Wine and cheese pairing

Wine & Cheese: #1!!!

On Monday, October 8th, five friends and I decided to have a wine and cheese pairing, which was a much needed break from studying in one super stressful week. My friend Gaby is from Dallas and was able to go to Tom Thumb before she came home from the weekend and got us six bottles of wine with a few discounts, and we were able to save $52 and actually get pretty decent wines for pretty cheap. Our friend Emily went to sprouts and got brie, gouda, and goat cheese to pair with a few of the wines we got, I got some crackers and salami, and by that time we were ready to go!

The three wines we used were:

- La Crema chardonnay, 2016 from Montery

-The Velvet Devil merlot, 2015 from Washington State

-Laroque cabernet franc, 2017 from Citê de Carcassonne

(here are some pictures of the bottles)

We were told that brie would go best with the chardonnay, the gouda would go best with the merlot, and and the goat would go best with the cabernet franc. so we put them all together on a board with all the food, and boy did it look yummy!!

We started out with the chardonnay, since it was the lightest wine. I love a good chardonnay, and this one was amazing. It is from Monterey, California, so I was expecting it to be more oaky than fruity, and that is exactly what it was. It was super buttery and oaky with hints of toasted vanilla and some citrus/ tropical fruits. It was very smooth and paired with the brie was amazing. The brie was very mild in flavor and super creamy, which seemed to bring out more of the fruity flavors in the wine, but I'm kind of wondering if there would be a better cheese to go with the chardonnay. 

From the Chardonnay we went on to the Merlot, which was amazing as well. I used to only like white wines, but now red is really growing on me, and I was happy to figure out that I loved this merlot. When I initially smelled it, it seemed very fruity. I smelled a lot of berries like strawberries, as well as pineapple, and some darker fruits like cherries as well. It was not the driest wine I've ever tasted (which I liked, I'm still learning to like the tannic components of wine) and I tasted a lot of what I smelled, however it was a ~little~ more spicy to taste than what I was able to smell. The acidity seemed to be a little higher for a red wine, and a liiiiitttle on the sweet side as well. Gouda is one of my favorite cheeses as well, so I really enjoyed this combination. The flavor of gouda is definitely stronger than the brie and a little bit more hard, which I think went very well will the seemingly opposite flavors of the wine. The flavors definitely complimented each other very well, much better than the chardonnay and brie in my opinion.

After the merlot we moved onto the cabernet franc. Before I smelled the cab I was wondering if I would be able to tell a huge difference between it and the merlot, and boyyyy was I wrong. It took the  smallest sniff to tell the differences between the merlot and the cab. The cab didn't even smell sweet whatsoever. It smelled very earthy and woody; like burnt wood or cigars, and very spicy as well. I got a lot of smells and tastes of different peppers and other spices, and very tannic. Not my favorite wine by itself, but paired with the goat cheese was wonderful. The creaminess of the goat cheese really cut the dryness of the wine and brought out a little more fruity flavors like cherry or plum (just a little, but it was there for sure). 

After I tried all three wines, and paired them each with the cheeses, I decided to pour myself another glass of chardonnay and eat a little more gouda (not necessarily to have them together, I just really liked them both) and I actually really liked the combination. 

Doing this pairing was super fun, I am beyond excited to do it all again!