Wine and Cheese Pairing for Beginners

Wine and cheese are well known bedfellows but if you’re a beginner it might seem daunting to decide exactly which wine to choose for which cheese. This guide will quickly help you to get started pairing wine and cheese like a pro.

Which wine with which cheese?

You might be wondering, should I start with the wine or the cheese?

Most beginners to wine and cheese pairing will be starting with a particular cheese or looking for wines for a cheeseboard. So I’ve broken things down by cheese type. (For cheeses to pair with your favourite wine see below)

Wine with Hard Cheese

Hard cheeses include cheddar, Comté, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Manchego. They’re the easiest type of cheese to pair with wine - a medium bodied red like a cabernet sauvignon or a rioja is probably going to be the most enjoyable pairing for most people but try the combination of cheddar and chardonnay

• Pairing wine and cheese: 6 ways to do it better

Wine with Soft Cheese

Soft cheeses range from spreadable cheeses like Philadelphia to semi-soft white rinded cheeses like brie and camembert. I like them with a fruity red like a pinot noir or a Beaujolais but rosé works well with this style of cheese too.

Wine with Blue Cheese

Blue cheeses include Stilton, Roquefort and Gorgonzola. Classic wine pairings tend to be sweet, for example Sauternes with Roquefort or port and stilton. For something a bit different, try sloe gin or sweet sherry. And, believe it or not, even stout and blue cheese work well together.

Wine with Goat Cheese

Sauvignon blanc is the classic wine pairing for goat cheese, but you could also try a crisp dry Provençal rosé (particularly for a summer picnic) or a fresh fruity red such as Beaujolais.

Wine with Washed-Rind Cheese

Washed-Rind cheeses - often referred to as ‘stinky cheese’ - include Epoisses, Reblochon, Vacherin Mont d’Or and Taleggio. They tend to be quite pungent especially as they mature so don’t expect anything great in the way of a wine pairing. Oddly a crisp dry white wine - or a strong Belgian-style ale - can work better than a red

Wine with Melted Cheese

It’s not a cheese style in its own right but melted cheese classics such as fondue and raclette deserve a mention. They aren’t the easiest dishes to match, but a good bet is a crisp or aromatic white wine from the region where these dishes are popular. You’ll find some specific suggestions in this post: the best wine pairings with cheese fondue, raclette and tartiflette.

Which cheese to pair with your favourite wine

Most people like to pair red wine with cheese and that’s fine - just bear in mind that there are some cheeses, as I’ve suggested above, that taste better with a white wine or dessert wine so don’t be afraid to experiment.

10 popular wines and the cheeses to pair with them

1. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot and Bordeaux blends - cheddar, gouda and other hard cheeses

2. Pinot noir - brie and camembert

3. Rhône and other southern French reds - a good all-rounder with a French cheeseboard

4. Rioja - particularly good with sheep cheeses like Manchego

5. Chianti - parmigiano reggiano and pecorino

6. Port - blue cheeses like stilton

7. Sauvignon blanc - goat cheese and feta, cheeses with garlic and herbs

8. Chardonnay - cheddar

9. Pinot Grigio - mozzarella and other mild Italian cheeses (good with an antipasti platter)

10. Champagne and other sparkling wine - Vacherin Mont d’or, Chaource

If you enjoyed this post download my cheese book 101 Great Ways to Enjoy Cheese and Wine for loads of (well, over 101!) other pairing ideas

Top photo © George Dolgikh at fotolia.com

What are the best wine pairings for Vacherin Mont d’Or

People occasionally ask me my favourite cheese - an impossible question but Vacherin Mont d’Or is certainly up there in the top 5.

It’s made either side of the Franco/Swiss border under slightly different names* between September and March and is a washed rind cheese with a wonderfully fluid texture. It's always presented in a box with a piece of spruce bark wrapped round it. You can serve it baked when it acquires the consistency of a fondue.

Locally in the Jura it would alway be drunk with one of the local crisp white wines. Top London cheesemonger, Patricia Michelson of La Fromagerie, recommends a vin jaune or a savagnin which is certainly the classic, on-the-spot pairing and fortunately the wines more widely available than they used to be in the UK. Vintage champagne is also an option but not always what one is looking for with cheese which leaves one with aromatic whites.

'A perfectly ripe Vacherin Mont d'Or, oozing with funky fruit aromas, is an extraordinary thing to eat with a 15- to 20-year-old auslese riesling, which by then has developed a singular smoky aroma reminiscent of kerosene' Eric Asimov of the New York Times suggested a while ago. I also very much enjoyed a Vacherin recently with Laurent Miquel's Verité, a top quality viognier from the Languedoc.

Others such as Murray’s Cheese suggest pairing it with an aromatic gewurztraminer and a dry young Alsace or Austrian riesling should be an enjoyable pairing.

Is there any red that will work? I’m not totally convinced but an Hachette book I have, Fromages et Vins, suggests an Alsace Pinot Noir or a minor red burgundy such as Hauts-Côtes-de-Nuits.

Award-winning sommelier Nicolas Clerc recommends serving the cheese with toasted hazelnut bread and adding a julienne of raw cepes "to reach another dimension of pleasure” while the late Sue Style author of Cheese: Slices of Swiss Culture suggested: Serve this delectably runny cheese with good rye or wholewheat bread or allow it to slither gently over small, waxy (or new) potatoes cooked in their skins. You could also serve a selection of fragrant smoked meats and mountain sausages.

In terms of Swiss wines Sue recommended "a Petite Arvine from the Valais (Chanton Weine in Visp make a fine one), not a flétri but a dry one: pale straw, grapefruit/lime blossom with slightly salty finish and enough acidity to cope with the luscious silky texture of the Vacherin. Or, if you prefer red, how about a Pinot Noir from either Valais (Simon Maye, Maurice Zufferey - top names from around Salgesch/Sierre) or from Graubünden (Gantenbein's is most elevated, but there are lots of other fine ones from the village of Bündner Herrschaft near Chur), or a Dole, a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir from the Valais."

* The Swiss version is called Vacherin Mont d’Or, the French simply Mont d’Or or Vacherin du Haut-Doubs

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10 food pairings for peaty whiskies

Following my trip to Islay a while ago I drew up some pairings for its extraordinary peaty whiskies. I’m not a great one for whisky dinners but I like the idea of serving tapa-sized dishes with a dram.

Many of these are untried but here are some of the flavours and ingredients I think would work with whiskies such as Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig.

1. Roquefort
Must kick off with a classic. Read this match of the week for the reason why

2. Mutton or rare breed lamb
A pairing that’s closer to home. Islay almost certainly has more sheep than people and the lamb has the same sort of rich, aromatic flavour as salt marsh lamb. In miniaturised terms I’d be thinking of mutton pies or a not-too-spicy lamb samosa.

3. Middle eastern style lamb meatballs or kofte
Similar thinking with a touch of spice

4. Char siu, barbecued or pulled pork
It would heighten the smokey barbecued effect deliciously, I think, and could deal with the sweetness of a marinade

5. Smoked reindeer or venison
Scandinavians are great fans of Islay whiskies, I hear, and I’m sure would love smoked meats like reindeer or venison with them - maybe as a part of a tailormade smorgasbord selection

6. Teriyaki salmon
Again a speculative pairing but I reckon cubes or skewers of teriyaki salmon would work really well

7. Kipper quiche or paté
You’re not going to want to drink whisky with your kippers (I would hope) but in a tartlet or mixed with cream or cream cheese in a paté I’m sure it would work.

8. Charred or roast aubergines
There’s got to be a veggie pairing for peaty whisky and my money’s on aubergine - most likely in the form of the middle eastern spread baba ganoush.

9. Kitcheree
The authentic Indian version with lentils rather than the anglicised one with smoked haddock. Served as a rice bowl.

10. Plain, dark chocolate - at least 70%
Pretty good with blended whisky - bound to be good with a peaty one.

And one for luck: Maltesers! I was originally tipped off by someone who works at Lagavulin and then tried it for myself. It's weirdly moreish - you have to try it for yourself!

Photo by Scott Jessiman Photo at shutterstock.com

The best wine matches for Manchego, Berkswell and other hard sheep cheeses

Hard sheep cheeses are the winelover’s friend.

Nutty, tangy and savoury, they show off a good red like no other cheese which makes them a great choice if you’ve picked a serious wine with your main course.

You can also pair them with sweet wines, and with sherry and other fortified wines. Here are the pairings I think work best:

Mature Spanish reds especially Rioja and Valdepeñas (the latter comes from the same region as Manchego, La Mancha). Other oak-aged tempranillos too.

Mature Bordeaux

Reds from the south-west of France - an area which specialises in sheep’s cheese - often served with a cherry compote. Madiran, for example. Sweet wines from the same region such as Jurançon and Pacherenc-du-Vic-Bilh also work well

Mature Chianti - especially with aged pecorinos

Sherry, especially dry amontillado, palo cortado and dry oloroso. Aged tawny ports are also good - see this post on Zamorano and 30 y.o. tawny

Aged oaked white rioja - its nuttiness compliments sheep cheese perfectly as you can see here

Orange wines. Maybe not your cup of tea but their quince-like flavours are brilliant with sheep cheese (think membrillo)

Younger, fresher-tasting hard sheep cheeses are good with a crisp dry white such as albarino or vermentino

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