How to Pair Cheese and Wine

“I don’t wish to stick with the foundations,” Sophia Cutts-Ieraci says. “In case you do, you sort of confine your self.”

That’s Cutts-Ieraci’s first tip in terms of matching wine with cheese. She ought to know. As assistant venue supervisor at Nick and Nora’s, Cutts-Ieraci is continually serving to punters navigate the moody Melbourne CBD bar’s spectacular wine and cheese choices.

“There are basic pairings that go effectively collectively,” she says, “however I believe with the ability to assume outdoors of the field is admittedly essential.”

It’s one factor, although, to seize a cheese-and-wine pairing suggestion at your favorite bar, however fairly one other to know the fundamentals of doing it your self at house. So we requested Cutts-Ieraci to lend Broadsheet her experience. In partnership with Yarra Valley vineyard Levantine Hill Property, she walks us by a few of her favorite cheese flavour profiles and their wine pairings.

Exhausting, delicate, fruity
“One in all my absolute favorite cheeses is a raspberry Bellavitano,” Cutts-Ieraci says. “It’s an American cheese. It’s exhausting and it has a raspberry wash rind. It’s like a extremely candy however tangy American cheddar with that lovely raspberry and fruit flavour by it.”

With a beautiful, raspberry-coloured exterior, a refined nuttiness and the sweet-and-tart raspberry flavour gently woven by (notably on the rind), Cutts-Ieraci recommends matching a raspberry Bellavitano with glowing rosé.

“With glowing rosé you get these stunning berry notes, these stunning richer fruit flavours,” Cutts-Ieraci says, “however you continue to get slightly little bit of tannin, a little bit of physique to it that may stand as much as a tougher cheese.”

Tangy, wealthy, chalky
“In case you’re searching for one thing softer, one thing slightly bit tangier and richer, you’re a goat’s cheese,” Cutts-Ieraci says.

Right here, assume one thing highly effective, tangy and creamy such because the Holy Goat La Luna goat’s cheese from Castlemaine, mixed with a wine of barely increased tannin and richness, similar to a rosé.

“That chalky, earthy flavour of the goat’s cheese goes effectively with one thing that’s slightly bit extra tannic and slightly bit extra critical, and has slightly bit extra of a spine,” Cutts-Ieraci says. “In case you’re doing a lighter fashion, you’ll be able to lose the wine a bit, and the entire level of pairing is attempting to ensure the wine goes to have sufficient physique to face up with the meals with out overwhelming it.”

Exhausting, nutty, salty
A favorite at Nick and Nora’s is a semi-hard Swiss quantity referred to as challerhocker (pronounced “holler hocker”).

“Completely superb cheese,” Cutts-Ieraci says. “It’s cellar aged. It’s actually fairly white, fairly pale in color, nevertheless it’s fairly wealthy, fairly nutty.”

Go for a richer fashion of white wine, ideally with slightly malolactic fermentation to beef up the buttery richness of the wine and complement the cheese’s nutty traits. The Levantine Hill chardonnay is right.

“It’s the identical as any aged cheese,” Cutts-Ieraci says. “You get that wealthy nuttiness within the cheese and I believe the wealthy nuttiness with the heavy, buttery notes of the chardonnay work rather well.”

Salty, blue, robust
Roquefort is rightly revered as a robust, full-on hunk of blue cheese.

“Clearly roquefort is a big-boy blue, actually wealthy and full-bodied,” Cutts-Ieraci says. “Classically you’ll go to dessert-style wines, so a botrytis fashion or a sauterne, however roquefort additionally goes rather well with an aged glowing.”

A robust cheese wants a much bigger fashion of wine, and the flavours that develop as glowing wine ages within the cellar can maintain their very own in opposition to a giant blue.

“You’re searching for one thing with a little bit of physique and a little bit of sweetness,” Cutts-Ieraci says. “Whenever you’re getting one thing that’s rested for fairly a while and has numerous bottle growth, it’ll deliver out numerous … nuttiness, toastiness, slightly little bit of sweetness.”

Creamy, wealthy, gentle
Brie is already identified for its creaminess and richness however Délice de Bourgogne, a cheese from Burgundy in France, takes that up a few notches.

“That may be a triple-cream white-mould cheese so it’s very wealthy, creamy and textural,” Cutts-Ieraci says. “What I’m searching for right here is one thing that can distinction with the cheese greater than something, and glowing is admittedly good with pairing wine to distinction.”

Cutts-Ieraci suggests one thing alongside the strains of the Levantine Hill’s blanc de blancs. Whereas pinot noir-dominant glowing tends to get fairly wealthy, the crisp chardonnay cuts by the unimaginable richness of the brie, bringing each into concord.

“Blanc de blanc is classically a chardonnay-predominant wine and what meaning is crispness, freshness. You may assume, flavour profile-wise, inexperienced apples, orchard fruits.”

This text is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Levantine Hill Property. Explore the full range of Levantine Hills wines.