Wine and Cheese Tasting

For the Wine and Cheese tasting, some friends and I got together to each bring a wine or cheese. We had a total of four wines and seven cheeses and tasted at least three different types of cheese with each wine. The seven varieties of cheeses we had for the tasting were Brie, Gouda, Chipoltle Gouda, Peppercorn Gouda, Havarti Dill, Mozzarella, and Monteray Jack. To go with the cheese, we had a baguette as well as a selection of crackers. 

The wines which we had to pair with the various cheeses included a Sauvignon Blanc, a Reisling, a Malbec, and a Shiraz. Here we are demonstrating our mastery of the sniffy sniff. Below is a description of each wine as well as our review of how the wine and cheese paired together.





Starborough Sauvignon Blanc
Region: Marlborough
Country: New Zealand
Year: 2012
Price: $12

My Review: I thought that this wine smelled slightly of flowers with apricots and peaches. It was also slightly reminiscent of cat-pee, which is something which is typical of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. After tasting, there was a strong apricot and peachy flavor which made this a very good wine.

Paired with...
Mozzarella: The mozzarella does not change the flavor of the wine very much. It is such a light flavor cheese that it did not do much.
Gouda: The stronger flavor of the gouda enhanced the flavor of the wine as well so there was a lot of flavor going on.
Brie: GROSS. Tasting the brie with this Sauvignon Blanc left an awful taste in your mouth afterwards. I would definitely not recommend this pairing. I was not surprised since, in my experience, brie tends to pair very well with red wines.


Little Penguin Riesling
Region: North Eastern
Country: Australia
Year: 2012
Price: $9

My Review: This riesling had a nose which contained aromas of stone and flowers, however the taste was very appley and slightly sour.

Paired with...
Mozzarella: Tasting the mozzarella with the rieslin definitely toned down the sourness which allowed the sweetness to come through.
Gouda: The strong flavor of the gouda overpowered the riesling and dominated the palatte.
Chipoltle Gouda: The spiciness associated with the chipoltle gouda did not mix very well with the flavors of the riesling.

Rubus Shiraz
Region: Barossa
Country: Australia
Year: 2012
Price: $20

My Review: The nose of this shiraz had vanilla and dark fruit aromas. The taste was a bit spicy and peppery but also had a lot of fruit flavors. It was a very good wine. One I might buy again.

Paired with...
Brie: So good! The brie tones down the spiciness of the shiraz and the creaminess of the cheese goes very well with the wine. Basically I love brie with all the red wines.
Mozzarella: The light flavor of this cheese is overpowered by the strong flavors in the shiraz.
Chipoltle Gouda: These two together was just super spicy! So much spice. Too much. I wanted to go back to the brie.
Peppercorn Gouda: The peppercorn gouda did not work very well with the shiraz. The flavors didn't really mesh or compliment eachother. The pepper almost seemed to be competing with the fruitiness.


Diseno Malbec
Region: Mendoza
Country: Argentina
Year: 2012
Price: $10

My Review: The nose on this wine is very subtle. The slight aroma is one that is very typical of most red wines. This malbec had a strong spiciness to it which we think would make this wine a good choice to age for a while. It also may have been better if balanced with more fruit.

Paired with...
Brie: Once again, the brie tasted very good with this red wine. It toned down the tannins and spice a bit which allowed the fruitiness to come out more.
Peppercorn Gouda: The flavor of the pepper is very strong when these are paired together but it did work relatively well which was rather unexpected.
Havarti Dill: The strong dill taste with this cheese definitely overpowered the flavors in the wine and made a rather odd paring.

All in all, I think it was a successful wine and cheese event which definitely provided a lot of insight about the relationship between wine and cheese when paired together. I also really enjoyed getting to try a variety of cheeses since I have only recently begun to enjoy tasting different types of cheese.