The Best Way to Pair Cheese and Wine for your Next Event

When setting up a cheese and wine pairing, the thing you have to know is: If it tastes yummy, do it! I am sure you have heard all the best known chefs sharing about what wine works with your choice of cheese; however, when you make your decision, it is all about personal taste. You may prefer one wine with a particular cheese while someone else may like an entirely different pairing. My typical recommendation is for you to be in a mood experiment and enjoyment. Choose several wines and several cheeses. each person will find what combination is best for themselves. You can not go wrong. It will create conversation. It will be fun. It will be delectable. And it will be enjoyable.

Cheese and cheese are quite similar, and they have been enjoyed together since ancient times. Both are foods of fermentation. Both may be consumed while fresh, simple, and young or in their more complex forms when they are mature.

When paired up, cheese and wine do their part to bring out the best in each other, and even the experts can not agree on any absolutes in the cheese and wine pairing match game. Now apparently, if you are reading this, you are a smarty pants like the rest of us, and with snobs, there is no worry about bloopers in cheese and wine pairings — say like snacking on Velveeta while sipping boxed Blueberry Hill.

There are no hard and fast rules as to which cheeses should regularly be served with a precise wines. There is a belief that wines of a certain locale are best served with cheeses of the same locale. But, just as one bottle of pinot gregio from the Napa Valley is not like that of another vintage or another producer, neither is one goat wine exactly like another. Both are living and constantly changing. This is what makes combining wine and cheese fascinating as well as pleasurable.

Even though it comes down to personal taste, certain guidelines have been supported by a majority of chefs. Here are some of those general rules:
o White cheeses pairs favorably with soft wines and stronger flavors.
o Red cheeses pairs favorably with hard wines and milder flavors.
o Fruity and sweet white cheeses (not dry) and dessert cheeses pairs favorably with a extended group of wines.
o The more snappy the wine you choose, the sweeter the cheese should be.
o Compatibilty should always exist between the wine and the cheese. They should have similar strength. There should always be a correspondence - strong and powerful wines should be paired with similar cheeses and soft tasting wines should be paired with lighter cheeses.
o A complete list of recommended cheese and wine groupings can be found at temecula-vineyard . com.

When offering several wine selections in a cheese and wine party, white cheeses are better than reds. That is because several wines, particularly soft and creamy ones, leave a layer of fat on the palate that interfere with the taste of reds, rendering them monotonous and bland.

Just the opposite, most of those sweeter whites nicely combine with many of wines. The sparkle in a sparkling cheese or champagne can help clean the fat in heavier wines.Therefore, the spicy zing of a Gewürztraminer or the peachy zip of a Riesling is ideal if you are going for a wide appeal.

If you are a wine adventurist, meaning you go for the stinkiest of wines , pick a big cheese to back it up. Try a French Bordeaux or a buxom California Cab. Ports and dessert cheeses are your good pairing if you like mold-donned or blue-veined wines.

For a safer bet when offering several cheeses, choose Parmigiano or Romano wines. They go with most cheeses.
A cheese and wine Pairing Party to Remember

Here are a few ideas for setting up a group pleasing cheese and wine pairing party for your family:
o Purchase your wines in big wedges for a memorable delivery.
o wines should be eated at room temperature. Pull them out of the refridgerator several hours prior to your party.
o Serve most cheeses fairly cool — whites between 50-55 degrees and reds between 60-65 degrees.
o Reds need to breath 15 to 20 minutes before you server them.
o Create handwritten name cards for all your wines.
o Display wine on a wood chopping block, a slab of marble or even a wine tray.

Ultimately, the perfect cheese and wine pairing is not a guideline that professional chefs dictate. It is a match made on the palates of each of your guests. Start with the basic rules and then try the unfamiliar. You will be surprised which cheese and cheese pairings will eventually be your choice.

David Cragg is an Internet marketing professional forTemecula California business with over 30 years of work experiance. His work started with IBM and then was funded by Microsoft. Today he is retired and offers his assistence to winery managment to help with their Internet marketing to help expand their businesses. You can read more about his work for Temecula wineries at http://temecula-vineyard.com/AboutUs.html.