Salt, acidity & texture
- Salt in cheese can soften perceived tannin and make a wine’s fruit more apparent.
- Fresh acidity can lighten a creamy mouthfeel by contrast; it does not remove fat.
- Test the overall pairing with the guest.
Food & wine
Food & wine pairing
Cheese & wine
4 / 4Cheese families
- Brie de Meaux is soft with a bloomy rind; Munster is soft with a washed rind.
- Comté is cooked pressed cheese; Saint-Nectaire is uncooked pressed cheese.
- Raw-milk Comté still has cooked curd: raw describes the milk, while cooked describes heating the curd.
- Roquefort’s blue-green veining develops inside the cheese through Penicillium roqueforti.
Maturity, echo & contrast
- Reassess intensity and aromas as cheese matures, without prescribing a wine colour.
- Aged Comté and Vin Jaune offer an example of echoing nutty notes, with intensity and persistence that can match.
- Their shared regional origin is a starting point to test.
- Wine sweetness and salt in blue cheese instead illustrate contrasting sensations.
Goat’s cheese & Brie
- With plain, delicate, tangy fresh goat’s cheese, try a crisp, dry, unoaked Sauvignon Blanc: matching acidity and light-to-medium body.
- With creamy, moderately intense Brie, a reasonably full Champagne brut can offer freshness and weight.
- Check that the wine preserves the cheese’s delicacy.
Munster & Saint-Nectaire
- For soft, intense Munster, a full-bodied, slightly sweet Alsace Gewurztraminer can provide aromatic intensity and weight; check the wine’s sweetness and the guest’s preferences.
- With moderately intense Saint-Nectaire, try a fruity Gamay with fine tannins to preserve flavour, or a medium-bodied dry Chardonnay to accompany texture and hazelnut notes.
Blue cheese & a mixed board
- If the guest enjoys sweet wines, Sauternes with Roquefort and Port with Blue Stilton are examples: sweetness against salt and enough intensity beside blue cheese.
- For a board of fresh goat’s cheese, Brie, aged Comté and a little Roquefort, a fresh, expressive, slightly sweet Riesling is one possible compromise: acidity for goat’s cheese and Brie, sweetness against salt.
- Roquefort may nevertheless overpower it.
Pair with the complete preparation, then the guest's taste.