As my second ever wine and cheese experience I was eager to try since I have done this before. My first ever wine and cheese experience was with friends and as much as it was fun to explore the different pairings together I liked how I could be in my own thoughts this time. I went ahead and chose Rebuttel chardonnay, Espiral white wine, and Zinfandel red wine. I was super eager to try these wines with some new grapes I have not yet had before. For my cheeses I chose the garlic and herb cheddar cheese, pub cheddar with horseradish, and muenster cheese. I was very excited to try the wines with a nicer cheeses and one not expensive cheese.
Variety of grape: Chardonnay
Region of origin: California
Variety of grape: Blend of Loureiro, Trajadura, and Arinto grapes
Country of origin: Portugal
Region of origin: Vinho Verde DOC
Variety of grape: Zinfandel and merlot
Region of origin: Lodi, California
After tasting each of the wines I moved on to tasting each of the cheeses. First I tried each of the cheeses and enjoyed the flavors of each of them and the different textures. The second step was to try the cheese paired with the wine which it always an interesting surprise. I liked how this second blog I felt like I had a bit more control since I was doing it alone. Lastly, I wrote down all the notes and flavors I tried and moved on to the next wine. Below I wrote down each of the cheeses and what I thought paired with the wine.
Herb Garlic cheddar cheese
Pub Cheese cheddar with horseradish
Flavor: Super yummy with the horseradish as an extra spice and creamy cheese texture. I was excited to try this cheese with wine to see how the spicy horseradish reacted with the wine.
After trying each of the wines I paired each of them with the cheeses and wrote my thoughts below.
Herb garlic cheddar cheese: Really liked the creamy texture of the cheddar cheese and it complemented the oaky and smokey wine. The cheese was smooth but had a super rich texture. The flavor of the garlic and herb complemented the wine very well.
Pub cheese: I didn't really enjoy the flavors together for this wine. I felt like the oak and horseradish clashed together and the flavor wasn't balanced at all.
Muenster: The wine paired with cheese didn't amaze me. I felt like the wine really over powered the cheese and it was too much of the oaky flavor. The cheese doesn't have a super strong flavor where as the wine did.
Espiral
Herb garlic cheddar cheese: My absolute favorite pairing together! The flavors of herb garlic really shined and the wine complemented it so well. I felt like the flavors really balanced each other out very well.
Pub cheese: The white wine and pub spicy cheese surprising went really well together. I think because this wine was chilled it balanced out the spicy horseradish. The citrus in the wine was very interesting with these flavors but regardless it was definitely a good refreshing kick!
Muenster: The flavors balanced each other out very well but the flavors could have been better. It felt like the wine was still super overpowering and the cheese could have shown through a bit more. I cant really describe the flavor well because it was just very overpowering with the wine.
Herb garlic cheddar cheese: I liked the pairing of the wine and cheese together. It felt like I was biting into cheese and a berry at the same time. The flavors matched each other very well and they have great textures.
Pub cheese: Really liked the cheese and wine paired together. The bitterness of the wine with the cranberry tasted paired with the creamy pub cheese with the spice of horseradish. They both balanced each other out very well.
Muenster: This cheese and wine pairing wasn't my favorite since the muenster has such a bland flavor. It kind of had a nail polish taste to it but I am assuming thats what you get when you use slice cheese thats not very expensive. Super cool to try anyways though!
To conclude, I really enjoyed trying each of these wines with the cheeses. A lot of unique flavors I was not expecting to try and was glad I could pair so many tastes. I liked trying these new wines because I dont usually try red wines and white wines I more go on my safe route with Chardonnay. Usually when I drink wine with cheese its one wine paired with multiple cheeses so its cool to have tried it this way!
