Wine and Cheese Pairing

 I was extremely excited to do this tasting! I did it on the solar eclipse at Chateau Morisette to get a good view of all the clouds... but really I thought a flight of wine I had not already tried would be great to try with some cheeses. 

 I chose this actually based on Trader Joe's recommendation! This cheese was listed to go with most wines, and it is the Unexpected Cheddar Cheese that had bits of parmesan mixed in. 

 This one was more of a leap for me. I had a couple of friends joining me to taste and they were lactose intolerant, so I found a cheese they could enjoy as well. This is Trader Joe's goat's milk gouda style cheese. Trader Joe's said this cheese paired well with red wine and figs. 

 My last choice was Trader Joe's Irish whiskey cheddar. Honestly, I bought this one because they were letting people sample it in store and it was delicious by itself, but I knew it would be interesting to see if it actually paired with any wine. 

 Onto the wines we paired with our cheese, we started with the Chateau Morisette 2020 Dry Dog. This was a red blend that had chambourcin, cabernet, and merlot blended together with NO residual sugar. 

 The second wine we tried with the cheese was the Chateau Morisette classic, The Black Dog. I chose this to see how the addition of sugar would change the flavors, as this is the same red blend as the Dry Dog, but they do not ferment all the sugar out of it. 

 

The third was the Chateau Morisette 2022 Petit Manseng. This was a new varietal they had at the winery. It was light and crisp and good for kite flying weather. It had accents of honeysuckle and orange. 

The last wine you will see in my flight is the Chateau Morisette Blackberry Wine. I chose this one as a fruit forward sweet wine because I thought that the blackberry would go well with the gouda. However, the Blackberry wine base is actually Chateau Morisette's apple wine, which they then let blackberry must sit in to infuse it's flavor and get its deeper color. 

This is the flight, and the wines are ordered in the order I wrote above. 

(1. Dry dog, 2. The black dog, 3. Petit Manseng, 4. Blackberry wine) 

This photo is kind of chaotic but shows how we picnic styled out day. We also had crackers and some fruit to go with the wine, but the focus was on the cheese. I cut it into small triangles and bagged it prior to getting to the winery, and after the peak of the eclipse we got to the pairing. 

First I will start with my notes on the Dry Dog. It was a full bodied, rich wine that had softer tannins being four years old now. It had good red berry flavor with hints of smoke and maybe vanilla? A flavor I cannot quite place. Pairing it with the Irish Whiskey cheddar, it was kind of a let down. I think both the wine and cheese had bold, strong flavors- that were completely different from each other. This led to them kind of cancelling each other out in my mouth and having a red berry start with a straight whiskey finishing taste that lingered in my mouth. This was definitely the worst out of the three for the Dry dog. The goat cheese gouda was better with the dry dog, but definitely not great. They felt clanky together. I would have thought the buttery aftertaste of the wine would have gone with the creaminess of the gouda, but it was like separate flavors following each other. It was creamy, and then buttery, but the textures and mouth feel did not compliment each other or exist at the same time. Lastly was the aged cheddar with parm. The cheddar was the lightest cheese taste wise out of the three, and accented the wine well. It emboldened the hints of smoke in the wine and paired well with the red berry flavor. I felt like Remy in Ratatouille trying grapes and cheese together for the first time. 

Secondly was the Black Dog. With Chateau Morisette leaving residual sugar in this version of their red blend, it definitely lightened up the wine. It changed from being a date night wine or nice dinner like I would classify the Dry Dog to a more casual, daily use. Our server said it is a great wine to use in cooking as well. However, the red berry flavor was definitely still pronounced, and it was great. Without the aging though, it had slightly more pucker and tannic components than its counterpart. So I paired this one first with the Irish Whiskey and it was just point blank not good. As you will notice in my notes about the rest of the wines, the Irish Whiskey cheddar does not pair well with anything sweet. The Whiskey flavor overpowered the wine, and it just tasted like I was consuming cottage cheese consistency whiskey. Thinking about it still makes me feel ill. Secondly was the goat cheese gouda. This did significantly better. The gouda flavor paired well with the red berry and the sugar in the wine paired well with the creaminess of the cheese instead of battling it. Lastly, the aged cheddar with parm enhanced the berry flavor and brought out some more subtleties in the wine. I like this one as well because the cheese cut some of the sugary from the wine, but it did not mess up the flavor. 

Next was the Petit Manseng. This was the only white wine I paired with the cheeses, and it was significantly sweeter and more delicate than the first two. The manseng was crisp, had a strong flavor of honeysuckle with accents of orange and other citrusy/ tropical fruits the more I drank. Shockingly, when paired with the Irish whiskey cheddar, it just disappeared. It felt as though I could have been drinking water and eating a slice of cheese. the Manseng did better taste wise with the goat cheese gouda. The gouda actually elevated the pineapple and orange zesty flavors in the wine. The only thing that I did not like was the finish after this pairing almost felt waxy on the tongue, it was just an odd sensation to be left with. The cheddar with parm was fine, but nothing of excellence to rave about. It did not really fight the wine, but did not add anything or enhance flavors either. I think they are both just mild flavors, and neither had the umph needed to enhance the other. 

The last wine was the Blackberry wine. This one was light, easy to drink, and completely different from the other. I had not had an apple wine before this, and was surprised how crisp and flavorful it actually was with just a little acidity to compete with the high sugar content. For the last time I will say this, the irish whiskey cheese was HORRENDOUS with the blackberry wine. It was like a battle of all taste buds in my mouth due to so many competing and opposing flavors. The goat cheese gouda was a nice reprieve from the irish whiskey fiasco, and it brought out the apple flavor hiding underneath the blackberry and gave more granny smith flavors instead of dark berry. The cheddar was great. Something I would want to put on any charcuterie board to have outside during the summer with this wine. They were both casual and easy to pair together, but together neither had a long finish. 

Overall, my favorite pairing by far was the Dry Dog and the cheddar with parmesan. I also acknowledge that the irish whiskey cheddar, while interesting in theory, was a terrible choice in practice. (I paid my dues for that having to continue to try it with each sweet wine). Overall though it was a great time and I learned more about the capacity for wine to elevate based on it partners.