I
did this wine and cheese tasting with largest group of wine students yet. My picture on the right shows the cheeses we tasted, which are an aged cheddar on the left, swiss in the middle, and brie on the right. The wines we tried were a chateau souveraine, a pinot noir, and a cabernet sauvignon. Without further ado, let's get into the details of the
tasting!
We
started off the tasting with the pinot noir. It had a aroma of melon and lime, and a slightly more lime-oriented flavor. Besides melon and lime though, this wine didn't have too much going on. When I tried it with brie, I was surprised to find that the brie actually seemed to cover up the wine's flavor, which seemed odd for such a mild cheese. I moved on to the swiss cheese, which clashed a little bit. It wasn't too bad, but it brought out a bit too much acidity for my taste. The cheddar was definitely the worst pairing of the three, bringing an unpleasant sourness and bitterness to the palate. The swiss was probably the best pairing of the three, but none of them are pairings I would try again. The wine seemed to either clash or get overpowered by every cheese we tried it with.
The
second wine we tried was the pinot noir. It had a light, fruit-forward smell of cherry and raspberry. It was pretty dry on the palate with cherry and raspberry notes, similar to the smell. I couldn't taste the brie at all with this wine, but there at least weren't any new and unpleasant flavors. The swiss with this wine was the best pairing so far. The mild swiss flavor blended nicely with the berry notes, and it took away a bit of dryness from the wine. The cheddar was an odd pairing. The flavors were all the same, but the only new sensation that was introduced was that the the wine felt like it had a smoother texture when paired with the cheese. The swiss was definitely the winner between these three cheeses, though the cheddar was alright, and none of them were bad.
The
last wine we opened was the Josh Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. I've been meaning to try a Josh wine for a long time since I see them everywhere and they share my name. It had a sweet smell of mostly dark cherry. The flavor was also dominated by cherry, but it wasn't quite as dark as the smell. This was another fairly dry wine, though a bit less so than the pinot noir. The cheddar with this wine was definitely the best pairing so far. The savory flavor of the cheddar blended really nicely with the wine and really exemplified the fruitiness. Like the swiss and pinot noir, this pairing also removed some of the dryness from the wine. The swiss wasn't as good of a pairing. The wine felt a bit too tannic for the cheese, and it didn't taste that great. The only thing the brie really did was added a sourness to the wine. For this wine, the cheddar is the only pairing I would recommend.
The swiss cheese with the pinot noir was a solid contender, but I think the cheddar and cabernet sauvignon was definitely my favorite pairing. Both cheeses brought out the fruitiness of the wine while rounding out the dryness a bit, but I thought the cheddar and cabernet did it a bit better. The chateau souveraine didn't seem to lend itself to cheese pairings, or at least the cheeses we tried with it. Hunter (on the right) loved all 3 cheeses, but he didn't seem too interested in wine. After we finished the tasting, we had some fondue while we watched the men's basketball team play in the first round of the NIT. The game was disappointing, but at least the fondue was good. Looking forward to the next tasting!
