Wine and Cheese Pairing, April 3rd

Last Friday, a few wine-o friends and I got together to have some good ol' fashioned wine and cheese pairing fun! We'd been trying to schedule it all semester, so I'm glad we finally figured out a time to make it work. Here are the lovely wines we had:

Chateau Ste Michelle

Sauvignon Blanc, 2013

Columbia Valley, Washington

Narcisi

Gewurtraminer, 2013

Pennsylvania 

Anciano

Tempranillo, 2008

Valdepenas, Spain

Not pictured (but already blogged about!): Hedgeline Pinot Noir, 2012

http://tracyl7-wine.blogspot.com/2015/02/hedgeline-vineyards-pinot-noir-2012.html

(it got even better the longer it sat, I loved it so much I bought it again)

Since there were 6 of us, we added an extra bottle of wine just in case we ran out. You can never be too careful when supplying a party with wine. The cheese lineup was: muenster, havarti, and sharp cheddar. We also had oyster crackers as a palate cleanser, which I was ECSTATIC about because they are delicious. Here's a (slightly blurry) picture of our cute little plates for sharing:

I was at a slight disadvantage for this pairing party. I've been having issues with allergies this week, so I've been pretty stuffed up. Hopefully it goes away soon! It's pretty difficult for me to pick up on distinct flavors, which made this and the weekly tasting less exciting and informative. Also, it makes my wine descriptions kind of lame, to be perfectly honest. However, I got second opinions from my friends to make sure I was on the right track :)

The Sauvignon Blanc:

By itself, this wine had a very crisp, citrusy flavor to it. I'm starting to like Sauvignon Blancs even more lately, they pair pretty well with common dinner foods (or at least the plates you'd drink a white with). The mindset I was in while pairing these wines was "Try a sip of wine and bite of cheese, and see if anything clashes", which I learned is DEFINITELY not the right way to do it. I had an experience with a wine that directly clashed with a cheese while at Attimo Winery (blog post coming soon!), so maybe that's my reasoning for looking for a negative pairing. This Sauvignon Blanc went well with all of the cheeses (which really doesn't make for an exciting blog post...), but it went especially well with the muenster. I think the muenster toned down the natural acidity of the wine and made it even more drinkable. I found myself talking and taking sips/bites of cheese and not really paying attention to the tasting anymore! I had a similar experience with the Havarti. It didn't go as well with the cheddar, I think it overpowered the wine a bit, but not in an offensive way. Overall, this wine was really easily paired and enjoyable with these cheeses!

The Gewurztraminer:

We had this wine 2nd because we knew if we tried it after the reds our palates wouldn't be able to pick up on the sweet flavors as well. By itself, it's a very sweet wine with orange and lemon flavors present. This wine paired exceptionally well with the muenster, I think the creaminess of both the wine and cheese complimented each other. It worked well with the havarti too, but I don't think that they enhanced each others flavors at all (it was still yummy though). The flavor of the cheddar was a little too harsh for this wine, but you could still have the two together. The biggest thing I learned from the pairing is: don't eat cheddar with whites, especially sweet ones. 

The Tempranillo:

Honestly, I wasn't that big of a fan of this wine. It might have just been too big of a contrast between this and the sweet Gewurztraminer, but the first sip was brutal. There was way too much of a cinnamon flavor to it for my taste, and that's even when I'm all stuffed up. Additionally, it was really dry. After a few sips I got used to it (a little), but out of the 4 wines it definitely wasn't my favorite. Pairing it with the cheese helped a little bit, they toned down the wine's harsh flavors. The muenster balanced it out somewhat, but the havarti helped combat how dry the Tempranillo was. I'd attribute that to the creaminess of the cheese. The Tempranillo didn't really blend with the cheddar at all. They maintained their respective flavors, which didn't taste bad but didn't do much for the overall taste either. 

The Pinot Noir:

I didn't spend much time taking notes for this wine since I've already reviewed it, but just as I predicted in the earlier post it went great with cheese! It worked fabulously with the cheddar (which was actually the reason we bought it!). I'm not entirely sure which flavors to give credit for the great pairing (thanks, allergies), but they blended really well together. It was really nice to sit and talk with friends with the Pinot and Cheddar!

Unfortunately, we didn't take a group picture, but I think we all learned even more about our personal preferences when it comes to wines and their pairings. We already have plans for a dinner pairing, so that's coming up soon on the blog!