Menu Matcher - Cheese

The huge variety of flavours that can be found in cheese make it very difficult to generalise when looking for the perfect wine partnership but the one thing to be sure of is that red wine or port are not necessarily the best match. A dry white Sancerre can be lovely with a firm goat's cheese and a sweet but balanced Australian Muscat works terribly well with blue cheese. So be adventurous.

Beaune, 2005 - Domaine Pascal Bouley, Burgundy

A wonderful expression of Beaune; full of ripe strawberry fruit with just a hint of truffly game beginning to show through. There is very good acidity here too which, when married to the gradually softening tannins, will allow the wine to develop well over the medum term. 2002 was a superstar Burgundy vintage for both reds and whites throughout the Côte d'Or. Serve especially with ripe, creamy and somewhat smelly cheeses like Époisses or Vignottes as these kind of cheeses really draw out the Pinot Noir fruitiness.

Churchills Crusted Port, Unfiltered, 2004 - Churchill Graham, Oporto

Churchill's Crusted Port is even closer in style to Vintage Port than their “traditional” LBV. It presents a dense, concentrated wine for far less than the price of a Vintage Port. Crusted Port is a style of wine that was invented by English wine merchants when port was still being shipped in bulk and blended to their specification. It ceased to exist as soon as bulk shipments were stopped. There followed almost a decade before the Portuguese authorities reinstated Crusted port as a special category. Churshill's Crusted Port is made up of the very best wines from two or sometimes three different harvests. It is kept in wood for up to two years and then bottled for further maturation. As this blend is not subject to any fining or filtration it continues to develop and mature in bottle. Given sufficient time, it throws a thick sediment, otherwise called a “Crust” from which it derives its name.