TA Blind Tasting #4 was held Sunday, September 10, 4:00pm at TA headquarters in Sacramento. The goal of this tasting event was to provide tasters arrays of four wines and four cheeses, allow them to experiment with different pairings, and record their impressions of those pairings. Overall, I am trying to move away from treating participants as aspiring wine critics, and toward supporting Talented Amateurs trying to develop their palates and knowledge of wines.

That said, I did not give up the blind tasting approach. I still believe that for TA’s like me and most of my subscribers, not seeing the label or price tag helps us to focus solely what we are smelling and tasting.

The Set-up

The tasting consisted of an array of four totally different wines, and four cheeses, so a total of 16 possible pairings. The task for the tasters to experiment with as many of the 16 possible pairings as they desired. Tasters were provided with a sheet for writing any notes they cared to record, record any guesses about what they were tasting, and to use the simple TA scoring system to evaluate the wine/cheese pairings.

The Wines & Cheeses

The wines were all from the TA cellar, but all (or their equivalents) were widely available. The port was a minor exception–I had been gifted the bottle years ago, and I am simply out of the habit of drinking port, so I was happy to liberate it at this tasting. More current releases of non-vintage Croft (as well as several others) are easy to find. The array of wines was assembled to include several “classic” wine/cheese pairings, and to give the participating tasters a chance to compare and contrast the wines.

The cheeses were all purchased at local markets, and are widely available. The array was assembled to cover a range of fresh to aged, and light to heavy flavors, and cover some of the classic pairings with the wines in the tasting.

Tasting Results

Tasters were tasked with scoring the wine/cheese pairings they tried, using the simple TA scoring system: 1-“Meh”; 2-“OK”; 3-“Enjoyable”; 4-“Very Good”; 5-“Outstanding”; 6-“Stunner”. Space was provided to score the wines and cheeses separately, too, but the only task assigned to the tasters was to score the pairings. Enough tasters scored the wines separately, and those scores are provided, below, too.

The higher scores fell along the traditional or classic pairings: sauvignon blanc + chevre, brie + chablis, manchego + rioja, and port + stilton. I had a minor concern about biasing the scores by identifying those classic pairings, both in guidance sent out prior to the tasting, and in the scoresheets. Overall, I think the tasting was a bit more productive in terms of learning, though, and lots of people tried, and liked, non-classic pairings. Also, some tasters just liked (or did not like) stilton, the strongest-flavored cheese in the flight. Same for port, both lovers and haters were in the mix, and the scores of tasters reflect that.

The Rioja in the wine flight was quite popular. The vintage in the tasting was bought three years ago and cellared. But, the 2018 vintage of the same wine is currently avaiable at Corti Bros. for $22. It is a reliable producer, and a great value.

Takeaways

I am a bit out of my depth in providing an analysis of the results on pairings, and this tasting clearly only scratched the surface of a very deep topic. That said, there are patterns worth paying attention to:

• Young, bright wines with medium-or-above acidity (like the sauvignon blanc in this tasting) pair well with fresh, tart cheeses (like chevre in this tasting). I think the acidity also helps to cut some of the chalkiness of the chevre. Sauvignon blanc paired with chevre scored really well, but not paired with any of the other three cheeses–I thought that was interesting.
  • Other pairings like this: albariño, pinot grigio, muscadet, etc. paired with feta, fresh mozzarella, etc.
• Creamy, nuttier/earthier flavored cheeses (like the brie in this tasting) pair well with slightly richer, but still crisp, white wines (like the chablis in this tasting).
  • Other pairings like this: dry chenin blanc or lighter/drier reisling, paired with camembert or even a milder, creamy, blue-veined cheese like cambazola.
• Bolder, fruitier red wines with a bit of tannin in them (like the Rioja in this tasting) pair well with aged, medium-hard cheeses (like manchego). Cheeses lose a lot of water as they age, concentrating both the fat in the and the flavor–the tannin and bolder flavor of Rioja stands up to that well.
  • Other pairings like this: zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, etc., paired with aged cheddar, gouda, gruyère, comté, etc.
• Strong-flavored, sweeter wines (like the port in this tasting) pair well with strong-flavored, veined cheeses (like the stilton in this tasting). The sweetness if a big part of this, it is a great contrast to the saltiness of the cheese.
  • Other pairings like this: sauternes, sweeter/later harvest reislings paired with gorgonzola, roquefort, etc.

A couple of takeaways for me:

• I would like to get some dessert wines back onto my household’s menu. The fruit and cheese course served as a dessert with port, sauterne, or late harvest reisling, is one way to do this. I generally do not finish 750ml bottles of port, but 375ml bottles are a good option.
• I tend to do my wine and cheese shopping in a silo-ed sort of way, picking up a cheese I like, and a wine a like, but not thinking that much about the pairing. Will be giving that a bit more intentional thought moving forward.
• Will probably do another one of these wine and cheese pairing events, with a different array of wines and cheeses, in the near future.