Rebekah's Wine and Cheese Blog

 

The first wine I tried was the Fat Cat Pinot Noir. This wine has a medium color and a garnet color intensity. After swirling and sniffing, I noticed it had scents of black current, cloves, grass and small hints of vanilla and walnut. It smelled very rich and deep, which is extremely different than the white wines I have been tasting. I was a little nervous to try this wine since reds are a little scary to me, but surprisingly, I really enjoyed it. The main flavor I could taste was raspberry and blueberry with a slight hint of tannins and more of an alcohol taste than what I usually taste in whites. It had a very light to medium body, which is probably why I really enjoyed this wine. I would say it is the perfect starter red wine. The first cheese I paired this with was Manchego cheese. I honestly thought this was a perfect pairing as it took away some of the tannic component and made the wine a little smoother going down. The second cheese I tried with this wine was the Smokey pepper fontina which was my least favorite combination. This cheese had a spicy, but nice, kick to it at the end as the spicy flavor was coated on the sides. This pairing was still pretty good since the actual cheese was soft, melty and a little spicy, which neutralized the more intense flavors of the wine just a little bit. The last cheese I paired with this wine was honey goat gouda. This was second favorite pairing because the creaminess and honey notes in the cheese melted with the wine so well.

  

The second wine I tried was a different Pinot Noir. This wine was slightly darker and more intense than the Fat Cat Pinot. While sniffing this wine, I noticed a heavier tannic smell than the Fat Cat. It also had a deeper fruity smell with strong oak scents and a hint of cherry. The taste was also a lot deeper than the Fat Cat Pinot. Cherry was the most dominant flavor I could taste along with an oaky, woody finish at the end. This wine was still pretty good, but I would rate it a 6/10 since it was a little dark for what I’m used to. Paired with the Manchego cheese, the wines bitterness and tannic components faded slightly, but not as much as the other pinot wine as it was more tannic and bitter to start with. The Smokey pepper fontina was my least favorite pairing for this one. It just didn’t mesh very well together and almost brought out more of the bitterness to me. The honey gouda cheese was my favorite pairing since it was so creamy and light, it almost counterbalanced the dark flavors of the red wine.

 

Lastly, I tried the Beaujolais wine. This was by far the one I was most excited about trying as it only has gammay grapes in it. The smell gave off limey and alcoholic scents, maybe even tequila. It was a light scent, with dark purple color, and had hints of some kind of jam, maybe blueberry or raspberry. There were also hints of oak and vanilla scents at the end. When tasting, I could definitely taste an oaky, cherry, and alcohol flavor. It was very dry and tannic, and the end tasted weird, almost like the smell of sweat. The Manchego cheese was really yummy with this wine as it took away the last flavor I could taste in the wine (the sweat taste), which was my least favorite flavor. It also smoothed out the other tastes, which made it a lot easier to drink as this was the most bitter tasting wine. The Smokey pepper fontina also did a good job of covering up the sweat taste at the end but didn’t really do much else. Finally, the last cheese I tried with this wine was the honey gouda cheese. I really enjoyed the creaminess and sweetness of this cheese with this wine because it took away a lot of the tannic, acidic, and alcoholic tastes, which made this pairing my favorite.

Overall, my favorite combinations of wine and cheese have to go to the fat cat pinot noir and Manchego cheese. I will definitely go back and get more of both because it was so good. The honey gouda with the other pinot and Beaujolais were also really good but didn’t work as well as a match.