Wine and cheese: Zamorano and Sandeman 30 y.o. tawny port

Given that it’s the run-up to Christmas I’ve been tasting (yes, tasting, not drinking!) a lot of port recently so have had some indulgent bottles to hand when the cheese comes out.

This was a chance encounter between a piece of Zamorano cheese, a Spanish sheeps’ cheese I found in El Comado, a very good new deli in Bristol's Gloucester Road and a glass of Sandeman’s 30 year old tawny port .

I normally find tawnies of this age a little on the austere side but this was indulgently sweet with flavours of ripe peach and quince along with the characteristic nuttiness. It comes in a handsome wooden box* so would make a great gift for any port-lover.

You can find it for £60 in Majestic, £61.95 South Downs Cellars, £65.99 Corks Out and £89.99 from Amazon which shows you shouldn’t assume Amazon has the discounts on wine that it does on books. A more modestly priced 20 y.o. tawny would probably give equal pleasure.

Zamorano is a hard sheeps cheese from the province of Zamora, similar in style to a Manchego but rather nuttier and fuller flavoured than most of the Manchegos you’ll find in the UK. There’s some useful background about it on the Cheese from Spain site.

I also tried it with an interesting alternative to Stilton a Wrekin Blue which I blogged about in a general moan about the cost of cheese yesterday. I don’t think it went quite as well interestingly. The Zamorano definitely had the edge.

Zamorano would, of course, go well with sherry too - a dry amontillado I suggest - or a Rioja reserva or gran reserva.

* To be fair I'm not sure that all these prices include the box. But even if Amazon's does it's still a lot to pay for a wooden box!