Gruyère and 20 year old tawny port

Port and cheese is one of those combinations that hardly needs questioning but there are some variants on the theme that still have the ability to surprise as I discovered when I worked my way through a selection of Taylor's ports and Paxton & Whitfield cheeses the other day.

My favourite - partly because it’s one of my favourite styles - was a 20 year old tawny with a deeply savoury reserve (in other words, aged) Gruyère (bottom right) which brought out exotic quince notes in the wine. I also liked a salty Manchego which made the accompanying, slightly retiring 2002 Quinta de Vargellas port taste of Elvas plums.

As you’d expect a 10 year old tawny was a spot on match with a mature cheddar but more unexpectedly a very young ruby port (First Estate Reserve) went surprisingly well with a Bosworth ash log - like having a rich fruit compote on the side. The only combination I wasn’t really convinced by was a spicy 2010 late bottled vintage with a creamy Brillat-Savarin which needed a wine with more acidity.

Of course this is not typically the way you eat cheese - you’re much more likely to have a selection - and in my view the 10 year old tawny and late bottled vintage styles are the best all-rounders. But it does show that if you have a decent piece of Gruyère in the fridge you can nibble it as well as cook with it. Dry oloroso, as I discovered a few years ago, is also a good partner.

I was sent the ports and cheeses to try by Taylor's port and Paxton & Whitfield cheese.

Pairing Comté cheese and Chivite Coleccion 125 Reserva 2001

I spend a lot of my time trying to discourage people from drinking their favourite red wine with a cheeseboard because it's so often a disappointment but every now and again you come across a red wine and cheese combination that really works.

I had in fact picked a cheese for the purpose, a nine month old Comté. It's similar in style to Gruyère but has a richness, roundness and depth of flavour - almost a fruitiness - that you rarely get in Gruyère cheese.

Being a comparatively young cheese it was mellow rather than intense so gave an easy ride to a mature modern Spanish red, a 2001 Coleccion 125 from Bodegas Julian Chivite, a blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It's a wine I've consistently enjoyed over the years, a wine that's still very much in its prime but on which the tannins have softened sufficiently not to intrude on the pairing

It also survived a Dorset Blue Vinney, a West Country cheese which is milder and more mellow than many blues.

Those were the only two cheeses on the table by the way - and all you need. The more cheeses you have, the more chance that one of them will get into a fight with your wine.

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Comté cheese and Languedoc Syrah

We’ve been down in the Languedoc for the past week and two bottles - both Syrah - have impressed me for very different reasons. One was an inexpensive but characterful Ressac Vin de Pays d’Oc Syrah which we bought from the co-op at Florensac, Vinopolis, after eating at their showcase restaurant Bistrot d’Alex which I’ve mentioned on the site before. The other a much classier bottle called Clos du Fou (the 2004 vintage) from a local Faugères winemaker Château des Estanilles which bore comparison with a Côte Rôtie.

Both went extremely well with a chunk of Comté, an unpasteurised Gruyère-like cheese from the Jura we bought from the local supermarket (the lack of good cheese shops in this part of the world is really quite depressing.) I mention it not because the cheese was exceptional but because it didn’t detract from either of these wines - one relatively light, one complex and full-flavoured. A more mature Comté might have done them fewer favours (a Jura or Savoie white is the more usual pairing).

Clos du Fou is made in limited quantities and does not appear to be available from the main UK stockist The Wine Society though you do appear to be able to order it from 1855.com The current vintage is 2005 but it definitely repays keeping.

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Cave aged gruyère and dry oloroso

If I were to tell you I was seriously excited about the pairing of a supermarket sherry with a supermarket cheese you'd probably think I'd totally lost it - but hang on a moment.

The cheese is a cave-matured gruyère from Sainsbury's that has somehow survived 5 weeks in the wildly fluctuating temperatures of my domestic fridge and the sherry a bottle of Sainsbury's Taste the Difference 12 year old Dry Oloroso sherry - far cheaper than it has any rate to be at £6.99 a 50cl bottle. Made by Lustau it's wonderfully dark and nutty, like grilled hazelnuts with a piercing acidity that harmonises beautifully with the sharp crystalline cheese.

You should be able to pull off the same trick with any comparable dry oloroso and mature hard cheese - a great way to round off a meal.

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