Food and Wine Pairing : A Sensory Experience

280 Chapter 12 Wine and Cheese: A Natural Affinity?

SUMMARY

This chapter provides a detailed description of the cat-
egories within the exciting world of cheeses and wines that
match them. As you might imagine, an entire book could
easily be written on the variety of cheeses around the
world. This chapter focused on the most prominent
cheese types and the wine and food pairing principles that
tie them together. This format provides you with tools
that can be used in making pairing decisions in the future.
Wine and cheese have two main things in common
that help to create a natural match: both are created by a
fermentation process, and both are living things that
change substantially during the process of aging. As with
other foods, there are no hard-and-fast rules to pairing
wine with cheese; much is based on personal preferences.
Cheeses can be categorized by a number of characteristics
that impact its elements, such as country of origin, type
of milk used, aging or ripening procedure used, fat con-
tent, and texture. Cheeses are classified here into six main
categories: fresh, semisoft, soft ripened, firm, hard, or
blue-veined. This classification scheme is consistent with
the various components (saltiness, sweetness, acidity, and

bitterness), texture (fattiness and body/power), and flavor

(intensity, persistence, and types), and provides guidelines

for satisfying food-and-wine pairing decisions.

The adage that red wines go with hard cheeses and

white wines with soft cheeses has a number of exceptions.

Some additional guidelines for wine and cheese pairing

include pairing light white wines with light cheeses, pair-

ing high-acid white wines with high-acid cheeses, pairing

low-acid wines with lower-acid cheeses, pairing strong

wines with strong cheeses, pairing dessert wines with

strong salty cheeses, and pairing wines and cheeses from

the same region. However, constant changes in cheeses

and wines due to aging, vintage, and processing techniques

will affect the quality of each match. Therefore, these rules

provide a good starting point for determining good

matches, but your own judgment should also help guide

you. Basically, the common thread in all of these guide-

lines is to create balance and harmony between the cheese

and the wine: similar intensity levels, matching using in-

teresting contrasts, and similarity relationships such as

simple-to-simple or complex-to-complex.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What are the six categories of cheese?


2. Describe the typical wine styles that are appropriate

for each cheese category.

3. What types of cheeses are easiest to pair with wine?


4. What cheese elements limit wine choices?

EXERCISE 12.1

WINE AND CHEESE MATCHING

For this exercise, you may select cheeses
or wines from the list in Table 12.8 or
you can make additional selections to suit
your interests if you wish to expand the
exercise. Use the Food Sensory Anchor
Scale (Figure B.1) and Wine Sensory
Anchor Scale (Figure B.2) to create basic
reference points for the components,
texture, and flavor when using the Wine
and Food Pairing Instrument.

OBJECTIVES

To distinguish and rank differing levels of

elements in each cheese and wine sam-

ple; to compare wine and cheese profiles

to predict match level, and then do a

mixed tasting to determine the perceived

level of match.

Mise en Place: Things to Do Be-

fore the Exercise Review Figures

11.2a-c and Figure 11.4. Ensure that the

cheese and wines are served at the opti-

mal tasting temperatures.