Archive for May, 2011

We can’t live on liquor alone, but we can have the best of both worlds by pairing it with food—and the most glorious pairing? Spirits and cheese, of course. It can make for some surprising and mind blowing combinations.

The goal when pairing spirits and cheese isn’t to be stringent about complementary flavors. Rather, take a chance by pairing less likely options. For example, the tart, tangy and mild character of a good American goat cheese perfectly pairs with an unaged American whiskey. The alcohol content of a whiskey slices through the rich, dry texture of the goat cheese, enhancing its citrus favors. Similarly, a powerful, smoky and peaty single malt from Islay may give the impression that it would dominate in flavor, yet when paired with a sweet-style Blue cheese, it leaves a savory finish that seems to last for hours. A paprika washed rind cheese from Spain can easily highlight some of the softer notes of a briny, salty, single malt from the Islands of Scotland.

When traveling the dessert route, match up a brittle, crystallized chunk of aged Gouda with rich Bourbon. The butterscotch, caramel and other sweet notes of the Bourbon will infuse your palate with the flavors of a delicious bread pudding.

While pairing spirits with cheese may appear a daunting task, you’ll never learn unless you practise. Invite friends over, put out a cheese plate and open some bottles of spirits. If the pairings really don’t work, try again. You can never have enough spirits or cheese.

The great chocolate and wine debate – love it or hate it – rages every time a chocolate holiday arrives (which should rightfully be every holiday and then some.)

Luckily, German chocolatier Eberhardt Schell thinks he has the answer – even with milk chocolate.  Schell conducted extensive pairings during the annual Prowein wine trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany. Schell’s chocolates are from Gundelsheim, Germany but any reasonably good chocolate will work.

After extensive tasting, I can report that Riesling with Umami Papua milk chocolate and Lemberger (Blaufränkisch) with 70 percent cocoa dark chocolate from Tonga are great successes. Vintage Port with 70 percent chocolate from São Tomé is a more moderate partnership. I am sorry to report that Cabernet Sauvignon and chocolate is still a pairing best avoided.

Chocolate lovers also gravitated to the Symington Family Estates, the Portugal’s largest Port producers. The Symingtons are test marketing Nirvana, a dry, dark style of Reserve Port specially blended by Symington winemaker Charles Symington to go with 70 percent dark chocolate. The arduous research for this new Port, expected to be launched later this year under the Dow’s brand, was undertaken by Guido Francone, Belgium’s top sommelier, and that country’s University of Leuven.

Producers around the world are listening to consumers who like to eat and drink. There were scores of food and wine pairings around the show. The Alsace wine trade organization presented a mouth-watering combination of Crémant d’Alsace and finger food with “Wine and Spices”, while “East meets West” was a stimulating tasting area involving various versions of Japanese sake and European cheeses.

Outside the trade show, more than 30 restaurants, hotels and wine retailers in Düsseldorf offered tasting sessions, special menus, cooking classes and parties as part of “Prowein goes City”.

With over 3,600 exhibitors from 50 countries spread over six vast halls and over 38,000 visitors, Prowein 2011 “brings the supply and demand sides of the wine and spirits market together at an international level in a uniquely professional atmosphere,” said Hans Werner Reinhard, Deputy Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf, the show’s organizer. This annual event in Germany is now well established as a major business date on the wine trade’s calendar.

Meanwhile if you want to test chocolate and wine pairings at home, Cocoa-rich European chocolates are available in many specialty stores. And lovers of a Hershey bar need not despair. Pair it with medium dry wines such as Vouvray from the Loire in France or a California Riesling. Controversy solved? Well, perhaps just another taste to make sure.

The second (and last) full day of Hospice du Rhône led off with a seminar on Roussillon, moderated by writer Patrick Comiskey. His messianic introduction was followed by some terrific wines that were evidently new to many of the attendees–there was a healthy buzz in the room immediately afterwards, and it spilled all the way over into the beginning of lunch some 90 minutes later.

Interestingly, two of the wineries represented on the panel had roots in the nothern Rhône: Domaine Le Roc des Anges (Marjorie Gallet) and Domaine Madeloc (Pierre Gaillard and his daughter Elise). Also showing wines and describing their unique terroirs were Jean-Roger Clavet of Domaine Thunevin-Calvet and Hervé Bizeul of Domaine Clos des Fées.

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