Kent Torrey of The Cheese Shop in Carmel, Calif., looked over the cheese selection at Fujioka's Wine Merchants last week during a stop in Honolulu on his way to the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival on Maui.
Revealing the mysteries
of wine and cheeseGuidelines aside, the only true way
to pick a pair is to taste them
KAPALUA, Maui >> The scent of sweet and aged cheese wafted through a section of the Kapalua Bay Hotel, leading the way to the ballroom where experts would serve as guides to olfactory nirvana.
"It's OK to eat mold," said the first expert, Kent Torrey, who owns The Cheese Shop in Carmel, Calif. A former Hawaii resident, Torrey was back to host a wine and cheese tasting seminar at the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival on Sunday. "All the bacteria and spores you're inhaling are good for you."
More than 150 foodies were greeted with nine American and Italian cheeses and eight wines. Rather than directing them to match specific cheeses with certain wines, Torrey encouraged the crowd to "bounce around between the wines and cheeses" to determine which pairing was best for them.
"Cheese is the educational chalkboard of silliness because cheese can change the flavor of wine," added Fred Dame, master sommelier and host of the festival.
Favorite cheeses included "O Sole' Mio" from Surfing Goat Dairy in Kula that was blended with sun-dried tomatoes; "Gran Canaria" from Wisconsin's Carr Valley, a blend of cow, sheep and goat's milk rubbed with olive oil during curing; and a four-year-old parmegiano, unpasteurized, with an intense, piquant, pineapple taste. The most pungent was a taleggio, a cow's milk cheese from Italy.
Wines included a sweet ice wine by Chateau Ste. Michelle (2003) and a Simi Winery Sauvignon Blanc (2002) that paired well with all the cheeses. The full-bodied Terra d'Oro, Zinfandel (2001) Deaver Ranch balanced the strongest cheeses, as did a 2001 pinot noir -- Carneros -- from Buena Vista Winery.
There's a simple reason that most wine-tasting parties include cheese, Torrey said. "Wine and cheese go well together, and there's a cheese that will bring out the best in just about every wine."
Both wine and cheese are products of fermentation: Wine is fermented grape juice; cheese is made from fermented milk. "Both can express the taste of the place from which they come -- wine through the roots of grapevines; cheese through the milk of animals that feed on local plants," Torrey said.
That doesn't mean all wine goes with all cheese, though. Pairings can be tricky, especially when the wine is a dry red.
Creamy soft cheeses such as brie or Saint André coat the palate with a layer of fat that works against dry red wine, Torrey said. The wine's flavors become dull and lifeless.
Among reds, the easiest to pair with cheese are wines that are light and fruity, he said.
It is impossible to issue hard-and-fast rules on pairings, he said. To know for sure whether a wine and cheese go together, "you must try them," he said. "Remember that cheese is a living, breathing organism and any one cheese can give a range of results, depending on its age and condition."
Example: In its youth, St. Marcellin, a cow's milk cheese from France, is somewhat tart, calling for a crisp, acidic wine. As it ages, its acidity reduces and its butterfat content increases, making it compatible with fruity, buttery whites or slightly tannic reds, Torrey said.
And if you believe that expensive and rare wines are necessary for great wine and cheese combinations, think again.
"Only great cheeses are necessary," Torrey said. "Wines, with a few exceptions, should be simple, approachable, and ready to drink. There's no need for expensive French bordeaux or burgundy."
He suggested wines in the $10 to $15 range, with the most expensive costing $20.
While good cheeses may be pricey, he added, they are filling and rich, so people eat less. Don't be intimated by a new cheese, or cheese in general.
"Offer a small piece of each cheese to guests before tasting the wine. Savor the cheese's smell and then taste each one."
Pour some of each wine in separate goblets for guests. Without tasting, note the color of each and its "nose" -- pleasurable aromas promise pleasant tastes to come, Torrey said.
Then "test one wine at a time against all cheeses," he said. "Try to be sensitive to new, pleasurable flavors that emerge from the combinations, particularly in the finish. Try to describe what you are tasting. Maybe you'll hit one of those magical matches. When you do, you'll know it."
Conventional wisdom has it that tart, high-acidity cheeses such as French goat cheese go better with herbal, high-acidity wines such as un-oaked sauvignon blanc. High butter fat, low-acidity cheeses such as Italian taleggio or Spanish cabrales pair well with big, buttery wines such as California chardonnays.
Also, cheeses and wines from the same region are said to go well together, adhering to the culinary adage that "things that grow together, go together," Torrey said.
Still, big, young red wines high in harsh tannins are difficult to match with any cheese, he said, because of an unpleasant, chalky aftertaste.
Whatever your selection, serve cheese at room temperature to bring out its true flavors. "Bring it up an hour before serving," he said, "or preferably all day, letting it sit for eight to 10 hours.
When choosing the menu, he said, "don't be shy about asking for a taste off that big block of cheese before you buy."
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