Out & About Winter 2019

TOP TIPPLES

Head sommelier at The Vineyard hotel and UK sommelier of the year 2019, ROMAIN BOURGER suggests some drink options to accompany the all-important cheeseboard and some choice wines from local suppliers to enhance your Christmas meal

T he festive season is fast approaching, the perfect time to enjoy nights in with friends and family. With this in mind I thought what better to talk about than cheese and beverage pairings? As a typical Frenchman I naturally love my cheese and, of course, cheese and wine even more so. My main tip when pairing would be to try and match the cheese with a local wine. One of the best examples of a perfect pairing is a French goat cheese called Crottin de Chavignol, produced in the same area as wines of Sancerre and they work amazingly together.

blue cheese alongside a 10-year-old Bruichladdich Port Charlotte. To me, the smokiness of the whisky worked incredibly well with the saltiness of the cheese. Another great drink to have with cheese (believe it or not) is beer. There is such a vast selection of different beers available now, making it easier to find the perfect match. If you feel more adventurous, I would suggest a Belgian Geuze. This pairs well with richer, fattier cheeses, due to the beer’s amazing complexity, mouth-watering acidity and sour aftertaste. Geuze is a very particular type of blended Lambic beer, which is fermented through the natural exposure to yeast contained in the atmosphere of the brewery. These beers are referred to as beer of “spontaneous fermentation”.

The reason they pair so well? Sancerre is a white wine with high acidity that cleanses your palate, but also balances the saltiness of the cheese, which, in turn, highlights the fruity notes of the wine. If you are a cheese lover there are also so many different drinks that you can enjoy pairing cheese with. I recently hosted a cheese and whisky masterclass. It was so interesting to see how some of these whiskies matched the cheese. The results were just incredible and so very different compared to wine One of these combinations, which I would highly recommend, was a delicious English

This beer is made from a blend of young (one year old) and old (two and three year old) Lambics that have been matured in oak barrels. The young beer is not fully fermented and therefore, the beer will undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Geuze is normally cloudy in appearance, can be kept up to 20 years and will continue to develop in the bottle as a Champagne would do. Wishing you a Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année. Santé!

Hints and tips for cheese pairings: Goats cheese: For fresh Goats cheese, choose a light and crisp white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc or an English Bacchus. Opt for a richer Riesling if you go for a drier, more aged style of cheese. Fancy a beer? Go for a crisp Pilsner style. Soft cheese: I would recommend either a richer, creamier white wine to match the richness of the cheese or a light red with a bright acidity to offer some contrast. Beer wise, I think that a classic, hoppy IPA would work great and the bitterness from the hop would break through the fattiness of the cheese. Washed rind cheese: These are great with a light red or with a slightly sweet wine such as a late harvest Gewürztraminer. If pairing with whisky, a slightly sweeter style such as Bourbon works wonders. A fruity ale (not too bitter, maybe more on the malty side) or a light bitter would also work well. Hard cheese: Try fruit-driven whisky with a young hard cheese. If you haven’t had the chance to try Japanese whiskies, I would strongly recommend The Chita by Suntory Whisky, especially with a slightly aged cheddar. Blue cheese: A sweeter wine or port is great to balance the high saltiness of the cheese, but a peaty whisky would also do the trick nicely.

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