Wine and Cheese - Cabernet Sauvignon, Rose, Chardonnay

 

I was really excited for this day to come, this time my friend and I are doing some nice wine and cheese pairings. I am already a big fan of eating cheese by itself so being able to throw some wine on top in order to get more flavors sounds like a win-win to me. I honestly never understood how people figure out that these two things go together, but I always see it in movies so I got to figure that it is a good combination. 

Name: Vendange
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: United States
Region: California
Vintage: NV (non-vintage)
Price: $5.49

The cheddar cheese by itself has a nice sharp taste, with a nice after taste. The smell of it does not really produce anything to talk about. The Cabernet had a nice earthy smell to them and a rich aftertaste. The wine leaves my cheeks with the dry sucked feeling because of the tannins as well. The two paired together almost gave the cheese an entirely new profile, instead of it having that distinct sharp flavor it became almost sweet and had a really nice finish. This combination really was something that I did not expect and would definitely do it again. 

Name: Woodbridge 
Variety: Rose
Country: United States
Region: California
Vintage: NV (non-vintage)
Price: $5.49

The Havarti cheese is this fatty cheese that has a lot of creaminess to it and has almost a buttery taste. In this one, it has almost has this nutty aspect to them as well. The rose had a nice sweet taste to it and a decent body. The sweet aftertaste of the rose lingered on my tongue for a while, and it was really expressing the floral components of the wine. When the two were combined together the fattiness of the cheese brought down the sweet element of the wine and made the nutty flavors of the cheese to get expressed even more. The wine itself kinda fades away almost like the cheese cancels out the sweetness in order to bring out the nutty flavors of the cheese more. This combination was pretty good, but I probably would not go out of my way to try it again, Havarti cheese was not my favorite. 

Name: Woodbridge
Variety: Chardonnay
Country: United States
Region: California
Vintage: 2018
Price: $5.49

The final cheese that I tried was called Brie. This cheese is kinda similar to the Havarti cheese. It has an almost buttery taste and has some really fatty components. The only real difference is that even though they are both considered creamy, this cheese was not as tough as the Havarti and could almost melt in your mouth. The Chardonnay wine has this dry body to it and also gives off a medium acidic feeling in the mouth. When the two were combined together it really felt like the acidic nature of the wine almost helped express the way the cheese melted on your tongue making it seem like it dissolved even faster. Also, the acidic component really paired well with the fatty parts of the cheese to bring out more flavors. Even though I am not a big fan of the Chardonnay wine, this combination worked very well together and I would definitely do it again. 

This was a cooler pairing experiment when compared to the food one because in my mind the cheese has a simpler flavor profile compared to all the different ingredients that can be in food. So when you pair the cheese and wine together you can almost distinguish the little things happening, but compared to the food one it seems like, maybe just for me, that too many things are happening at once. They were both really excited to do and I am looking forward to the next time I get to eat some more cheese.