The Simple Pleasure of Wine & Cheese

Currently in Toronto it’s freezing outside: howling winds, freezing rain alternating with driving snow, sub zero temperatures … in short, the present southern Ontario climes are making venturing outside for tonight’s yoga class very unappealing.

What is winning the vote for how to spend this frigid evening, is wine and cheese on the couch while watching the latest episode of Criminal Minds.

That’s not really a shocker; we’re huge wine and cheese buffs, and it doesn’t take much to coerce us into indulging.  Everything from starting off family dinners to wrapping up business meetings is an occasion for us to break out the cheese board.

Typically we go for about three cheeses per board.  Some will opt for five or even seven, but we find that can get overwhelming.  We like to go for something creamy (like St. Andre, La Sauvagine, Grey Owl or Burrata), something blue ( Blue Haze, Stilton, or Ermite), and something to fill in the gap (this leaves tons of room – Ossau Iraty, Niagara Gold, Beemster, Telaggio … really the possibilities are quite literally endless).

The pros will say bet on one to two ounces of cheese per person, but we like to hoover it back, so we generally put out two to three ounces per person, with more emphasis on the creamier cheeses and less on the blue as that seems to be the preferences of the people we hang out with.

For wines, we generally stick to whites, roses and bubbles, as they’re more versatile with a wider range of cheeses.  Reds, in general, can dominate the flavour of a cheese, especially fuller bodied, tannic reds.  Even though tradition may call for reds with blue cheese or other sharp cheese like cheddar, we often find the tannic structure of the wine wipes out the profile of the cheese — therefore leaving both fairly tasteless and you wasting your money.

What’s really good news, depending on how you look at it, is that over the last few years, major grocery chains like Loblaws and Sobey’s have put obvious effort into their cheese counters, so if you are not close to a cheese monger, you’re not stuck with cubed Cracker Barrel.

While our list of favourite cheese is joyously a continual work in progress, here’s a list of those that are currently in heavy rotation on our boards:

Beemster – A spectacular cows’ milk cheese from the Netherlands, this is a semi-hard, orange cheese with flavours of caramel and nuts.

Burrata – A fresh cows’ milk cheese from Puglia, it’s made from mozzarella curds and fresh cream.  Mild in flavour with a soft texture, we love this spread on fresh baguette with a little Maldon salt.

Blue Haze – A basic Quebec cows’ milk blue, which is magically turned into something smokey and complex once it hits Ontario’s borders.   Actually, local purveyors give it a cold smoking and what results is a rich and flavourful cheese full with a salty/sweet piquancy.

Cave Aged Gruyère – A hard, cows’ milk cheese from Switzerland that has a nutty, earthy taste.

Délices du Bourgogne – A triple crème cows’ milk cheese from Burgundy France.  Covered in a bloomy rind, the white-yellow interior tastes of pure butter with a faint mushroom element.

Ermite – The less pungent baby brother to Bleu Bénédictin, this is a semi soft cows’ milk cheese, with a salty, earthy taste and crumbly texture.

Grey Owl – A tangy goats’ milk cheese from Quebec with flavours of barnyard and lemon.  Covered in a vegetable ash rind, it looks as good as it tastes.

Niagara Gold – A cows’ milk cheese from Niagara, this is a semi-soft Oka-style cheese with nutty, buttery, earthy flavours.

Saint André – A triple crème cows’ milk cheese from Normandy, France.  Rich with 70% butterfat (though you’re probably better off not knowing that), it’s salty and tangy.

Thunder Oak Gouda – From the Thunder Oak Cheese Farm in Thunder Bay, the Schep family make this cows’ milk cheese the same way their relatives make their Gouda back in Holland and Belgium.  Flavours range from fruity and tangy in youth to spice and caramel in more mature cheeses.

Mix and match and have some fun while putting together your next cheese board.  Don’t forget the accoutrements! We like a mixture of olives, a few spreads like hot pepper jelly or onion compote, cornichon and dried fruit.  We also are big into the meats; hot salami, chorizo and csabai (a Hungarian smoked sausage) are tops with us.

Here’s a list of wines we like to pair with cheese.  It’s an ever evolving list, but most of what you see here should be easy to find at the LCBO and fairly inexpensive.

Riesling – What makes Riesling such a perfect pairing for cheese, is what makes it such a perfect pairing for food.  Its high acid content cleanses the palate of fats and gets your mouth ready for the next bite.  Also, its lemon-lime, mineral flavour are a lovely match to many cheeses, from fresh goats’ cheese like Grey Owl, to washed rind cheese like Saint André to hard cheese like Thunder Oak Gouda.
Try: Flat Rock Cellars “Nadja’s Vineyard” Riesling VQA Twenty Mile Bench 2010
$19.95 Vintages 578625
A great example of Ontario Riesling: bracing minerality, zesty lemon-lime notes, canned peach and Granny Smith apple.

Oaked Chardonnay – Because Chard’s are rich with nutty, buttery, toasty flavours these are ideal with cheeses with the same components.  A great match with nutty cheeses like Beemster and Gruyere.
Try: Jackson Triggs Okanagan Estate “SunRock Vineyard” Chardonnay, VQA Okanagan, BC 2008
$17.95 Vintages 249516
Filled with ripe tropical fruit like mango and grilled pineapple, this finishes with butterscotch, vanilla extract and an uplifting mineral note to keep things fresh.

Unoaked Chardonnay – Unoaked Chards have a tendency to lean towards more mineral-steely flavours, with zesty citrus notes.  Just like Rieslings, they pair well with fresh cheese like Burrata to young sheep and goats’ milk cheese like Feta or Pecorino (OK, these cheeses weren’t on our list, but did say the cheese list is constantly changing).
Try: Lailey Unoaked Chardonnay VQA Niagara Peninsula 2010
$16 Vintages 249326
Zesty and fresh with sweet citrus, ripe Bosc pear and lemon meringue.

Rosé – With one foot in white territory and one foot in red, rosés are incredibly versatile.  Blush wines will lend weight to Délices du Bourgogne while lifting the sturdier Ermite.
Try: Domaine des Carteresses Tavel Rosé, Rhône, France 2010
$15.95 Vintages  739474
Coming from the cradle of rosé production, wines from this area tend to more body and depth than their blush counterparts from other areas around the world.  Look for red berries, apricot and sweet citrus notes.

Bubbly – We’re starting to sound like a broken record, but sparkling wine is also very food friendly and therefore a great match with a diverse amount of cheeses.  Depending on how intense the sparkling, bubbles pair well with anything from triple cremes to hard cheese with nutty flavours.
Try: Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava
$14.55 LCBO 216960
Made in the champagne method with flavours of baked apple pie, lemon pudding and hazelnut.