Wine & Cheese Catch-Up

Nath and I had a wine and cheese date about a month ago (?), but the pictures didn’t really turn out and we weren’t super excited about any of the cheeses so I haven’t been that motivated to post. I’m going to anyhow just so we don’t forget.

I do not know why some of the pictures are green, some are orange and some are super white 🙄

Picking out our glasses:

Our table all set (with the flash):
 

And without the flash:

The names of the cheeses we ate:

And pictures of the cheeses:

And the wine:

Everything gets a “2” rating.

Again – sorry about the crap pictures. Better next time!

Solstice Celebration

Ok Solstice weekend…

We ended up getting a wine we had tried over a year ago that we remembered liking. Not as good as we remember but still excellent. It was such a beautiful warm day we decided to sit outside again. We also got 4 cheeses since 2 of them were really small. We usually do not recommend getting 4 cheeses ever, as it always turns out to be too overwhelming.

Cheese 1: Frommagio Di Fossa L’Antica Cascina (pasteurized Sheep’s Milk, $30/lb): chalky and crumbly in texture, mild yet pungent. Slightly animal but not overwhelmingly so. Makes the wine sharper and more citrus. = 3

Cheese 2: Tomme Coarse Raw Milk Taravu (Unpasteurized goat milk, $21/lb): crumbly and very goaty, flavor was contained, primitive and salty – turns the wine into a cool fruity juice. Doesn’t present a lot of flavors, just goat, animal and salt. = 3

Cheese 3: Pourtalet Bascobernais (Raw Cow’s Milk, $19/lb). Tasty but very salty. almost makes it taste smoked. salt is overpowering- smooth and semi-soft texture. Some animal and butter flavor near the rind, but salt is way too overpowering. = 1

Cheese 4: Terre Des Volcans Bleu D’Auvergne: (Thermalized Cow’s Milk, $14/lb) Delicate, creamy, chewy blue. Middle is pretty sweet, and it gets saltier and animalier toward the edges. Tastes refined. Very long lasting finish. It makes the wine dark and jammy black cherry, but Nathan thought it made the wine taste like nothing but anise/black licorice. = 3

Wine: 9 Points, Stag’s Leap, Napa Valley 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.4% ($33 on sale for $20)
Very very leggy and thick, remaining on glass for minutes after swirl dark smell
Indestructibly smooth no matter what cheese was eaten. Soft tannins, very long smooth finish. Light fresh tobacco and dark, black cherry with undertones of dried apricot. No sharpness whatsoever. When holding in mouth there is the sense of orange peel. = 3

I thought this mold looked fascinating. I’ve never seen anything like it on a cheese – bright orange! Needless to say we didn’t try it!

Everything laid out…

The Wine…

Nathan Pouring…

With the garden right behind us we both got distracted at the end with all the weeds growing (bad us for not weeding!)

More distractions 😉

And we’re done…

First Official W&C Entry

With pictures and everything!

It was a beautiful day out so we decided to eat outside. Here’s what we ate:

Wine and Cheese 5-26-08

· Cheese #1: Goat Brunet. Rating: 3
Very goaty like La Tur but bitter sharp aftertaste. Pretty strong, but not animaly. Smooth texture like cream cheese. Very flavorful.

· Cheese #2: Arda Gasna w/ Espelette. Rating: 1
Tasted like bland pepperjack cheese. Was good with truffle oil, but nothing special

· Cheese #3: Comte Fort St. Antoine Special Selection. Rating: 3
Nothing like we’ve ever had before. Huge Mouthful of mushroom, dirt, and swiss. Huge flavors. Intense, but not salty or creamy. Very interesting. Semi hard cheese.

· Wine #1: Vila Hud G1 Spain 2006 100% Garnacha. Rating: 1 or 2
Too fruity for our tastes. Raspberry. VERY tanniny.

· Wine #2: Luzon Humilla Spain 2006. Rating: 3
Really drinkable. Fairly smooth. Some fruit. Not especially challenging or layered, but would make a perfect everyday table wine.

dfHere adding truffle oil onto a piece of cheese. Oh yeah, we’re crazy about truffle oil since discovering it and use any excuse to put it on our food. Although warning – it does not go with everything.

f

Backtracking

We just decided to make a blog about all the wine and cheese we eat, and have been keeping notes on our Mac, so this first post will be really boring (no pictures). And there’s a whole bunch of Wine & Cheese nights we didn’t log or make notes for. So here goes:

Wine & Cheese #1

· St Agur Cheese c/w (blue) = 3
very creamy, flavorful, excellent!

· Delice de bourgogne cheese c/w = 3

· Goat cheese w/ herbes fines

herbs, not cheese made it excellent

· Wine: Chariot (tj’s) = 3

Wine & Cheese #2

· Morbier a.o.c raw milk les trois comtois = 2
mild, flavorful, mildly stinky

· Goat crottin de champcol = 3
deep flavors, not sharp

· Smoky blue rogue creamery = 2
smoky but not outstanding

· Taleggio ciresa = 2
(very stinky/organic/animal) but extremely mild

· Wine: 2003 chateau les quatre filles; rochegude = 3
let it air! Flavor developed over time from very mild/dry to almost fruity but always very earthy.

Wine and Cheese #3

· La Tur alta langha cow sheep goat mix,
very creamy, super soft, moreso than butter delicate flavor =3

· Rogue River Blue blue cheese from oregon
-grainy, salty, good with apples =3

· Robusto-parmesian-cultured gouda-
excellent, complex, good solo, worked really well with the wine =3

· Wine:  Zenato Valpolicella 2003
-italy, let air for at least a half hour-subtle flavor fruit flavors without sweetness some earthy undertones =2

Wine & Cheese #4

· La Tur alta langha cow sheep goat mix
-see above

· Gouda Roomkaas Double Cream
-semi-soft/creamy subtle flavors = 3

· Blue Point Reyes Original Raw Milk
-semi-soft/crumbly. tart, not too salty (for a blue). lighter in flavor than the rogue river. pairs excellently with braeburn apple = 3

· Rodney Strong 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon = 3
-excellent! shorter airing time. very dry, musky, musty, chocolatey, with dark heavy fruit flavors (cherry, cassis?), tannins taste present lots of body/personality. went well with all cheeses.

Wine and Cheese #5

· Goat Blue
Mild for a blue, very goaty, fairly smooth (ie not grainy, pretty creamy, not crumbly)
Went well with the wine-brought out flavors, made wine taste deeper and thicker and richer =3

· Cirius camembert mt townsend creamery=2

· Petit basque sheep istara
must be ROOM TEMPERATURE!  very animaly, stinky, but not overwhelming or nauseating. 
semi-hard, MILD, but flavorful.  Went well with wine. =3

· Wine: Brampton, 2003 shiraz
needs to air 45 minutes!  smokey, earthy, muted, undertones of berries. Great for now until we find something better.=3

Wine and Cheese# 6

· Ron D. Bio french organic camembert=1  too mild not even good for berries.

· Blue Roaring ’40’s australian=3 very complex, smokey and strong, very nutty, like a very strong blue gouda.  unlike any other blue to date.  We loved it, and brought out striking flavors in the wine

· Gouda Goat Arina=2 also very good, delicious. lighter than the robusto, slightly creamy, salty but not too, strong goat and gouda flavor combined fantastic

· Wine #1 The Wolftrap Syrah cinsault mourvedre viognier2005 south africa=3! very good, complex changing flavor depending on cheese, very earthy, very smokey, extremely flavorful.  Impressive, we were pleased.

· Alternative substitute: Indaba Pinotage 2005=3 tastes similar to above wine, however some cheesy flavors sometimes.

Wine and Cheese #7

· Brie Fromage D’Affinois Herb Garlic = 1 too mild. garlic overpowering. couldn’t tase cheese. gave cheese a plasticy taste. rind tasted ok.

· Gouda Gold Chevre Legendairy = 2 good – not great for a gouda. we like our gouda’s to be richer and nuttier, riper. fairly hard cheese. made us want to try more hard cheeses

· Stilton Colston Basset Neals Yard Dairy = 3 very mild for a blue but with complex and subtle flavors. good but not excellent.

· Erath 2005 Pinot Noir, Oregon = 1 watery, even after airing. no subtelty or complex flavors. didn’t like it. even the cheese didn’t bring out any flavors.

WHEW! Ok – that’s the last post without any pictures, but I hope you enjoyed it anyhow 🙂

Hello Fellow Foodies :-)

We have Wine & Cheese nights every Sunday we can manage – they’re our date nights <3. We LOVE LOVE LOVE wine and cheese! And we love writing about it. So while you’re reading our “critiques” here’s a guide to our “grading system”:

1 = wouldn’t buy it again

2 = would buy it again but we’ve had better

3 = would definitely buy it again – we loved it

Simple enough, right? Of course we always elaborate on all ratings – there’s nothing we love more than to opine 😉