Camembeso cheese and Ribera del Duero

I’m an ardent advocate of pairing cheese with white wine so it came as a bit of a surprise just how well the Spanish cheeses I was eating over the weekend went with the full-bodied Ribera del Duero wines I was tasting, many of which were over 14.5%

The cheese was a new one on me, a Camembeso from Quesos & Besos in the Sierra Morena in Andalucia, a gloriously silky goats cheese which I suspect had been partly coagulated or set with thistle extract as is common among artisanal cheeses in Spain. The distinctive shape is designed to represent lips - ‘Quesos y Besos’ means cheese and kisses!

You can’t find out much about it online because every time you look up Camembeso Google assumes you mean Camembert

It went with most of the wines I paired it with other than the most modern, sweetly fruited ones and was just glorious with them

You can order it, as I did, from specialist importer Mevalco for £6.50 - [a perfect sharing size for 2 cheese fanatics’, as the catalogue puts it). Mevalco stocks other excellent Spanish cheeses and Spanish charcuterie too: the Gomez Moreno Rosemary Manchego is also delicious.

I paid for the cheese and received the Ribera wines as a sample

Tunworth cheese and Hubert Lignier Charmes Chambertin

Whenever I see a producer is about to pair their best wine with cheese my heart sinks, particularly if the cheese is ripe and the wine red. But on this occasion - a tasting and lunch at the Quality Chop House - it worked.

The wine was a sublime 2007 Charmes-Chambertin grand cru from Hubert Lignier that had all the qualities you want from a great burgundy - beautiful pure fruit, a silky (actually more velvety in this case) texture and a long luxuriant finish.

Amazingly it retained all those qualities when partnered with a gooey Tunworth (left of picture) a Camembert-style cows’ cheese from Hampshire - though not quite as well with a Sainte Maure goats’ cheese (right).

How come? Well, although the Tunworth had the mushroomy flavour of a fine Camembert - or Brie for that matter - it didn’t have its pungency. It was more creamy than buttery. And the wine was very intense. I’ve paired ripe pinots before with Brie in particular and they’ve worked - and lighter burgundies which haven’t. I wouldn’t have wanted it with the Burgundians' favourite Epoisses though.

For interest, the courses which preceded it were a very good house terrine and a Barnsley chop with buttery mash, both good simple foils for a lovely selection of Lignier’s Morey-Saint-Denis and Gevrey-Chambertin.