Wine and Cheese 1

Wine and Cheese Tasting

Cheese 1: Port Salut
Wine 1: Mira Luna Pinot Noir 2013

• Pinot Noir
• Willamette Valley, Oregon
• 2013

Color: On the darker side of redish garnet with orange hints towards the rims, fairly transparent and light looking

Nose: Slightly underripe strawberries with hints of raspberries and light baking spices and very slight earthy/musty undertones

Palate: Lots of strawberry and red cherry flavors, bright red fruits with bright acidity making the light body of the wine very lively, hints of raspberry, and a slight savory hint of spice and tobacco earthiness. Very soft and small tannins that aren't a huge presence and a longer finish. Nice balance.

Pairing: Pretty good mix with the creamy and zesty cheese. The cheese has some sort of soft boldness and light creaminess but doesn't have very pungent flavors that stink. It's got a sort of orange and round mouth feel that's more smooth and creamy with lightly spiced and smoothened flavors. The delicate red fruit flavors of the wine meshed well with the smooth, light flavors from the cheese. The cheese muted the wines acidity taking off the edge, and the creaminess of the cheese was complimented by the light body of the Pinot. Anything bigger would have been overwhelming on the palate since the cheese was so creamy and took up lots of the mouth. These two worked pretty well together.

Cheese 2: Grayson

Wine 2: Union Cardinal Point 2013

• 90% Petit verdot 10% Tannat
• Montecello ava, Virginia
• 2013

Color: Dark violet, a little bit translucent, very dark color. 

Nose: Not much going on here, just heavy oak (smoke and tobacco box) and black berry aromas

Palate: raspberry hints under strong blackberry flavors with hints of smoke, pretty boring. Medium body with pretty edgy acidity and chewy tannins

Pairing: First off, the cheese was really terrible as well as the wine. Though this may seem like a joke, it isn't, but the Grayson cheese seriously smelled and tasted like unshowered feet, a dark coffee blend, almonds and mold, and my roommates bathroom. It was also slightly creamy so it took up the entirety of your mouth. Naturally, with an oaked and boring wine of just blackberry and oak aromas, the pair brought out the worst of the two. There was less body in the wine thanks to the creaminess and strength of the cheese aromas and flavors, so rotten coffee, feet, and nut flavors in a creamy texture take up your entire mouth with the addition of muted red and dark berry and cigar box flavors along with sharp acidity. The tannins were reduced by the creaminess of the cheese as well, but the flavors just made the pair awful.

Cheese 3: Havrati

Wine 3: Geerlings Wade Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

• Cabernet Sauvignon
• California, USA
• 2014

Color: Purple with garnet hints, bold and dark color mostly opaque. Nice color.

Nose: sweet strawberries, cassis, and undertones of asparagus and sweet red bell peppers and hints of herbal spice (thyme)

Palate: Sweet red peppers, both cooked and uncooked bell peppers along with hints of cassis, and red plums. Strong body and tannic backbone along with medium alcohol and acidity. It's a pretty simple wine but it has good balance and a nice, red and sweet flavor profile, though it's a dry wine. More red than a typical cabernet, feels like a heavy cab franc.

Pairing: The Havrati is relatively stinky and slightly creamy but was still tough and had bold/brown aromas of coffee, toffee, black and brown baking spices, and a bold angular stench. With a strong and bold wine, the bodies meshed together decently. The cheese brought down the acidity of the wine, maybe a little too much making the cheese feel a bit overwhelming, and the bodies evened out nicely to catch both flavor profiles together. However, their flavor profiles were not for each other at all. The wine had sweet red peppers and berry notes along with hints of vegetal nuances and cassis, but the cheese was stinky, bold, slightly creamy, and had darker aromas based more on toffee and spices, which don't particularly go well with bright and sweet red flavors. This cheese would have benefited from a very oaky wine, maybe a strong Australian shiraz or a very oaked Zinfandel or Malbec.