Wine and Cheese Pairing #1

Preparations:

Max and I hit Kroger at about 6:15 PM, forty-five minutes before its neighbor, The Vintage Cellar was set to close. We grabbed blocks of asiago and cheddar and a wheel of brie. Cheese in hand, we jogged a few doors down to call on the expert opinions of the good folks at TVC. We displayed our cheeses intending to find a match for the cheddar and brie, I had a chianti at home that we'd thought the asiago warranted. Thirty or so minutes later we left, having bought an entire case in an effort to cut longterm spending. We then looped our boy Val in on the evening's agenda and picked pairs for the cheddar and the brie from our newly acquired case. (Below: Max, Val, and I prepared to get after it. Left to right: Me, Val, Max)

Decisions:

It had long been clear that the medium bodied Chianti was destined for the light salt and umami of the asiago however, the brie was going to demand something with some cream and sweetness: it found its match in the Chardonnay. We wanted to put the cheddar though its paces. The wines in our, now stocked, cellar may not have had the tenacity to match the strong fruity umami of the sharp cheddar so we knew our fighter would need grit. The perfect candidate was an Argentinean Cabernet Sauvignon we'd acquired just hours before.

Meet the wines:

Chianti: 2022 Gabbiano Chianti, Tuscany, Italy

From the winery:

From the oldest oenological tradition, a wine characterized by fruit and freshness, born from Sangiovese and other indigenous red grape varieties. Medium-light-bodied, with juicy tannins and good acidity, this wine easily accompanies many foods.

My tasting notes:

Cherry, blackberry, spice, luke-dry, super smooth

Cabernet Sauvignon: 2019 Piatteli Cabernet Sauvignon, Cafayate Valley, Argentina

From the winery:

From one of the premier grape growing regions in the world, the Cafayate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon entices with bright aromas of red fruits and spices. Deep purple in color with bright aromas of red fruits and spices. A full-bodied and mouth-filling red with smooth tannins, leading to a long and elegant finish.

My tasting notes:

Jammy, concord nose: this wine smells like grape Smucker's. The palette is black cherry, plum, black pepper, allspice, heavy tannins.

Chardonnay: 2022 Milbrandt Chardonnay, Columbia Valley, Washington

From the winery:

Bright aromas of orchard fruit with underlying notes of honeysuckle on the nose. Crisp and bright mouthfeel reminicent of Washington apples. The palate is driven by crisp apple, pear, toasted bread and papaya with good acidity and a touch of citrus on the finish.

My tasting notes:

Pear. pear. pear in the nose. Banana, tropical fruit, maybe butter or toast?

Revelations:

From the beginning we'd intended each cheese to match one wine,  but expectations can be the theft of discovery, so to test our hypothesizes we made sure to try each of the nine possible combinations. Investigation of this kind requires diligent note taking and lively discussion of the merits of each pairing. As to best organize my findings I've elected to call upon the Wine-Cheese Matrix (WCM), a method by which wines and cheeses are placed along the x and y axes respectively. The junction of each represents that unique pairing. My results are laid out below.

The Wine-Cheese Matrix

	Chianti	Cabernet Sauvignon	Chardonnay
Wine notes:	Cherry Blackberry Spice luke-dry Super smooth	Jammy, concord nose. Black cherry Black pepper Allspice Sticky tannins	Pear. pear. pear in the nose. Banana, tropical fruit. Butter or toast?
Asiago: Fatty, umami, salty.	The cheese cuts some of the bite of the Chianti. The savory flavors bounce off each other, making room for others. Great combo.	The Cab Sav overpowers the asiago some. This isn't the perfect match but when the asiago shines through it reaches a good balance.	The light body and the sweetness of the Chardonnay work, but are unlikely friends. Sweet, fruity v. dry salty umami and yet a harmonious deal is brokered. Wow!
Sharp Cheddar: Fruity, Umami	These work pretty well. Somewhere in-between the asiago and the brie. They play nice, the fruity umami tempers the Chianti well and lets the soften notes out of their shell.	The cheddar is the only cheese here that really hold its own against the Cab Sav. It has enough fruity umami to match the black fruit and savory notes and lets some of the wines more evasive spice shine.	I wish I had the restraint I had with the Cab Sav / Brie combo. This was no good.
Brie: Creamy, buttery.	The Chianti overpowers the cream of the brie and the brie make muddles the wines complexities.	I thought it would be an insult to both the brie and the Cab Sav to try them together.	Holy fucking shit. The Chardonnay brings a deep nutty quality out of the brie or vise versa. I can't tell. Still its awesome.

Thank you!

- Josh