Kirstin says Ciao for now!

posted by Kirstin in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers, Food

This post marks my last contribution to the Snooth blog. Time is getting away from me and in order to catch up with it, I’m going to set it free and see if it returns. I love you all, but as even the shortest blogs can take obsessive writers the longest time to write (I know, surprise!), I’m downsizing in hopes that I will be more capable of focusing on other areas of my life.

Such as the cheese and wine book I’m writing. Or contemplating writing. Or saying that I’m writing so that I can get a tax write-off on cheese and wine.

In closing, for my last post, I want to invite Snooth bloggers to visit me at my blog, Vindelatable.blogspot.com. I’ll be there, writing about the glories, silliness and deliciousness of wine and food pairings. Please visit.

But more than that, I’d like to officially invite you all to join me in a monthly event that I will be hosting on Vindelatable.blogspot.com. I’m kicking off a blogging event called Making Cheese and Drinking Wine, set to post on the last Friday of every month, starting November. Every month, I’m going to pick a recipe for a cheese or dairy good from The Home Creamery book, by Kathy Farfell-Kingsley, and participants can join me in making the recipe. After making the recipe (here’s the Vin de la Table hook), participants pair their unique creation with a wine of their choice.

There are no limitations. A said Jane Doe could focus entirely on pairing the fresh cheese with a delicious wine, or could whip the cheese into a lasagna, pair it with Larkmead Firebelle, or make a cheesecake with it and pair it with a sparkling muscat, or arrange the cheese so it spells out “I Love Vin de la Table”, and then pair it with a Didier Dagneau Sauvignon Blanc. Whatever she desires.

The original post with more details proclaiming the event can be found here: http://vindelatable.blogspot.com/2008/09/home-creamery-event-making-cheese.html . I’ll announce the first recipe mid-November (because I’ll be in Italy for the first two weeks- first time!!!!!!). I hope to see some of you there and will expect to be sent cheese samples, Fed-Ex, overnight, by all of you.

Thank you for reading my writing, leaving comments, and for writing posts yourselves that will inspire me to come back to Snooth long after I’ve left.

Cheers,
Kirstin

Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.

Top Food and Wine Pairings

posted by Kirstin in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers, Food

Inspired by John of Loxton Cellars, who posted his ten top wines of all time if money was no object recently, I am putting together by own list of top wine and foods pairings that I’ve experienced. Lately. Except, I’m going the Hi-Fidelity route, i.e., half-assing it and choosing my top five experiences. It’s tough trying to pick amongst your babies. I love none of you any less.

1.    Tomatoes and Wine

Maybe this pushes my list to six, but I couldn’t choose between a young Burgundy that I had with Zachary’s deep dish, sausage and pepperoni pizza, and Barbara and tomatoes, any way, any day. Way to go, high acidity, meaty wines and sweet tomatoes and cheese.

My favorite Burgundy for pizza pairing:
2005 Perrot-Minot Bourgogne Rouge “Vielles Vines”
http://vindelatable.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-to-do-with-young-burgundy.html

My notes on pairing Barbera with Tomatoes:
http://blog.snooth.com/2008/07/22/barbera-and-tomato/

2.    Herbed Aioli and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

I admit that a grassy, guava-bomb is not always my cup of tea, but with an herbaceous olive oil and garlic emulsion, few things are better than a spunky New Zealand sauvie.

A step-by-step herbed aioli recipe included on my blog, Vin de la Table, and the somewhat reserved Sauvignon Blanc that I choose to accompany this luscious sauce:
http://vindelatable.blogspot.com/2008/08/herbed-aioli-step-by-step-roasted.html

3.    Crottin de Chavignol and Sancerre, Chavignol

Regional cheese and wine pairings always have a special place in my heart, and those that originated in France’s Loire Valley top my list. In the following link I reveal my Chavignol and Sancerre dreams (a Sancerre from the tiny Chavignol appellation naturally edged it’s way in), but I’m nearly just as happy when sipping other cheese and wine matches from the same region.

The cheese and wine suggestions:
http://blog.snooth.com/2008/04/15/crottin-de-chavignol-cheese-its-wine-friends/

4.    Sparkling Wine and Potato Chips

High acidity, bubbling wine and crispy, salt-studded fried potatoes? Oh my god. Enough said. From Champagne to Lambrusco, I support bubbles and fat. Check out some serious research:
http://vindelatable.blogspot.com/2008/07/potato-chips-and-sparkling-wine-k-i-s-s.html

5.    Chenin Blanc and Almost Anything, Especially Spicy Anythings

Chenin Blanc is a magic grape. Like it’s aromatic friend Riesling, it comes in many shapes, flavors, sugar and mineral levels, and in ranging acidities, all perfect for pouring into my glass. In all the ranges it comes, Chenin Blanc just might be my favorite white for food and wine pairing. Except for all of the others, of course.

An ode to Chenin Blanc (Three of my top Chenins listed):
http://vindelatable.blogspot.com/2008/01/you-say-party-i-say-chenin-blanc.html

I just realized that this top five is nearly all white. Hmm… I may have to go for ten next time and make sure that reds don’t feel left out.

What are some of your top pairings of all times?

Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.

Barbera and Tomato

posted by Kirstin in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers

As old and fabled of a pairing as bacon and eggs or Adam and Eve, Barbera and tomatoes hardly need an introduction.

But I feel like cooing, so here goes.

While tomatoes aren’t as extensively utilized in Piedmont cooking, the region where Barbera thrives, as they are in say in Bologna, Sicily, or Tuscany, you can be sure that they are often on the table together. This is when the magic happens.

Now, just like with other grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay, there are many ways to make the wine called Barbera. Some expressions are oakier, richer, and riper. In general, these are styles of Barbera that are good with food, but in my opinion are best generally utilized as as a cocktail wines.

The traditional style of Barbera, on the other hand, is fermented, lower-oak goodness that puckers lips and leaves one searching the room for something to cut the high acidity, like a slice of butter. This is the type of Barbera that we’re looking for. These are the Barberas that live for tomatoes.

Barbera is a high acidity Piedmontese grape with a juicy cherry, strawberry, and often tar-like touch. A tomato is a fruit-vegetable (hereafter referred to as a freg) with sweet overtones and a high acidity bite. This pairing is a classic case of matching like to like. Although it might sound somewhat asinine to pair a freg known for its acidity with a wine also known for the same (maybe it sounds as silly as the first time you use brown and white sugar in a cookie recipe, for example), it works amazingly well.

Case in point:
Zachary’s deep-dish spinach and mushroom pizza with Borgogno Barbera D’Alba.

Zachary’s deep-dish is known around the SF Bay Area and exists as a topic of conversation in Chicago for its crispy, buttery crust, that’s jam-packed with oozing layers of mozzarella and massive amounts of tomatoes. It’s so tomatolicious, in fact, that some pizza purists insist that it is more casserole than a true pizza. Whatever. It’s the best and only thing really worth ordering on their menu that inspires sure-bet bliss. And its better heated in the oven the next day.

My point is, anyhow, that it is the tomatoes that makes this pizza such a perfect match for the grape.

If a tomato ever seemed sweet to you, just wait until you try it with Barbera. This is when our freg friend transforms to tomato candy. The high acidity in the gape emphasizes all hints of sugar in the freg, but it doesn’t make the tomato too sweet so that the wine tastes metallic or sour. And the tomato returns the favor for the wine, twelve-fold. It transforms this tart little grape into a complete table pleasure.

But that’s just my opinion. Try it with an overlaoaded deep-dish near you.

Do you have any favorite tomato wines?

Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.

Introducing the UC Berkeley Food and Wine Archives

posted by Kirstin in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers

My next post promises to dive into that not-so-elusive yet expansive realm of food and wine pairing, but before that post comes into fruition, I wanted to direct your attention to a very special food and wine project.

I discovered this project while researching at Cal, where in the depths of the UC Berkeley Regional Oral History Office, next to the Civil Rights interview shelf and above the Rosie the Riveter interview folders, is the UC Berkeley Food and Wine Archives. This department, funded primarily through philanthropic donors such as Chuck Williams of Williams and Sonoma, records and transcribes interviews with THE movers and shakers in the San Francisco Bay Area food and wine world. Needless to say, these shelves are overflowing.

Just some wine interviewees include, for example: Ernest Gallo, Miljenko Grgich, Justin Meyer of Silver Oak, Robert Mondavi, Maynard A Amerine, Joseph E Heitz, Merry Edwards, and Paul Draper. Many include insights on the 1973 Paris Tasting. Just some of the people interviewed in the food realm include: Mary Risley of Tante Marie Cooking School, Cecilia Chiang of Mandarin, Chuck Williams, and (sigh…) food writer Doris Muscatine.

Unlike journalistic interviews, when the interviewees voice shines only when the journalist allows it, these interviews are rarely edited. Granted, this can make for a very long read- we learn about the person’s background, childhood, and their extensive path to wine and food, however, while long, these oral histories are detailed, telling, and amazingly interesting. Depending on whose interviews you select to read, you might even get a dirty joke or two out of the journey (hello Mary Risely of Tante Marie Cooking School).

Most conveniently, all of the aforementioned interviews can be downloaded online at either of these two following web addresses, and all other interviews are available in hard copy through the University.

WINE: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/food_wine/wine.html
FOOD: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/food_wine/food.html

I was fortunate enough to interview some of the movers and shakers and transcribe others in which I was not otherwise involved, and consider myself very lucky. I learned so much! As you Snoothers are wine and food lovers, I’m sure that all of you will enjoy exploring this important historical project that at great lengths poignantly examines the world of food and wine.

Let me know what you think.

Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.

Chocolate and Wine?

posted by Kirstin in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers

While its rumored that the gods (Zeus in particular) devoured chocolate and wine every hour, on the hour, I’ve never been a huge fan of the combo. In fact, it wasn’t until recently that I relatively enjoyed the two in the same bite. The countless other times I tried them as one, the acid was off, the chocolate was too sweet for the wine, or the wine was too full of itself to submit to the chocolate.

Then I had a Madiran and chocolate together. Mainly Tannat based, the Madiran had the stuff to lull the chocolate into submission. Dark and creamy, the chocolate was a sucker for the wine. Fierce and strong-headed, the tannic wine coated the chocolate from the harsh outside world (my tongue).

Since then, I’ve had a few other wines that I’ve liked with chocolate. The other was a big Cahors, also from Southwest France, but Malbec, instead of Tannat based. For the life of me, I can’t remember the other one, but I know that it was not a California Cab or Merlot, like what so many suggest is the best pairing with cocoa.

So in preparation of my weekly post on my wine and food pairing blog, my question is, what are the best chocolate pairings that you’ve had? The worst? And please, don’t just give me pairing suggestions that you’ve heard tastes good. I want to hear what you’ve liked and what made you want to throw the chocolate out of the window (but close to the house still so that you can claim it and eat it after your fit).

I’m asking because most of my wine and chocolate consuming pairing attempts have been failures, and with chocolate, I want happy conquests.

Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.

Lacrima

posted by Kirstin in Wine, Guest Bloggers, Food

After a blind(folded) tasting, no one debating whether Lacrima’s delicious or complex. It’s clear by this point that it’s one hell of a grape. Rather the question is, what color is Lacrima?

Swirl it around in the glass, and it evokes scents normally devoted to Gewürztraminer. Lychee. Roses. Swirl the glass again and the orange blossom and peach scents released will convince you that you’re drinking muscato. Suddenly, you detect the pungent scent of dried strawberries. Then, actually sipping the wine provides you with floral notes, berry rich acidity and… light tannins?

Translating to tear in Italian, the red grape Lacrima is an ancient varietal indigenous to the Marche region of Italy. It’s traditionally produced in the “governo Toscano” method, which is a second fermentation most often including the must of dried or partially dried Lacrima grapes. Some Lacrimas also go through carbonic maceration.

After fermentation, Lacrima is treated like any other red wine, consumed in Italy, and some are sent to the rest of wine drinking world. Once it arrives in the new world, however, few know what to do with it on the dinner table. With characteristics ranging from rose and orange blossom to peach and dried strawberries, the grape does not
immediatelydirect itself to one particular food.

Without such direction, I would do one of a few of things.

1. Drink it with fresh chevre or mildly aged goat cheese. The Lacrima would bring out the fresh lemony and floral nature of the vibrant cheese and the chevre would know to leave well enough alone and let Lacrima be the star.

2. Sip the Lacrima with a crisp, roast chicken. Simple, and juicy on both the food and wine end.

3. Enjoy the wine with a cooked tomato dish with lighter meats like pork, veal, or chicken, or fresh fish. Herbs like rosemary and sage won’t compete with the floral flavors in the wine with fish or light meat or poultry.

4. Go the distance with artisan salamis. Fennel salami, sopresetta, coppa, drooling,……The juicy, bright acidity wine would highlight the luscious fattiness in the meat..

Even if you haven’t tasted Lacrima, as I hadn’t a month ago, what would you imagine eating it with?

Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.

Crottin de Chavignol Cheese & it’s Wine Friends

posted by Kirstin in Wine, Guest Bloggers, Food

The dear Crottin de Chavignol, which first saw the light of day in the 16th century, was named “animal poop” or “dung” in honor of its similarity in size and shape to French horsey droppings.

That is how you know it’s good. Because, unlike the American dish, “shit on a shingle” that is fortunately served in even rarer instances than its distant cousin, green jello with canned fruit and mayo, people all over the world still eat this cheese.

To make this Crottin, cheesemakers take the whole milk of the famed goats in the area and ladle the smooth liquid into its tiny molds. The milk stays in the mold from twelve to twenty-four hours, where it starts to take it’s “Crottin-like” shape. The wrinkled, rippled surface develops on the cheese after it’s removed from the mold, salted and ripened from 10-12 days in a dry environment.

Fresh or fully mature, le Crottin de Chavignol exists in multiple forms that can soothe the dairy pains of many a particular cheese-eater. At different stages in its life, it seems to morph into entirely different types of cheese. Ranging from white and butter-colored when young to gray or off blue when older, and it’s texture respectively alternating from crumbly and lush to thick and hard enough to employ as a door knocker when one’s knuckles grow weary, le Crottin is a shape shifter.

With bright, herbaceous and lemony flavors, le Crottin can be enjoyed shortly after its creation as a spreadable or melting cheese . It is white or slightly yellow now, and soft and crumbly. One of the favorite ways to eat this Crottin young is warmed over toasted bread in a Chevre Chaud Salad in Parisian bistros. Later, as it matures-
sometimes as soon as a month or so after it arrives in the U.S., it develops a firmer texture that allows the cheese to be grated or sliced. This is the time to Introduce this Crottin “of a certain age” grated over gnocchi, or sliced atop artisan salumi with tarragon in a crusty baguette.

When young, le Crottin screams for a Sancerre, or other bright, fresh Sauvignon Blancs. But at this early stage it really pairs well with anything. As it ages, try it with another wine from the Loire Valley, where the cheese is made. Try it with a Cabernet Franc- the red grape of the region, or with a Chenin Blanc from Vouvray. Another good match is a Grenanche based wine. Fair warning: when young, notre petit Crottin can stand up to a Pinot Noir, but when it ages, it becomes a tad to strong for the delicate grape.

Next time: possibly another adventure in really specific cheese and wine pairing.

Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.

Salads and Wines

posted by Kirstin in Wine, Guest Bloggers, Food

Someone, lets say it was one of the Hiltons because they are known to do odd things, once spread the word that salads do not pair well with wines. I know, horrible. But even worse was that some of us, not knowing that one of the Hiltons recently called West Africa a country or that the same one sometimes forgets about underpants, believed that there was a holy truth to this statement.

The horror.

Please allow me the honor of defalsifying the former accusation; Salads can be wonderful with wine.

The statement that salads can be hard to pair with wines does have some foundation, don’t get me wrong. Vinaigrettes, after all can be pains to match, as the acidity levels in the vinegar can just make a wine feel funny. With reds especially, they tend to remind them of their former salad days when they were this close from becoming vinegar if they made a wrong decision in their fermenting path. And this embarrasses them.

However, with a little love, a salad can grow up to be a fine pairing for wine. Here are some hints:

1. Make a salad dressing with a light vinegar. Stay away from recipes insisting that you use all balsamic. Balsamic is too harsh for wines. If you need to use balsamic for some reason, mix it with a wine-themed vinegar, like mucat or champagne to tame it’s bitter finish.

2. Use vinegars made from wine grapes or named after a wine growing regions (a.k.a “Champagne”). They are gentler on the palate, less acidic, and can easily snuggle up to their wine friends with a little olive-oil coaxing.

3. Skip vinegar all together and use lemon juice or another citrus fruit for the acid. Citrus fruit doesn’t feel like it’s in competition with wine. Rather, it aims at highlighting any citrus in the wine.

4. Drink Gruner Vetliner and other whites without oak with your salad. Wood and vinegar and letttuce, come on, does that even sound good?

5. If you are drinking reds with your salad, drink a higher acidity red with bright fruit, light tannins and very little oak (see # 4), like a Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley. Do not drink Cabernet Sauvignon with your salad. It will not taste good. It has too much oak and tannins to sweet talk a salad.

What do you drink with your salads?

Birthday Bash Wines

posted by Kirstin in Wine, Guest Bloggers, Food

To celebrate my husband’s most recent birthday, we invited my cousin and her man over to our place for exuberant bash for four. And by exuberant I mean that there was tons of food and wine and that I added chocolate chips to a cupcake recipe that didn’t call for it for dessert. This post is the wine and food pairing story of that night.

The food (albeit the Oreo cupcakes) was mainly Thai and Vietnamese inspired, but cooked by a very Scandinavian-American girl -me. The wines were all Spanish. The dinner menu starred my version of the carrot, cucumber, bell-pepper and light fish-sauce salad often served atop cold Vietnamese rice noodle dishes. Also sharing the stage were lime, honey and chili marinated skewered shrimp, and grilled flank steak served over wide rice noodles in a spicey, kaffir lime, lemongrass Thai inspired coconut sauce.

I choose Spanish wines for this Birthday Bash for three reasons. One, they were reasonably priced and my excellent foresight told me that we’d consume from two to three bottles between us friends. Two, because I’m enamored with Spanish wines (especially the whites, sparklings and rosés) and was selfishly catering to my happiness even on my husband’s birthday night. Three, I chose Spanish wines for the menu because they can be awesome matches for Vietnamese and Thai spices and flavors and seafood.

I popped our first wine while waiting for our guests. Our invitees claimed not to be huge fans of white wine, so I took it upon myself to thwart their past experiences by unleashing an Albarino. Albarinos are meant to charm. They’re from the Galacian coast of Spain and classically paired with seafood at Spanish tapas bars. With their apple, peachy, lime and sometimes floral scents, they’re instant pleaser’s. Furthermore, they’ve got enough going on in the glass that they can handle a little spice. Each dish I prepared for the dinner had lime juice, zest, or leaf mixed in, which I thought would play up the lime streak and cozy up to crisp and stoney fruits in the wine. Worked well. We sipped this while I put the finishing touches on the salad and headed to the BBQ to cook the shrimp and flank steak. Then we opened the Super Wine of the night.

My only firm and fast wine rule for a celebration such as a birthday, anniversary, or Christmas, is that something sparkling must be included amongst the wine entourage. Birthdays just don’t happen without bubbles. The bubbles don’t have to be big, but they have to be present.

Such reasoning led to the second wine that we drank that night- a Txakolina Rose from Spain. This was my favorite. It was luscious, oh so pink, peachy and rasberry-ie and tart and slightly. Txakolina (shock-oh-lee-nah) is the name of a Basque, Spanish wine made traditionally with the Hondarribi Zuri and Hondarribi Beltza grapes. They’re meant to drinken within a year or two after bottling, and will be, because you just can’t help yourself. Most Txakolinas aren’t Roses, but are just as enchanting as the pink bottle that we poured that night. Their pear, tart apple and lime flavors compete for attention with the tiny, spritzy bubbles that fill the glass. And bubbles go with almost anything, even egg breakfast sandwiches. They snuggled up to the coconut milk and spicy shrimp, and even handled the marbling in the rich flank steak. I looovvee this wine only slightly less than my man.

Towards the end of the night we slipped a light cheapy-but-goody Spanish Grenache on the table. Just in case someone wanted a little red with the flank steak. Spanish Grenaches (Garnachas) can be pretty dark and heady, but ours that night was a lighter style, with blackberry, stoney scents. And I didn’t just serve it because it was also left over from our wedding wine, I served it because Garnachas are great red wines for spicy foods. They’re spicy themselves, and the pepper streak in the grape can handle a chile or two.

Finally, we ended our night with a Birthday dessert request of cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips topped with cream cheese frosting and crushed Oreos. Muddlers are great Oreo crushers. It was a fantastic end for the night. My cousin and I ate two, and the guys ate three each. And I was just going to prepare a half dozen.

Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.

“Reds for Cheeses: Meeting Demand with Suggestions”

posted by Kirstin in Wine, Guest Bloggers, Food

Despite the fact that white wines are ridiculously easier to pair with cheese than reds, some people still refuse to go walk on the light side even when they break out their cheese board.

“I don’t like white,” they say, wrinkling their noses. Well, I often find these people annoying because its quite clear that they just haven’t hand the RIGHT white (yes, I also think that I’m the right person to find it for them), I can’t be too upset because I too used to be a hater.

Even though I have long realized my wrongs and apologized to the Trebbianos, the Sauvignon Blancs, the Rieslings of the world, some people are not at that point.

In honor of people who haven’t yet found the light-hued wine that touches their heart, this post is about finding them a red to pair with cheeses that seemingly prefer whites.

Why do most cheeses generally fair better with whites?

Whether it’s the tannins, the heaver body, or the difference in flavors in reds that leads to the red-cheese conflict, I’m not entirely sure. I tell myself a story that its the scents and flavors in the wine that make the difference- that the apple, pear, quince, or light fig flavors in white wine, for example, naturally taste better with cheese than the blackberry, strawberry or raspberry, chocolate or tar flavors often found in reds. It’s possible. I’d rather have an apple with cheese than a raspberry.

Whatever the reason, the combination of red wine and cheese can taste off. Bitter, overly salty, astringent, or more gym sock-like than mass-produced, grated “Parmesan.” This isn’t good.

Here are two ways to find a red for your cheese:

1. If the cheese is European, what do people of the region from which the cheese comes sip with that cheese? In the Loire Valley, people drink their local wines, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, or Chenin Blanc with their local cheeses. They’re smart, those guys, they make sure that their local wines pair well their local foods. I firmly believe that if they didn’t, the towns would run the cheese or winemakers out of the region.If you have the wine you’re enjoying that night in your hand, walk into the cheese shop and tell them you want dairy deliciousness from the Loire Valley. Or, switch it up and walk into a wine shop with a Loire Valley cheese. A good cheesemonger or wine salesperson will meet your needs.

2. Choose a Rhone Valley wine from France or a Rhone-blend. Grenache, Syrah, and Mouvedre, the main grapes of a Rhone blend, are a god-send to red-heads. Anything from Chateauneuf-du-Pape to Cote du Rhone, to a Minervois Rhone-inspired blend will do. The spicy, earthy, meaty, peppery flavors gracing the wines snuggle up to familiar tastes in the cheeses without bringing out the “animal” scents in say, an aged, funky sheep’s cheese. Sometimes these Rhone blends even have aromas of mushroom that matches the savory flavors in the more pungent cheeses.

3. Sometimes, just sometimes, a thick, super fruity, low alcohol Zinfandel with a touch of residual sugar can cozy up to a ripe cheese like no other wine. The concentrated, heavier bodied lush wine essentially caresses the cheese into wine pairing submission.

4. Get to like whites! Start with a dry Riesling, Viognier, or another aromatic white. I’ve heard that they’re delicious with cheese.

What do you pair with your cheeses?

Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.