WI Cheese meets French Wine
Okay, I understand all about the 'terroir' thing - a cheese of a certain origin being matched with a great libation from the same region. But, sometimes, a great friend can live in a completely different place from you. We found that this past week when we sampled Holland Farms Smoked Gouda with a wine from France called Corbieres Col de Vent ( french for neck of wind). This particular wine is a blend of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan grapes. The Carignan grape varietal was the feature of this month's Saveur magazine Special Feature, in a review by David Rosengarten. It comes to us from the south of France, just 60 miles north of the Spanish border in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.
I find it most helpful to smell the wine first. This helps me to identify some of the components before I coat the inside of my mouth with either cheese or a myriad of elements of the wine. The wine by itself is blueberry and raspberry fruit-y from the beginning, and is a medium easy drinking red wine with just hints of spiciness and black pepper. I found the wine to almost have a watery finish - but when paired with the smoked gouda, the spiciness and black pepper enhance and lengthen the effect of the natural smoke flavor!
A number of our customers were pleasantly surprised with the pairing, and took home this bottle of wine with a small piece of the beautiful cheese. Congratulations to Holland Farms Marieke & Rolf and to the Castlemaure folks for a delightful pairing!
Corbieres Col des Vent - $12.00 - 10% off all week at Brick Street Market!
