What are your favourite Cheeses? And a wine match?

[TiggerK]

HI all,

some recent talk of cheese prompted this thread... It's such a compliment to wine (and a flatterer), be great to hear of some new cheeses to seek out and try....

My all time favourites off the top of my head.

St Agur - best blue on earth, no question. Creamy, rich and delicious. Very hard to stop eating, which it a pity, as it's a bit $$$.
Bouche D'Affinois - decadent triple cream yummo. A little is a lot.
Prima Donna - mix of emmental and parmesan - great grilled on toast, or just by itself. Nutty, with a touch of tang.
Cropwell Bishop Stilton - close 2nd to the St.Agur for best blue going.
Parmigiano Reggiano - the classic, and with good reason. Buy by the smallish block and grate as needed. (but of course you all know that).

Cheers
TiggerK

[Gary W]

I'm really enjoying Dick Smith Cheese Spread at the moment. Very nice.
GW

[Michael McNally]

I'm really enjoying Dick Smith Cheese Spread at the moment. Very nice.
GW

I'm pleased you put the "Smith" in there!!!

Cheers

Michael

[Peter Schlesinger]

I'm really enjoying Dick Smith Cheese Spread at the moment. Very nice.
GW

And exactly what use have you put it to Gary.

[daz]

King Island Blue Brie with a gutsy McLaren Vale shiraz.

[Stavros]

HI all,

some recent talk of cheese prompted this thread... It's such a compliment to wine (and a flatterer), be great to hear of some new cheeses to seek out and try....

My all time favourites off the top of my head.

St Agur - best blue on earth, no question. Creamy, rich and delicious. Very hard to stop eating, which it a pity, as it's a bit $$$.
Bouche D'Affinois - decadent triple cream yummo. A little is a lot.

Cheers
TiggerK

I'll second that on both of those TiggerK, both fantastic cheeses, we have been lucky enough to score "2nds" of both these
in the past through a friend who is a sales rep for Blue Cow Cheese at greatly reduced prices.

Seen as you have such good taste in those 2, we might have to give your other selections a crack in the near future....

S

[n4sir]

My favourite cheese would be Woodside 'Edith', a goat's cheese rolled in ash. Overall I find it's a pretty versatile: fresh it's great with medium to full bodied reds, and after a couple of weeks it sweetens to become something more like a blue cheese best suited to stickies or German rieslings with high RS.

Cheers,
Ian

[redstuff]

St Agur or any other beautiful blue, combined with a Sauternes or Barsac or any decent sticky is a match to die for. It may be just my taste buds or something, but whenever I have a soft cheese with a red i get a distinct creamy vomit taste. Anyone else experience this? I find hard cheeses go perfectly with the bigger reds.

[Eboracum]

HI all,

some recent talk of cheese prompted this thread... It's such a compliment to wine (and a flatterer), be great to hear of some new cheeses to seek out and try....

My all time favourites off the top of my head.

St Agur - best blue on earth, no question. Creamy, rich and delicious. Very hard to stop eating, which it a pity, as it's a bit $$$.
Bouche D'Affinois - decadent triple cream yummo. A little is a lot.
Prima Donna - mix of emmental and parmesan - great grilled on toast, or just by itself. Nutty, with a touch of tang.
Cropwell Bishop Stilton - close 2nd to the St.Agur for best blue going.
Parmigiano Reggiano - the classic, and with good reason. Buy by the smallish block and grate as needed. (but of course you all know that).

It is strange that, for an European cheese lover like me, only the last two listed are on my radar screen. I must look out for Saint-Agur in particular.

I am very cautious about cheese/matches; for one match made in heaven there are three or four made in hell. I find that there are more decent cheese matches with white wine than with red. I would steer clear of serving a fine mature red wine with a strong tasting cheese, particularly one with a soft texture.

Here are some combinations which I think work with European cheese and wine.

Hard textured cheeses but non-assertive like Cheddar, Cantal Salers, mild Gouda - red Bordeaux, Burgundy and the like are OK.

Goat cheeses like Sainte-Maure, Valençay and Pouligny-Saint-Pierre - a mineral dry Loire wine is very good (Crottin de Chavignol with good Sancerre is a match made in heaven.) Dry and off-dry Riesling and some unoaky white Burgundy is also good. Red wines, particularly fresh and mineral ones, are OK. The more mature the goat cheese the more difficult the match and I always remove the more pungent rind.

Stilton with vintage port is a marriage made in heaven.

Blue cheese like Roquefort with Sauternes is pretty good.

Pungent soft textured cheeses like Brie, Camembert, Pont l'Évêque, Époisses get progressively more wine unfriendly the riper and more runny they get. White, if you must, but otherwise beer, cider or strong coffee.

The above is not far off the European consensus but many strongly disagree; this could be a matter of different palate sensitivity. For example some people swear by mature red Burgundy with stinky Époisses; I think that the cheese kills the wine but it's hard to argue with a strongly held taste preference like that.

[Softie]

Ok Tim, given this diversity of views [excepting our love for St Agur] we just have to host a cheese tasting night. Perhaps Gary W could track down some 1969 Kraft Coon as the centre piece of the evening? (1969 being pre Dick Smith Cheese spread.)

Seriously, a night of alternative wine matches to a few blues cheeses could be worthwhile.

Cheers
John

[Red]

What cheeses would people recommend with Pinot Noir?

[Nayan]

What cheeses would people recommend with Pinot Noir?

What Pinot Noir? And where from?

Triple Cream Bries work well with some Australian PNs

[Daniel Jess]

I had a gorgeous Nazaraay Reserve Pinot with hard, salty cheddar the other day - it was truly fab!

[dingozegan]

Some of my favourite matches would include:

*White Burgundy with mature (Dutch) Gouda and mature Manchego.
*Sweet Loire Chenin Blanc (best for the combo) or Noble Semillon/Riesling or Sauterne with Roquefort (more salty and less creamy - which I think works well with the sweetness - than the less traditional, though also very good, double-cream St Agur).
*It’s hard to find reds that work with cheese IMO. The hard mature cheeses seem to work better than anything else, and I really like traditional style Rioja with mature Manchego.

I'm not alone in finding that soft rinded creamy cheeses rarely work with wine (and the classic Epoisse-red Burgundy combo I've always found terrible, but maybe the Burg was never "rustic" enough). Any reccos for matches with a creamy Tassie Brie-style would be most welcome!

[griff]

A soft white rind goat cheese works wonders with a tannic Cote du Rhone.

cheers

Carl

[Eboracum]

Be careful. I just tried a very ripe Banon, a goat cheese from Provence, - http://www.banon-aoc.com/en/presentation.html - with a delicious dry and mineral white Jurançon, and its pungency quite ruined the wine which was excellent with less aggressive goat cheeses like Sainte-Maure.

On the other hand a young Époisses surprised me by being acceptable with the same wine. I agree that ripe versions are usually disastrous with any wine, red even more than white.

It is really difficult to make firm recommendations especially when the ripeness of the cheese plays such an important part.

BTW, thanks for recommending Saint-Agur. I found one and it added a delicious creaminess which most blues don't have. I wouldn't say that it over-trumps a fine Stilton or Roquefort, but it is very nice.

[Julio G]

try a pint of good real ale (ESB works for me) with harder cheeses - works brilliantly.

I too have great difficulty in matching red wine with cheese - whites work better for me.