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Mike Tommasi
 
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Default On cheese and wine

On Sun, 05 Oct 2003 15:03:39 GMT, "Nils Gustaf Lindgren"
> wrote:

>Last week-end, the worty cvouple celebrated their 22nd anniversary with,
>amongst other good things, three pieces of cheese watered by a Gewurz VT.


VG, we celebrated our 25th... congratulations!

>The cheeses were a mature chevre, Puligny St Pierre, a medium ripe Epoisse,
>and a Rouquefort. The Gwz went spendidly with the EPoisse, was a good runner
>up to the chevre, and was, ultimately, killed stone dead by the Roquefort,
>it being very salty. As far as I know, the best with the latter would be a
>Port, while the classic with the chevre should be a ... Sancerre?


Sancerre white, of course... ;-)) I think that would be a good choice,
sauvignon works well with goat's cheese. Roquefort and port go wel,
but do try a top Loire sticky, one of those with balls like Poirel's
Chateau de Suronde.

>We
>discussed it with the wine waiter who readily admitted that, really, each
>piece of cheese might be served with its own individual wine.


You knew that already ;-))

>Some accompaniments are apparently classic - Reggiano Parmigiano and
>Amarone, for isntance.
>I would like to hear about your favorites. What do you drink with a
>manchego? An emmenthaler? One of those weird goatīs cheeses from Provence
>packed in chest nut leaves? Etc.


I will not comment on Emmenthaler, but recent tests with some "hors
d'age" comte' with Chateauneuf were impressive, and last year the same
cheese with a really good Vin Jaune from the Jura were stunning.

Banon (weird goat packed in leaves) is a special case, it all depends
on the quality and on the aging of the thing. Since july this cheese
is protected with an AOC, hence all banon made from cow or sheep milk
is banned, as well as any not made in the defined terroir. Assuming
you have the right one, then aging is critical. This cheese, over a 2
week period, goes from a mild creamy gentle taste to an intense spicy
peppery powerful nutty tannic liquid delicious mess.

Young banon goes well with some of the aromatic southern whites like
corsican vermentino or some of the rare interesting Provence whites,
Chateau de Roquefort was magnificent with a 10-day banon. As you turn
the power up, you need to resort to whites with a lot of character. A
"dry" white from Macon, domaine de Bongran, had enough structure and
mellowness to stand up to a 20-day banon. Beyond that we resorted to
some definitely oxidative whites from Roussillon, and the 2-motnh old
monster was adequately subdued by a Rivesaltes Ambre' 93 by Cazes.

Mike