Ideas for Your Cheese and Wine Party
Wine and cheese – or cheese and wine as it’s actually the cheese that’s the star of the show (honest) – are made for each other. Decadent and nutritious, with the protein and the antioxidants and all that, it’s also an interesting and flavorful pairing, especially when you do it right.
If you’re new to cheese and wine parties, then you need to keep it relatively simple to start off with, so let’s break it down for you.
Simple pairings
Of course, you can pair any wine with any cheese you want, but there are some easy rules you can adopt for success, as well as a few classic pairings you can always rely on.
To make things easy, you can divide cheeses into four main types:
Bloomy; these are unctuous, decadent cheeses with a creamy texture and a soft rind.
Hard; these are sometimes aged, and often sharp and salty.
Blue; these are highly-flavored, often salty cheeses with blue mold veins in them.
Fresh; these are sometimes spreadable and have no rind. They can be mild and creamy or quite tart, and not often aged.
If you fancy a particular cheese, then work out which type it is, then look through the pairings for more ideas.
Working with or against
Are you going for complementary or contrasting flavors? A lush, sweeter wine will go right along with a creamy cheese, whereas a more acidic wine will cut through the sweetness and fat.
Ideal pairings
Bloomy cheeses
Camembert with Champagne
Brie with Chardonnay
Robiola with a sparkling wine
Taleggio with Pinot Blanc
Hard
Gouda with Merlot
Cheddar with Cabernet Sauvignon
Parmesan with Chianti
Double Gloucester with Zinfandel
Pecorino with Valpolicella
Blue
Gorgonzola with Port
Stilton with Sauternes
Cambozola with eiswein
Fresh
Ricotta with Pinot Grigio
Mozzarella with Sauvignon Blanc
Goat with Chenin Blanc
Feta with Beaujolais
The party itself
Buy a few cheeses – two from each type, maybe – from a knowledgeable cheese shop. Talk about your party plans and get some ideas or recommendations and make sure your wines will be served at their appropriate temperatures:
- sparkling wines at 40F;
- whites at 50F, and
- reds at 60F.
You should also take the cheeses out of the fridge an hour beforehand, too.
One good idea is to start off with pairings of lighter wines and fresher gentler cheeses then move onto pairings with stronger flavors and more complexity.
Don’t Diss the Dessert Wines
It happens every Christmas – your fave (but slightly batty) aunt comes over and brings her usual syrupy, sickly dessert wine for you all to, errr, enjoy with her. You then have to go through the process of misplacing it so you can bring out a decent Pinot Grigio and get sloshed on that instead. The dessert wine is recovered sometime around May and donated to a school fair…
That sweetness that makes you gag is only so wrong because you’re drinking it wrong. Yes, you are, you wannabe wine-buff. You’re failing to place it in the right context to enjoy its qualities – and it does have qualities. Your aunt’s not that batty, she knows exactly what she’s doing. She thinks you’re batty, in fact, for continually losing the gifts she brings you...
Anyway, here’s how you do dessert wines
The idea behind dessert wines is to pair them with sweet foods that complement them. A good example is serving a white dessert wine with a custard, or with a vanilla-infused blueberry compote. Red dessert wines can go down very easily alongside stronger-tasting berries, cooked fruits (especially if cinnamon is involved), and chocolate or coffee puddings.
The other thing you have to remember is that you’re not supposed to quaff a dessert wine like it’s going out of fashion. No, you sip it delicately between mouthfuls of pudding. It’s an experience.
Dessert wines can surprise you…
…because they chum up exceedingly well with blue cheeses, especially the more aromatic types. You need a striking, strong wine to stand up to a big blue cheese, or even an aged salty hard cheese. If either the wine or the cheese is a bit of a wimp, it’ll fade into the background and you’ll lose half of your taste experience.
Go large, go bold, go batty!
A novice tip
If you’re thinking of serving a dessert wine with some cheese at a party, then start off simply with a Riesling/Pinot Blanc blend and some creamy blue cheeses or hard salty ones. Yum.
Why Some Wines Give You a Headache
We’ve all had at least one hangover, right? You know how it is, you stay for that last glass of wine and you start to regret it on the way home as that familiar knot of pain begins to take up residence behind your eyes…
Most often, a hangover is mostly down to plain old dehydration – you forgot to alternate wine with water, or you forgot your regulation two glasses of water before you went to bed.
For some of us, though, it’s a bit more complicated. Some people get hangovers despite drinking lots of water, and even despite drinking very little alcohol. What’s that all about and can you prevent it?
There are three culprits (other than dehydration), and thankfully there are three solutions.
Sulfites are not implicated, however. They can cause asthma, but not hangovers.
Tannins
Tannins are compounds that occur naturally in the skins, seeds and stems of grapes. They have a drying effect on your mouth, but cause no other problems for most people. However, if you get headaches from reds, especially Malbecs, then it could be the tannins. One thing you can do is a test to see if you’re susceptible. Brew some black tea for ten minutes longer than normal, drink it and see if you get a headache. If you do, your best solution is to stick to whites.
Sugar
Alcohol and sugar can come together to create a powerful headache. Both alcohol and sugar deplete the body of water and so if you haven’t drunk enough H2O alongside wine, you may regret it. Your body has to process the sugar and alcohol regardless, so it’ll draw water from elsewhere in your body to do it. Once your brain starts to lose water and shrink (this is only temporary!), it’ll start to pull on the membranes surrounding it, causing significant pain. Just make sure you either top up with water before, during and after boozing. You should also be extra careful when you’re drinking sweet wines like Riesling so you’re not losing water to the hydrolysis of sugar.
Histamines
Histamines are released during allergic reactions, causing a runny nose, sore eyes and sometimes a sore head. If you find you get a headache after aged meats and wines, then as well as drinking water, you should take a non-drowsy anti-histamine before you drink red wines or aged whites.
Your best strategy, of course, is to stay well-hydrated and don’t go overboard…
The Ideal Serving Temperatures for Wines
You might think that getting the serving temperatures for different types of wine right is a complicated business, but it’s not at all. It does make sense to serve wines at their ideal temperatures, because this can have quite a dramatic effect on the way it smells and tastes, so getting it right is important if you want to have the best drinking experience.
It’s not complicated, really and these easy guidelines will stand you in good stead.
Serve sparkling wine ice-cold – 40-50F
You can place your bubbly in the freezer for an hour or so before opening it. Make sure you don’t forget though, or the expansion of the liquid will force the cork out. You can also chill the bottle in an ice bucket for 30 minutes and keeping the bubbly at around freezing point will make sure the bubbles are fine and small rather than over-enthusiastic. Keep the bottle on ice until it’s empty.
Serve whites and rosés cold – 50-60F
If you’re buying whites and rosés, you should place them in the fridge as soon as you get home. Of course, this isn’t always possible, so if you have some un-chilled bottles that you’re planning to drink that evening, leave them in the fridge for several hours, or in the freezer for half an hour. You don’t need to keep the bottle on ice once it’s opened though, you should let it warm slightly and enjoy how the aromas and tastes change as the temperature rises.
Serve red wines cool – 60-70F
It’s almost instinctive to serve reds at room temperature, but it should be merely cool. An hour in the fridge should do the trick, or just 15 minutes in the freezer. As with the whites, once the bottle’s open, leave it to warm to develop and change. Some reds are better warmer, however, but you can’t go too far wrong with cool, at least to start off with.
Oops! Dealing with a Red Wine Stain
If you’re a red fan, you will have to deal with a red wine spill or stain at some point (probably several points, in fact). It’s not the permanent nightmare you might fear, though, especially if you act promptly and you know what you’re doing.
Here’s five (almost) sure-fire ways to become whiter than white again.
Salt – it’s not a myth
You need to be quick off the mark here, but this is great for carpets. Blot out as much of the wine as you can with a kitchen towel, then cover the wine stain with as much salt as it takes to completely obscure the color. Let the salt absorb the liquid and then dry, before vacuuming it all up.
Dawn and hydrogen peroxide
If you’ve spilled red wine on clothes, mix equal parts of Dawn dishwasher and hydrogen peroxide, before pouring the mixture onto the stain. You’ll see the stain start to fade almost immediately. Give it 10-15 minutes, then wash the item of clothing as normal. You should only use this method on lighter colored clothes as hydrogen peroxide has a bleaching effect.
Boiling water
This is useful for tablecloths and table linens. Get a large glass bowl and place the stained portion of the cloth over the bowl and hold it taut with a large rubber band. Pour the boiling water over the fabric from around a foot in height – this should remove a lot of the stain – then launder as normal.
White vinegar and laundry detergent
This is another great method for lighter clothes – douse the stain in white vinegar, which changes the colour of red and purple pigments. Then apply liquid detergent, rub in and launder as normal.
Good old-fashioned bleach
You can’t use this on all white fabrics – make sure the material is tough enough to withstand the onslaught. If it is, then this is the best way to remove a red wine stain. Soak the item in a bleach solution for at least ten minutes then wash it in hot water.
All About Merlot
Merlot is America’s second more popular red grape (Cabernet Sauvignon is #1) and it’s a soft, elegant, easy-drinking red. Merlot is actually French for Little Blackbird, which suits its light, gentle nature very well.
Merlot is a friendly varietal, suitable for people new to red and it can be drunk enjoyably with food as well as on its own.
Merlot’s history
It’s thought that Merlot was first produced in the late 18th century when a winemaker in the Bordeaux region of France first labelled the grape as one of the ingredients in his Bordeaux blend.
After this, the Merlot grape became known across the Bordeaux region and was used to add a soft fruitiness to wines made with the more popular Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. This pair became so popular and well-known that they became the main ingredients in the Bordeaux blend that’s the classic red the world over.
Travelling companions
As Bordeaux gained traction and popularity all over the world, its assistant Merlot did too. When Merlot finally arrived in California in the middle of the 19th century, winemakers there didn’t bother blending it with Cabernet Sauvignon; instead they started making 100% Merlot. The grape thrived in California and Americans thoroughly enjoyed its softness and low tannin content.
While Merlot started out in California, it went on to become popular in New York and Washington state, where it has found a place as one of these states’ most important grapes.
The lowdown
Merlot is a stronger wine – it has an alcohol content of at least 13.5% and it can get nearer to 14.5% if the grapes have been grown in a warmer region, like California, Chile or Australia.
The wine is often described as having a plummy taste, with notes of chocolate and an herbal aroma. It appeals to new red drinkers as it’s not as challenging as other reds; this is a characteristic that experienced red drinkers can find unappealing, which is why Merlot is also found in blends with harsher varietals.