Cheesemaster gives advice for wine, cheese tasting
By By Stan Torgerson / wine columnist
March 26, 2003
When in doubt, put yourself in the hands of someone who knows a great deal about whatever it is that troubles you.
My doubts were about the types of wine to pair with the unusual variety of cheeses from Spain, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, France and America that will be served at Thursday's wine and cheese tasting.
After the various cheeses had been selected, we asked the cheesemaster for his recommendations and what follows are pairings he suggested.
Garrotxa from Spain: He recommended a fume blanc or a chablis. Since French wines are not in fashion at the moment, we selected a California fume blanc from Murphy Goode its Alexander Reserve 2000.
Rated 86, it starts with honeysuckle, mocha and melon notes, picking up vanilla, cedar and tangy citrus character which should enhance this rustic cheese with its delicate saltiness and tang. Fume blanc is a Murphy Goode specialty.
Established in 1987, Murphy Goode also produces cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, merlot and zinfandel.
Pecorino Nero from Italy: This rare Italian cheese from Tuscany doesn't need much in the way of enhancement. One critic calls it "heavenly."
A chardonnay was recommended and we chose Burgess Cellar's Napa Valley 1999, rated 87 points. This wine is distinguished by its medium weight; it is fruit-driven with floral, pear apple and melon notes.
Burgess Cellars is a stone and redwood mountainside winery originally started in the 1880s. It's still small, owning 110 acres; but it produces 30,000 cases per year.
Edel de Claron from France: A double cream cheese should marry a nice merlot and we have the perfect partner for it. It's another Murphy Goode wine, its Alexander Valley merlot from the 1999 vintage.
Wonderful, ripe, rich, black cherry, cola, herb and sarsaparilla flavors that are concentrated, with firm, well integrated tannins on the finish. Murphy Goode owns 350 acres in the Alexander Valley and annually produces 130,000 cases of various wines. This merlot earned an 88 rating.
L'Etivaf from Switzerland: This cow's milk cheese is made in the summer by individual cheesemakers who live in Alpine chalets. This is a 2002 cheese that has been aged nine months.
We paired it with the highest rated wine of the evening, a 2000 Arroyo Grande Valley chardonnay from California that earned a 90 on the 100-point scale. This is a wine of finesse and elegance, with intense, vibrant fruit that's ripe and rich with layers of smoky, toasty oak, honeysuckle, fig and melon which turns subtle and polished on the finish.
Special cheese deserves special wine. Talley Vineyards is a small family owned and operated winery on California's South Central Coast. It makes just 14,000 cases each year, but they are all of uncompromising quality.
Aged Gouda from Holland: Unlike ordinary Goudas, this extra hard cheese is deep orange in color with a very intense flavor. You've never tasted a gouda anything like it.
This cheese needed a wine that could fight back and the cheese- master recommended a zinfandel, syrah or cabernet sauvignon. We had tasted a 1999 Carmenet we felt would be perfect and made it our choice.
Rated 88, the Carmenet offers ripe, rich, concentrated currant, plum and blackberry fruit with a chewy aftertaste. Carmenet was once considered a major winery, but in the mid 1980s its quality slumped.
The last few years Carmenet has revised its methods and earned back its reputation as a quality producer. You'll see.
Great Hills Dairy Blue from USA: I didn't need any help from the cheesemaster with this one. I am firmly convinced that port is the premier wine to showcases the flavors of great blue cheese and this is a great blue cheese.
It is made on a small farm 50 miles south of Boston on the shores of Buzzard's Bay, Mass. We will taste it accompanied by an elegant late bottled port from Quinta do Crasto, a firm in Portugal that was established in 1615.
This elegant wine has a dark ruby color with floral, berry aromas that follow through to a medium-body palate. Medium sweet with fine tannins and a fresh aftertaste, it should show the blue cheese at its best.
By today's standards Quita do Crasto is a small, select winery. It owns 100 acres and produces 20,000 cases per year, almost all of it port wine.
Sorry, but this tasting has been sold out for more than a week. There is always a chance of a cancellation. Call 482-0930 if you'd care to check it out.
And if not, we hope to see you April 24 at our next regular tasting, Northwood Country Club, 6:30 p.m. the same time and same place as Thursday.
