Camembert-style cheese and amphora-aged Bacchus

I’ve long felt that white wine is as good, if not a better match for cheese than red but it takes chutzpah to serve it at the end of a wine dinner as Mark Hix and Rob Corbett of Castlewood Vineyard did at an event I took part in last week at The Fox Inn at Corscombe

The cheeses, which came from Hollis Mead organic dairy included Benville, a triple-cream brie-style cheese, Corscombe which is like a camembert and a washed rind camembert-style cheese called Marvel.

None was particularly pungent so caused no problems for this really interesting white, borderline orange wine from Castlewood called Artefact which is aged in amphorae. It’s made from the English grape variety Bacchus but tastes smoother and creamier than Bacchus typically does with more of a pear, quince and sage character than a typically elderflower one.

The bottle and label too are unusual, depicting the events of the 2020 vintage in which it was made (you can find the story of how it came about on Castlewood’s website) Sadly it’s sold out but you might be able to find the odd bottle at the Fox or at The Pig hotels as their sommelier at The Pig in the South Downs, Luke Harbor, was involved in the project. (You could create a similar match though with other skin contact wines and camembert-style cheeses)

You can buy the cheeses online from a site called Harvest Bundle.

For other matches for Camembert-style cheese see What to Pair with Camembert