The Perfect Wine Match

The allure of matching fine wine and cheese lies in bringing together a multitude of different characters, flavours, textures and finishes in a perfect sensual symphony.

Infinite variables in oxidation, storage temperatures and maturity ensure that these products delight in individuality and have an ability to continually surprise. No two bottles of the same vintage or wheels of cheese are ever identical.

Cheese and wine matching is often quite a complex exercise and means taking into account many changing variables.

When choosing a cheese to serve with wine, there are two general rules of thumb:

1.  Similarity

Looking for characters that are present in both wine and cheese.

Lets have a look at an example of a match based on similarity:

2004 Ashton Hills Chardonnay

Jindi Triple Cream, Gippsland, Victoria.

A clichéd match, but a good one nonetheless. The reason this works so well is that the majority of wooded chardonnays have gone through a process known in winemaking terms as malolactic fermentation. This secondary fermentation gives the wine creamy butterscotch characters and a full mouth feel that makes a perfectly decadent match with a cheese with the same characteristics.

Triple cream cheese has had extra cream added during the cheese making process. This results in a wonderfully balanced palate of initial sweetness, rolling into the slight bitterness of white mould resolving in a luxurious, lingering buttery finish.

Tedeschi San Rocco (Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella) (ripasso method) - Ossau Iraty, French Pyrenées.

The ripasso method involves passing the wine over the skins of Amarone fruit which has been pressed after drying for up to four months. This results in the San Rocco picking up background hints of dried fruits, softening and subtly sweetening the wine.
The rich, fruity characters of a full-bodied Ossau Iraty sheep's milk cheese wonderfully complement this wine.

2.  Contrast

Looking for characters that are contrasting.
For example sweet vs. salty, acidic vs. fatty. This rule, however, has no clear-cut explanation. It is easy to say that you need to find a rich, fatty, salty cheese to balance a sharp, acidic wine, but you also need to remember that there needs to be a certain level of residual sweetness in the wine to counter the saltiness.
One definite thing to remember is that the wine should not overwhelm the cheese, and vice versa. Always be mindful of creating a well-balanced match.

NICK KNAPPSTEIN