Wine & Cheese pairing #1

Wine and Cheese Pairing attempt #1

3 wines:

Robert Mondavi Chardonnay 2023 (California)

Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 (California)

Vinha da Valentine Premium 2021 (Setubal, Portugal)

3 cheeses:

- Asiago

 

- Colby (from a cheese platter)

- Cheddar (from a cheese platter)

Let's get started!

• First on the docket - the Chardonnay
• Initial impressions (pre-cheese): Sweet with hints of apple or pear (or both!).  It had a tart taste and maybe email the smell of lemon if you really thought about it.
• With Asiago: Wow! The sweetness really popped.  The pear flavor was also much more prominent.  Great pairing...!
• With Colby: Yikes... made me think of words like tangy, sour, and even SOAP.  Yuck - avoid this pairing at all costs.  Clash of all the tastes and worst of all worlds.  (This one actually made my wife stop even trying the Chardonnay).
• With Cheddar: much better... Here I tasted candy flavor, not chocolate but other sweet candy flavors.  There was also a softening of the flavors, so the soft pear came through.  After a couple attempts I also started tasting honey.  Sweet and delicious.  This pairing worked.

• Next up - the Cabernet Sauvignon
• Initial impressions (pre-cheese): complex makeup with notes of cherry, currany, and earthiness.  When tasted, we noted a woodsy or mossy flavor.  Also, there was a bit of floral in the taste that we couldn't quite nails down (not roses, but something like that in the background).  The fruit flavor later reminded us of fig and the overall feel of the wine was very smooth.
• With Asiago: Strange dicotomy in this mixture - interesting but kind of sickening.  It was really sweet but with something wrong.  Like a candy with something off.  Hints of sour cherry, but we didn't want to keep experimenting.  It wasn't a pleasant pairing.
• With Colby: Interesting with a smokey flavor.  I liked it, but as a I found out later - it gets better.
• With Cheddar:  Cherry Reese's Pieces.  Not kidding - not sure what got me here, but every time I tried this pairing I landed up Reeses's Pieces with hints of cherry.   Reeses's Pieces might be my favorite candy, so I give this pairing 2 thumbs up!

• Finally - the Portuguese red
• Initial impressions (pre-cheese): chocolate and leather.  My wife said "shoes," but I think she was going for the leathery part and not the stinky feet part.  Also, there were hints of spiciness and dark fruit.  A very complex blend, I'd say.
• With Asiago: Actually delicious with a smoothness to the texture, a subduing of the spiciness and an emphasis on the sweetness we picked up on before.  This pairing worked well.
• With Colby:  Comments were "roller skating rink" and "sap,"  I think the leathery component was emphasized here.  I have good memories of roller skating in junior high school, so it's not a terrible correlation, but we liked Asiago pairing better.
• With Cheddar: The chocolate was still present, but so was "video arcade."  I think the reason "video arcade" popped into my head was the subtle taste of sweaty hands.  It wasn't the best pairing, and luckily it was the end of the tasting and we could revisit some of the better pairings instead!