Cheese is one of my all time favorite snacks, and I often try to make dishes I can add cheese to, such as pasta. So, this Valentine's Day two of my friends and I had a wine and cheese night! We had three wines and five cheeses, and I will introduce them below.
The first wine was a 2020 Vinho Tinto from the Peninsula de Setubal, Portugal. This red wine is a blend of 60% Castelao, 30% Aragones, and 10% Syrah and has 14% alcohol by volume. It smells buttery, woody, and with small hints of fig. When tasted I thought it was very full bodied, woody, and I thought it had an after taste similar to bourbon aged in oak. This was one of my favorite reds I've tasted, and makes me want to experiment more with red wine.
The second wine was a 2021 Vinho Verde from Quinta da Raza, Portugal. This white wine is a blend of 50% Arinto, 35% Azal, and 15% Trajadura and has 11.5% alcohol by volume. By itself, I got notes of citrus and lime. When I tasted it, I felt that it was fresh, crisp, and acidic, more specifically malic acid.
The last wine is a 2021 Chenin Blanc from Le Pallet, France. This white wine is a varietal Vouvray, and has 12% alcohol by volume. It smells sweet and of pear, and tasted sweet, fruity, and a little bit of honey. This was my favorite out of all three, as I tend to favor sweeter wines.
The five cheeses we had were a smoked cheddar, smoked gouda, honey goat cheese, dill havarti, and cranberry cinnamon goat cheese. Pictures of the packages and cheese can be seen below, along with how we arranged the cheese on a plate!
Next I will describe the cheese pairings with the Vinho Verde. The first cheese was the cranberry goat, which really brought out the acidity in the wine. It made my tongue feel tingly and fizzy and brought out the green apple flavor. The second cheese was the dill Havarti, which brought out a lot of herbal flavor from the dill. I got less fruity notes from this pairing and the acidity was still pretty strong. The third cheese was the smoked cheddar, which was really balanced. The cheddar made the acidity go away in a positive way, and I could differentiate both the wine and cheese from each other. The fourth cheese was the smoked gouda. I definitely tasted more of the cheese with this pairing, with some fruit coming through from the wine, and I wasn't a big fan of this pairing. The last cheese was the honey goat, which was my favorite with this wine. I thought that the sweetness from the cheese and acidity from the wine cancelled out each other, which brought out the honey from the cheese and fruity notes from the wine. The tingly/fizzy feeling on my tongue wasn't present anymore.
The final wine pairing was with the Vouvray/Chenin Blanc. The first cheese was again the cranberry goat, which was sweet. I liked this pairing and thought that the cheese brought out the fruity/sweet flavors of the wine. The second cheese was the dill Havarti, which again brought out a lot of herbal flavor from the dill. I thought it was alright, as the cheese cancelled a lot of the fruity/sweetness from the wine. The third cheese was the smoked cheddar, which I wasn't a big fan of. I thought that the smokiness and sweetness didn't compliment each other. The fourth cheese was the smoked gouda, which unlike the cheddar paired well. It made the wine seem more smooth and buttery, but got rid of the fruit flavor. The last cheese was the honey goat, which was almost a sweetness overload to me. I got way more of honey from this than any notes from the wine, and it tasted very creamy together.
Final verdicts:
My favorite pairing with the Vinho Tinto was the smoked gouda.
My favorite pairing with the Vinho Verde was the honey goat.
My favorite pairing with the Chenin Blanc was the smoked gouda.
Overall favorite pairing was the Vinho Verde and honey goat.
Overall favorite wine was the Chenin Blanc.
Overall favorite cheese was the smoked gouda.
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