The popularity of wine and cheese functions would lead one to believe that the matching of wine with cheese was a straight forward and simple process. However, there is no one wine which matches all cheeses, nor one cheese which suits all wines. Because the ideal match of wine to cheese can create a sublime experience for your taste buds, it is worth experimenting with a variety of cheeses and wines to find what you like best. As with all things in wine, your personal taste is the final arbitrator.

Here are some suggested cheese and wine matches to get you started on your exploration:

Blue Stilton. This strong English blue cheese is traditionally and wonderfully matched with Port, such as Taylors, Late Bottled Vintage Port, 2000, or for really special occasions Delaforce, Vintage Port, 1992. Stilton and other blue cheeses can be well matched with some red wines. Beware of tannic reds, however, which sometimes taste unpleasantly metallic with blue cheese.

French Brie. Mild, creamy, easy to love Brie pairs well with rich Chardonnays like our South African Rustenberg, Chardonnay, 2005 or with a white Burgundy such as Michel Paquet, St. Veran, 2005. For a special change of pace, try Brie with Bollinger, Special Cuvee Champagne or a more economical bubbly such as Bortolomiol, Prosecco di Valdobbiadene. In general, creamy cheeses such as Brie are not best married to red wines, but a good red Burgundy, such as Robert Arnoux, Nuits St Georges, 2001 can be a fine match.

Feta. Try this Greek sheep’s milk cheese with a nice crisp rosé, like the French Domaine de Beausejour, Chinon Rosé, 2005.

Emmenthal. A good white wine choice for this mild Swiss cheese would be the Californian Bogle, Chardonnay, 2004. As a good red wine match, try a nice Pinot Noir like the Mount Difficulty, Pinot Noir, 2004 from New Zealand.

Provencal. Matching herbed cheeses like the delicious Provencal can be tricky, requiring some experimentation to find what suits your particular taste. For a white wine match, try a Gewurztraminer like the Rolly Gassmann, Gewurztraminer, 2002, from Alsace. A good red wine match would be a Shiraz (also known as Syrah) such as the Australian Heartland, Shiraz, 2004.

Use the above recommendations to get you started on your wine and cheese epicurean adventure. If you have any questions about pairing wine with cheese, or if you have any fantastic wine and cheese matches that you’d like to share, please contact me at WineGuy@cwjamaica.com.

When looking to match a wine to a dish, there are two different approaches, the complementary approach or the contrasting approach.

When applying the complementary approach, you try to find a wine that is similar in some way, generally flavour, to the dish you intend to serve. For example, a dish with mushrooms would go well with a wine full of earthy flavours, such as our Vina Amezola, Tinto Crianza, 2001, from Rioja. Alternatively, for a dish with citrus or other fruit flavours, a fruity wine would be complementary, such as our Australian Hugo, Unwooded Chardonnay, 2005.

When applying the contrasting approach, however, one searches to find elements that are not in a dish but those that would enhance it. A rich, creamy dish, for example, would be matched with a white wine of crisp acidity, such as the Duck Pond, Pinot Grigio, 2004 from Washington State, which would counterbalance the heaviness of the dish. Similarly, the earthy flavours of Portobello mushrooms or potatoes would contrast well with the fruit of a Riesling, such as our German Wolf, Riesling, 2005.

While you’re exploring this contrasting approach, however, be careful not to choose a wine which can over overpower a dish or vice versa. A delicate, unadorned fish dish, for example, should not be paired with a rich, complex red wine. Similarly, a simple, easy drinking wine may not be the best match for a dish full of intense flavours.

To help you with applying the complementary and contrasting approaches to wine, here are some common ways that elements in wine interact with food:

High-alcohol wines can overwhelm lightly flavoured or delicate dishes, but can also go well with slightly sweet foods.

Acidic wines can taste less acidic when served with salty or slightly sweet dishes, but also can make food taste slightly saltier. Acidic wines are a good counterbalance to oily or fatty components in food and can provide the best match to rich, creamy or cheesy sauces or deep fried foods. They are also a good match to acidic foods such as vinaigrette on a salad.

Tannic wines can lessen the perception of sweetness in food. Tannic wines taste less tannic when served with protein-rich, fatty foods, such as steak or cheese, because the tannins cut through the viscosity of the fat. They can, however, taste more tannic when served with salty dishes. Additionally, when paired with a high iodine fish, such as cod, haddock or mackerel, an unpleasant metallic taste can result.

Sweet wines taste less sweet, and more fruity, when matched with salty foods or with sweet foods. Sweet wines can also enhance the flavour of salty food. A lightly sweet wine can go well with a very spicy dish, with the sweetness cutting some of the heat.

If you have any questions about food and wine pairing, or any other aspect of wine, contact me at WineGuy@cwjamaica.com.

“Serve your white wines cold and your red wines at room temperature.” This well-known rule of thumb begs many questions. First of all, Why? Why should there be a difference based solely on the color of the wine? Other questions include, How cold is cold? What is meant by room temperature? Is that room temperature in Bordeaux, Burgundy, Napa, Chianti, or any other wine region? Or room temperature right here in Jamaica?

In a back issue of Food and Wine, Pete Wells explored the first question, namely, Why do we chill white wine? He posed the question to a number of winemakers and other wine experts, and received answers that ranged from “I don’t know” to “habit” to “we shouldn’t.” None of these responses actually answered the question, but he gleaned some useful information along the way, namely that there isn’t a one temperature fits all solution for white wine.

Chilling white wine reduces the flavors, making it less tart, less sweet, and less aromatic. For bulk produced, lesser quality wine, this may be a very good thing, reducing some of those flavors you may not really want to experience. (In fact, in The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil claims, “Bartenders sometimes serve cheap white house wines much colder than fine white wines precisely so you don’t taste them.”) For better, more complex white wines, however, excessive chilling can really impair the experience. Next time you are enjoying your favorite white wine, don’t keep it in a wine cooler. As you drink the wine, let it warm slightly and see if you notice any enhancement to its flavors.

So, in answer to the question, How cold is cold? The answer for most fine white wines is probably not as cold as we’re used to. As with most things in the wine world, personal taste plays a huge role, however, try these general guidelines:

Serve crisp whites, such as Pinot Grigio, Muscadet, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, and of course Champagne, well chilled. That is, leave them in the refrigerator for several hours or in an ice bucket with water and ice (which chills faster than ice alone) for at least half an hour.

Serve a good white Burgundy lightly chilled. In other words let it spend about a half hour in the fridge. This is also a nice temperature for rosés.

Serve fuller white wines such as California and other new world Chardonnays, as well as finer dessert wines, at about 55º to 62ºF (12.8º to 16.5ºC). This is about “cellar temperature” and can be achieved with a little time in the refrigerator. At too warm a temperature, however, some high alcohol Chardonnays can taste almost caustic, as the higher temperature makes the alcohol more apparent.

The trick here is to experiment and see what works best for you, your favorite white wines, and your personal tastes.

Now what does room temperature mean for red wines? It would be a rare wine indeed that would be at its best at normal room temperature here in Jamaica. In fact, with modern heating there are few rooms anywhere in the world that provide the optimum temperature for serving red wine. Old drafty European castles probably provided a wine friendly 62º to 65ºF (16.5º to 18ºC). If your wines aren’t being kept in a climate controlled wine cellar, try putting the bottle in the fridge for fifteen minutes or in a bucket of ice and water for five to ten minutes. Don’t let the wine get too cold however, which can make the wine seem thin, overly tannic and acidic. As always, much can be learned from experimenting with different temperatures and personal taste is paramount.

If you have any questions about wine serving temperatures, or any other aspect of wine, contact me at WineGuy@cwjamaica.com.