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How to organise a beer and cheese tasting
Today my son Will and I did an artisan cheese and craft beer tasting at the Great British Beer Festival to promote our new book An Appetite for Ale (due out at the end of September. Hint.) It seemed to go down well so I thought it might be something you’d enjoy trying at home with your friends.
What we were aiming to show was not only how good beer is with cheese but to come up with some unexpected pairings that might impress any non-beer drinkers in the party. Here’s what we tasted and why.
Goats’ cheese and wheat beer
An ideal pairing to kick off this kind of tasting, both goats cheese and wheatbeer are very versatile, ideal for this time of year. The goats’ cheese was a Golden Cross from Sussex - a goats’ cheese log that was quite well matured and the beer a bière blanche called Colomba from Corsica flavoured with the wild plants of the Corsican Maquis (densely wooded hillsides). The lemony herbal notes of the beer picked up perfectly on the slightly acid cheese. It’s a style of beer I really like to drink with goats’ cheese salads. Any witbier or bière blanche would work equally well.
Camembert and Kriek
Kriek is the famous sour Belgian fruit beer made with cherries. We used Liefman’s for the tasting which has a particularly refreshing sour (but not sharp) cherry flavour. The Camembert we paired it with was an artisanal cheese from Normandy, again well-matured which meant that the rind was a little bitter for the beer. A younger example would have been a better match. The fresh fruity flavours of the beer are a great contrast to the creamy paste (the central part of the cheese).
Cheddar and American IPA
Cheddar is generally paired with pale ales or bitters in this country but they can get overwhelmed if the cheese is very strong. This was the case with this award-winning unpasteurised Montgomery’s cheddar from Somerset which was about 14 months old. I like this style of cheese better with an American IPA which are stronger, sweeter and more hoppy than their typical British counterparts. The one we used at the tasting was a great favourite of Will’s and mine, Goose Island. We were amused to see on their website that they also recommend it with Cajun food and carrot cake!
Washed rind cheese and strong Belgian Trappist ale
A classic pairing from Belgium. The beer we used was Chimay Blue which at 9% is the strongest beer in the Chimay range. The monks also make a washed rind style of cheese but we chose a British example from Gloucestershire, Stinking Bishop from Charles Martell. So called not because of its odour (which has been compared to unwashed socks) but because the rind of the cheese is washed with perry made from the Stinking Bishop pear. It’s the kind of cheese-lovers’ cheese which totally annihilates red wine but the sweet, strong Chimay more than held its own. You could also try it with a French cheese like Epoisses or Livarot.
Stilton and porter
The first of two pairings with Stilton. This, on the face of it was the more unlikely combination. Anchor Porterfrom San Francisco with its dark, bitter flavour of coffee grounds and mature Colston Bassett, one of the most highly regarded Stiltons, the kind of cheese with which you’d normally reach for the port. But in fact the two got on like a house on fire, the bitterness of the blue-veined cheese rounding out the flavours of the beer, the beer providing a refreshing contrast to the cheese. They looked great together too. Magic.
Stilton and Barley Wine
With the same cheese we then put up a barley wine, a Thomas Hardy Ale from O’Hanlons of Devon. At a stonking 11.7% it’s not for the fainthearted - wonderfully rich and sweet with intense dried fruit flavours. The brewer says it will keep for 25 years. It behaved much more like a port with the cheese, providing a rich, sweet contrast. Personally I would have liked some kind of dried fruits like raisins or Medjool dates to nibble with the combination but it was pretty good on its own.
When we asked the audience which beer they preferred with the Stilton about 60% preferred the porter and 40% the barley wine so which way you go is a question of personal taste.
We finished off the tasting (and you could finish off your evening) by showing how well three of the beers also went with desserts, partnering the Kriek with a creamy cheesecake (one of my favourite pairings), the porterwith a70% dark organic chocolate (which it offset like an espresso coffee) and the barley wine with a classic English fruitcake. The last two were uncannily alike but the great thing about beer is that its palate-refreshing carbonation enables you to partner it with a similar ingredient without one cancelling out the flavour of the other.
The Great British Beer Festival is on at Earl’s Court until Saturday evening. Visit www.gbbf.org.uk
The 10 best wines for spring and early summer drinking
The last two days have been quite, quite beautiful, starting mistily, basking midday in an unseasonally warm sun and finishing with an extended dusk that announces that spring is finally here. I immediately want to eat lighter meals: the new season’s vegetables are not quite in yet but I can at least plan for summer and that means a spring clean of the cellar, pushing the full bodied reds to the back and assessing what whites, lighter reds and rosés I still have lurking in the racks.
Now is the time to drink up any lighter wines from last year that may have slipped my notice and make a shopping list for the weeks ahead.
The idea of changing the wine you drink with the season, just as you change your diet and your wardrobe still meets some resistance. People tend to ‘like what they like’ when it comes to wine, drinking the same bottles right through the year. The more pronounced acidity and palate weight of lighter wines may not be to your taste. But try them with the right kind of food and you’ll see how perfectly tuned they are to the flavours of spring.
Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon blends
What more is there to say about Sauvignon Blanc? Only that there is much more variety than ever before and that quality seems on an unstoppable upward curve. Try those from South Africa if you’re not familiar with them. And revisit white Bordeaux and other Sauvignon-Semillon blends.
Best food pairings: goats’ cheese, asparagus, grilled fish and other seafood, dishes flavoured with coriander and dill
Grüner Veltliner
No sign of the Grüner bandwagon slipping off the rails. It’s still every sommelier’s darling - less demanding than Riesling, more sophisticated than Pinot Grigio (though see below). Drink young.
Best food pairings: Light Asian flavours e.g. Asian accented salads and noodle dishes, Vietnamese spring rolls
Albariño
Another fashionable option, Spain’s feted seafood white, which comes from Galicia in the North West of the country, has the intensity to cope with most light fish preparations. A good wine to choose in fish restaurants.
Best food pairings: shellfish, light fish dishes, spring and summer soups e.g. gazpacho, tomato salads
Chablis and other unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnays
If you’re a Chardonnay drinker, time to change the register from oaked to unoaked or at least subtly oaked. (Those rich buttery flavours will overwhelm delicate vegetables and seafood unless they’re dressed with a rich butter sauce.) Faced with competition from the new world, Chablis is better quality than ever and a good own brand buy from supermarkets. Watch out for offers.
Best food pairings: oysters and other seafood, poached chicken, creamy sauces, fish and vegetable terrines, sushi
Dry Riesling
Like Marmite Riesling tends to polarise wine drinkers - some love it, some hate it. There’s no denying though that its crisp, fresh flavours and modest levels of alcohol it makes perfect spring sipping. If it’s the sweetness you’re not sure about stick to Alsace Riesling, German kabinett Riesling or Clare Valley Riesling from Australia. If it’s the typical kerosene flavours it can acquire with age, stick to younger wines.
Best food pairings: Smoked fish especially smoked salmon, crab, trout, smoked chicken, salads,Cantonese and lightly spiced south-east Asian food
Pinot Grigio
The tide of insipid, cheap Pinot Grigio has given the wine a bad name but the best examples (mostly from the Alto Adige) are elegant minerally whites that deserve a place in your cellar.
Best food pairings: antipasti, light seafood pastas and risottos, fresh tomato-based pasta sauces
Prosecco
The Veneto’s utterly charming sparkling wine, softer and more rounded than Champagne. It mixes fabulously well with fresh summer fruits such as peaches and raspberries as in the famous Bellini
Best food pairings: A perfect spring aperitif or to sip with panettone
Light rosé
I say light because so many rosés now are little different from reds in their levels of alcohol and intensity. Not that that style doesn’t have a place (it’s a great wine to drink with barbecues, for example) but it can overwhelm more delicate flavours. At this time of year try the lighter, less full-on styles from Provence and elsewhere in the South of France or from the Rioja and Navarra regions of Spain.
Best food pairings: Provençal-style dishes such as salad Niçoise and aioli (vegetables with a garlic mayonnaise), grilled tuna, mezze
Light Loire reds
Well, actually not so light if you look at the 2005 vintage but in general Loire reds which are mostly based on the Cabernet Franc grape are light and fragrant, perfect served cool. Examples are Chinon, Bourgeuil and Saumur-Champigny.
Best food pairings:
Seared salmon and tuna, grilled chicken, goats' cheese
Young Pinot Noir
I stress young because you want that bright, intense, pure raspberry fruit rather than the slightly funky notes you can get with Pinot (especially red burgundy) that has a couple of years’ bottle age. The most reliable place to find it currently is in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. Chile, California and Oregon have some appealingly soft, fruity Pinots too, though again, watch the alcohol and serve lightly chilled.
Best matches:
Seared duck breasts, salads that include fresh or dried red berries or pomegranate seeds, seared salmon or tuna.
Can any wine survive a Vindaloo?
The widely held belief that wine doesn’t pair with curry has largely been dispelled with the new and more subtly spiced curries on the market. But what of really hot curries like a Vindaloo?
I decided to put the issue to the test with a ‘very hot’ Chicken Vindaloo from Tesco and one from my local takeaway. Vindaloo aficionados would have probably thought both a touch weedy in that neither burnt the roof of my mouth off but they certainly contained a good blast of chilli heat that was enough to challenge any wine or beer.
The drinks I put up against them were a bog-standard can of supermarket lager, a bottle of Greene King IPA (Indian Pale Ale), an Alsace Gewürztraminer, a full bodied, fruity red Stormhoek Pinotage from South Africa and a mango lassi - all served chilled, even the Pinotage.
I limbered up my palate with a medium hot Chicken Rogan Josh which was a fairly easy run-in for all the drinks. The lager tasted a bit watery (as it did without the curry) and the mango lassi a bit sweet but the fragrant Gewürztraminer, the hoppy IPA and the fruity Pinotage all survived.
Next the supermarket vindaloo. This time none of the drinks fared quite as well except the lassi and the lager which survived the chilli heat better than the IPA. The Gewürztraminer also lost some of its fragrance and the Pinotage some of its intensity but they still hung on in there.
Finally the vindaloo from the takeaway, which was hotter still. The Gewürztraminer really couldn’t cope with this unless you added some raita and dal but the Pinotage still kept going. The lager and lassi stayed the course while the IPA again proved it is at its best with milder curries.
Conclusion: yes, you can drink wine with hot curry - it depends what you like. Lager won’t taste of anything but will provide a cool, refreshing liquid accompaniment as will lassi though drinking a yoghurt drink isn’t to everyone’s taste, especially if you already have a good dollop of raita on your plate.
If you bring that and other side dishes like dal or a vegetable curry like a sag aloo (potatoes and spinach) into the equation then you’ll find that a fragrant Gewürztraminer will match nicely. But the big surprise - although I’d had an inkling it would work because South Africans regard it as the best match for curry - was the Pinotage, welcome news to those who prefer drinking red wine to white. But don’t drink it at room temperature, chill it first!
Image credit: dhiraj jain
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