Crazy about wine
Enough with the red wine madness!
Red wine and cheese is a gastronomical misunderstanding
In this blog post, I was actually going to recommend something to you, but on second thought I’ll discard the ”re” and replace the remaining ”e” with an ”a” and command you to do something instead.
This simply has to end now, once and for all, and you must help me make it happen!
Red wine and cheese is a gastronomical misunderstanding which even survives all the way into the most expensive of restaurants. That’s a shame because plenty of wines exist which would give your cheese-loving taste buds a far greater and better treatment.
Give it a go
The next time you serve a cheese course at a dinner in pleasant company, do a little test where you taste the red wine from the main course and the white wine from the starter with the cheeses.
Already with this easy exercise, you’ll be able to tell the difference. But it’ll get even better if you try out a great white wine, a dessert wine or maybe even fortified wines like white port or the super sexy sherries.
I may sound pretty brazen and categorical now, but I’ll stand my ground nonetheless. Try going for white wines instead of dry red the next time you’re having cheese and wine. Especially if you are planning on sinking your cheese knives into a mixed assortment of cheeses.
You’ll thank me for it, and then we can spread the merry word together.
All-round wine glasses are worth their weight in gold
As it is, glasses for white wine and dessert wine are a bit of an overlooked disciplin. And in this particular case, size does matter more than skill, so to speak …
Personally, I’ve got a set of great all-round glasses for unexpected wine types (cool phrase, right?) which I haven’t got a custom-designed glass for. It may be rosé, champagne of age or my vinous hobbyhorse number one: sherry – the world’s most underestimated wine.
As it happens, we’ve got the world’s best all-round wine glasses right here. Lucaris' large white wine glasses from the Tokyo Temptation series called Chardonnay meet my criteria for a great all-round glass. It’s cheap and versatile.
So: Grab your all-round glass and pour white wine or sherry in it. Get hold of your cheese kit (https://www.wineandbarrels.co.uk/shop/291-cutlery-and-serving-food/), eat some cheese and spread the word!
A straight tip from the wine nerd!
Did I mention that Sherry is completely overlooked, insanely versatile, under the radar and therefore wonderfully cheap? A pity for the wine farmers of Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain who make the wines, but great for us.
You’ll get a world-class wine, and I seriously mean world-class, from around £35, and you can find yourself a great wine for just below £12. Even on the bottom shelf in the supermarket you’ll be able to find absolutely splendid sherries at £8. No other wine district has a minimum standard like that!
With its oxidised quality, sherry has a rather acquired taste and may be a bit hard to get on close terms with, but once you’re hooked, there’s no turning back. If you’re curious, start with a Fino or a Manzanilla at about £10-12 and serve it fresh from the fridge on a hot summer’s day as an aperitif.