For this pairing blog, my friend and I tried three cheeses: Red Apple Cheese Smoked Gruyere, Vermont Creamery Goat Cheese (Wild blueberry, lemon & thyme), and Shullsburg Creamery Artisan Red Wax Hooped Mild Cheddar. We paired the Smoked Gruyere with a Barefoot Riesling, the Goat Cheese with a Bota Box Sauvignon Blanc, and the Mild Cheddar with a Crane Lake Petite Sirah.
Cheeses (left to right): Smoked Gruyere, Goat Cheese, Mild Cheddar
We started with the Riesling and Smoked Gruyere. The wine by itself was one of my favorites for a sweet, light white wine. It was refreshing and had fruity notes of orange and pear, and we could taste honey. It also had some floral notes. I would rate this pairing a 7/10. It was great, the cheese and wine tasted good alone and together, but I felt like the sweetness of the wine overpowered the cheese just a little bit. They did complement each other, though, and I probably would try this again. I think it would be better if the Gruyere were drier. I don't know if cheese is described like that, but it made sense when I was writing my notes. With the Goat Cheese, I felt like it didn't pair well because both the cheese and wine were really sweet and had honey flavors, so it created an overwhelming sweet flavor, and the texture of the cheese felt really buttery when I tried it, which I wasn't a fan of. When I tried it with the Mild Cheddar, it wasn't bad, but I felt like there wasn't a lot going on. Even when paired, it felt like I was trying both separately? Overall, this pairing just confused my taste buds, and I don't think any white wine would pair well with that cheddar.
Barefoot Riesling
Next, we tried this Sauvignon Blanc and Goat Cheese. The wine by itself was pretty refreshing, not very sweet, acidic, and had notes of pear or apple (it was kind of difficult to tell, the wine had very subtle flavors and almost tasted watered down). This was also my first time trying goat cheese, and I feel like it might be more of an acquired taste. It tasted very sour to me, and I didn't really like it on its own. However, with the Sauvignon Blanc, it took away the sourness and was actually really good! The intensity of the cheese was brought down, and the sweetness of it came out and paired well with the acidity of the wine. It made the wine more refreshing, and I think both tasted better together than on their own. With the Smoked Gruyere, I rated it a 6.5/10. It wasn't a bad pairing, but it definitely wasn't "meant to be" like the goat cheese and this wine. I felt like it made the cheese taste creamier, which, honestly, I didn't particularly enjoy. When paired with the Mild Cheddar, it tasted terrible. It made it taste extremely acidic and not flavorful at all. I think the "sour" taste in both the wine and this cheese clashed and made both taste bad.
Bota Box Sauvignon Blanc
The last pairing we tried was the Petite Sirah and Mild Cheddar. The wine by itself was a bit "strong" tasting for me, and was very dry with fruity notes of tart cherry and blueberry. It also had a hint of spiciness (like peppers?). When I tried it with the cheese, the intensity of the cheese made the wine taste sweeter and paired well with the pepper taste. I definitely enjoyed this wine more when it was paired with the cheddar. I thought that this cheese would have a sweeter, maybe nutty flavor because that is how it was described online, but I felt like it was actually a bit salty. When we tried the wine with the Smoked Gruyere, it was okay. It wasn't great, but the nuttiness of this cheese was what I was looking for in the cheddar, and I felt like it paired well at first, but had a bad aftertaste. I also felt like there wasn't a lot going on with this pairing, like I couldn't feel the flavors interacting a lot, but it wasn't bad. With the Goat Cheese, the wine tasted more acidic, almost, and I think it didn't pair great with the overwhelming sweetness of the cheese. I didn't really enjoy this sweet and sour pairing very much, and it was my least favorite out of these three.
Us and our Crane Lake Petite Sirah
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