A Perfect Match
Tanah Dowdle
In a new series of articles, Tanah Jane Dowdle, tutor, wine expert and chef explores the fascinating world of wine and food matching.  Tanah is currently studying for her Master of Wine and divides her time between Auckland and Melbourne. In her first column Tanah explains classic wine and cheese matches, and gives you a guide to holding your own cheese and wine tasting.
As we go back to the dawn of civilisation we can learn of the importance of cheese and wine through great myths and legends. In the great epic The Odyssey, Homer writes of Cyclops, the one eyed giant, making soft cheese in wicker baskets. We can gasp with envy at Dionysus, son of Zeus, god of wine and his band of wild women, the Bacchae who lay about, limbs lolling, swathed in flowing white robes, hand feeding each other and drinking copious quantities of wine from jewel encrusted chalices - heady stuff indeed !
When ancient societies stumbled onto the wonders of lactic and alcoholic fermentation it must have seemed little short of a miracle. Wine, like cheese, tastes infinitely more delicious and complex than the simple milk and grapes from whence they came and the "miracle" process of fermentation meant they lived longer.
Hmm...just a moment. Let's read that again - "they lived longer ". I think it is really important to know good cheese and great wine are "alive"‚ and continue to evolve and mature to perfection. Obviously we're not talking hermetically sealed blocks of lunchbox cheese and everyday cask wine. These are processed and ready to consume. Think of good cheese like an avocado. There is definitely a peak point when it is totally delicious and ready to devour and then a slow decline to squishy-ness and the point of no return. There are hundreds of varieties of cheese, even more great wines to drink them with and an art to matching them together.
So much love and attention goes into creating both wine and cheese; it's truly an art form. Are they a match made in heaven? Well frankly no, not always. There are some "classic" cheese and wine matches that are truly, deeply divine and some basic rules that work as guidelines for you to find your personal favourites. Get some friends together, get your glassware and tastebuds out, use your imagination and most of all have fun! Believe me it well be well worth the effort.
Here's a few ideas for planning a successful wine and cheese tasting.
Have enough glasses for each and every wine for comparing, and a knife for each cheese.
Make sure your cheeses are ripe and have been at room temperature for a few hours.
To start with, keep it simple. Perhaps stick with one style of cheese and one bracket of wine. For example, three blue cheeses matched with two sweet wines and a tawny port. Or you can select a special cheese for each wine and arrange in pairs.
Always start with the mildest cheese, building up to the strongest. You don't want to blow your palette away on the first cheese!
The more mature your cheese is, the more intense the flavour, so choose a wine to match that intensity. Match like with like.
The more savoury flavours of dried fruit and nuts such as big fat muscat raisins and this season's walnuts in their shells, cracked open at the table, are a much better match with cheeses than piles of sweet tropical fruits.
The breads and crackers you choose should be fairly neutral in flavour. Do experiment with different breads - walnut, sourdough, spiced fruit toast and rye, or try oat cake biscuits.
When tasting cheese focus all your senses, just as you do to appreciate a wine. Does it look in peak condition? By all means smell it, get into all those barnyard earthy pongy smells, that's half the enjoyment. Taste it; ask yourself "is this cheese totally delicious?"
Appreciate the texture. Try the rind separate fr 
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
