“…a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” Emerson: Essays. Self-Reliance.
For years, many of us have attended wine and cheese tastings, enthusiastically wolfing down the proferred assortment of goodies. I’ve always carried the assumption that wine and cheese were a match made in heaven until a group of us visited a number of Burgundian winemakers in France many years ago. Many of them sternly insisted that white, not red wines are better with cheese. That way, an assault on the palate was converted to a mellow melding, they suggested.
Bearing that in mind, I thought I’d run my own instructive test involving wonderful Wisconsin and nationally prominent cheese, and both Sutter Home Merlot and Pinot Grigio (available at stores like Piggly Wiggly and Sendik’s for $5.99 per four pack of 187 ml. bottles, a nifty size because one mini bottle nicely fills a wine glass, and its modest screw cap can allow one to save a portion of the wine for the next day).
Here are my conclusions based on my tasting:
The cheeses:
1) Gibbsville medium cheddar cheese from Sheboygan Falls, Wis.
2) Crystal Farms provolone cheese from Lake Mills, Wis.
3) Boar’s Head Gorgonzola (New York)
4) President Brie (New York)
– The cheddar was close to the Merlot but better with the Pinot Grigio.
– The Brie was overwhelmed by the Merlot but nice with the Pinot Grigio.
– The Provolone was a closer match with the Merlot, which is presumably in line with its Italian heritage.
– The Gorgonzola was close to the Merlot but better with the Pinot Grigio.
At this point in my tasting, it appeared that, in general, white wines do in fact work better in concert with cheese than do reds (unless you are including a light Pinot Noir, like Cavit). The French do indeed have a point.
Conclusion #1 – Our fecklessly fickle French friends do have a good point about white wines being better bedmates with cheese than most reds.
Conclusion #2 – Despite fine-tuned tasting and Burgundian urgings, wine and food pairing is a very imprecise science. My own view is: Let the Consumer beware – or enjoy. In this case, who needs rules?
If you have any comments on this weighty subject or suggestions for future columns, I’d love to hear from you!
