feel like the wine became much less acidic and tangy and leaned towards a smooth creamy profile.
Moscato: On the nose, this wine is extremely fruity and floral. The scent reminded me of smelling an apple juice that had a hint of blueberries in. The taste was super jammy, with heavy tastes of apple and pear. There was little to no acidity on the palette, and certainly no tannic components.
Sharp white cheddar: The sharp, tart flavor of this cheese simply did not compliment the sweet flavors of this wine. If this wine had some acidity to it, then maybe the tastes would have melded better together. The wine almost felt like it was trying to compete with the strong flavors of the cheese, but failed to do so. The cheese was too overwhelming for the sweetness of the moscato.
Smoked gouda: The smoky flavor of this cheese was totally not the correct flavor to be paired with this sweet dessert wine. The smokiness melded into a pretty awful taste when met with the apple and pear flavors of the moscato.
Swiss: This cheese pairing was the closest one to being somewhat good. The sweet flavors of the wine still had trouble meshing with the sharp qualities of the cheese, but this was the mellowest cheese of them all, so it wasn't too harsh. My main conclusion with this wine is that it probably is not meant to be paired with cheese, but rather some fruit or a dessert.
