Pairing wine and cheese – try something bubbly too!

When pairing wine and cheese together, we often think of red wine as well as grapes or crackers to go along with it. However, a winning flavour experience often comes from something completely different, such as cheese with sparkling wine and nuts!

Sommelier Joonas Vainio of Vindirekt and Food Service Sales Manager Jani Lamminperä of Valio offered an ambient evening of wine and cheese tasting for the Eckerö Line Nordic Tastes at the Baltic Sea Academy on m/s Finlandia. The two speakers broke a traditional mindset by encouraging participants to find new taste sensations and a fresh perspective to pairing wine and cheese.

You should go for flavour pairs based on the character of a dish or cheese. First, you should think about how intense the food is. Choose a light wine for light food, and for robust flavours, such as Mustaleima Emmental, you should choose a relatively robust wine.

– This is basic, but I think it’s the most important thing when we set off to put food and wine together, Vainio sums up.

The flavour profile of cheese often comprises fattiness, acidity and saltiness. You should choose a full-flavoured wine for fatty cheeses. And bubbles, freshness and acidity are important elements to give brightness to a robust dish. When pairing wine and cheese together, we often think of red wine, but champagne or an acidic white works extremely well too. Fortified wines, such as port, also cut through a cheese’s fat nicely.

– The acidity in a cheese is an interesting element. When we pair, for example, an acidic cheese with an acidic wine, we suddenly get something softer,  Vainio says. For example, many soft goat cheeses are strongly acidic, which can be challenging with tannic reds. Red wine can even suddenly taste metallic with a goat cheese, so an acidic white wine might be a safer choice.

Saltiness is also an important flavour element. Saltiness reacts to wine, enhancing the flavours. A tannic red may be too overpowering, but bubbles and acidity work nicely. You can also have something sweet alongside a salty cheese as well, a classic combination.

Vainio recommends a sweet white, such as Tokaji, as a good, all-purpose wine to go with a cheese board. In keeping with his advice about bubbles, he challenges everyone to try a sparkling wine with cheese, as it breaks down the structure and brings the flavour out more.

– When you put a piece of cheese in your mouth and let it slowly melt, and take a little taste of an effervescent wine or champagne, a small party will start to happen in the mouth, and all the flavours will break loose. It’s an unbelievable taste sensation, Lämminperä summarises.

As previously stated, champagne and acidic white wines work fabulously with cheese. For a red wine, you should choose something luscious, full-flavoured and softly tannic, such as Amarone, Zinfandel or Ripasso. Dry hard ciders and British-style ales also often work very well with many types of cheeses.

When serving cheese, bringing it up to the right temperature is very important. You should let it come to room temperature a couple of hours before serving. This is when the cheese will warm up, and its aroma and flavour will wonderfully come out. Lamminperä does not recommend grapes, mandarin oranges or any other fresh fruit or berry, but instead says to serve compotes. Fig jam or cherry compote, for example, works amazingly well. Cook berries slightly and add sugar to bring out a lovely ripe flavour. You can also spice it up with some of the wine you plan on having, and the flavour profiles will bring out the best in each other. Lamminperä also scoffs at crackers, but bread and mildly flavoured breadsticks will work very nicely. Nuts or something not too fatty will also bring out the best in the flavour profiles.

Mervi Valjakka and Kristiina Ostamo booked their cruise knowing that the Nordic Tastes at the Baltic Sea Academy would be happening at the same time.

– It’s great that they organize things like this! Valjakka praises. Both passengers were surprised by new flavour pairings such as white wine with cheese. Compotes with cheese was also a good tip and even easy to make. Virpi Aarikka, who was at their table, also raved about flavour pairings such as champagne and cheese.

–The bubbles really start to dance in your mouth, she says.

Liven up a classic cheese board by putting one or two surprising flavour parings together. We recommend at least trying an addicting combination of Valio AURA® blue cheese and liquorice and Valio Salaneuvos Vanhempi® Gouda and almond paste, two flavour parings that have already dazzled many cheese lovers. You don’t always have to make an entire spread of cheeses, just offer one kind with an accompaniment as a starter or a dessert. What especially works for a starter is Valio Juhla® Cheddar with tahini, and for dessert, there is Valio Keisarinna® aged Gouda with a caramel sauce and pink peppercorns.

Valio Juhla® Cheddar + baguettes + tahini
Valio Mustaleima™ Emmental + salted pistachios
Valio Keisarinna® aged Gouda + honeyed almonds

Valio Keisarinna® aged Gouda + soft caramels + caramel sauce + pink peppercorns
Valio Salaneuvos Vanhempi® Gouda + almond paste
Valio AURA® blue cheese + liquorice

Valio Karelia™ Fontal + blueberry gemstone jellies
Valio Ritari® semi-soft cheese + lemon curd
Valio Salaneuvos Vanhempi® Gouda + toasted ciabatta + peaches

Valio Alppi Kreivi® Bergkäse + rum-infused grapes

Valio Keisarinna® aged Gouda + mämmi (malted rye Easter dessert)
Valio Kappeli® Saint Paulin + mämmi crispbread

Valio Alppi Kreivi® Bergkäse + glögg-infused dates
Valio AURA® Gold blue cheese + gingerbread cookies + cranberry compote

Our cheesemonger’s tip: remember the right serving temperature!

“The serving temperature for a cheese plays an enormous role in the flavour. So remember to bring hard, aged cheeses to room temperature 1 to 2 hours before severing. This brings out the flavour and aroma of the cheeses,” Valio cheesemonger Anja Pölönen advises.

The lecture was held in November 2018.