Wine and Cheese Taste Pairing Report 1
For the first wine and cheese pairing report, my friends Gavin, Drew and Clay got together for some wine, cheese and cured meats.
Our wine selections were the Juggernaut Cabernet Sauvignon and the Rascal Pinot Noir. First off, I'm going to review the Juggernaut wine and how it paired with the different cheeses.
The Juggernaut Cabernet Sauvignon hails from California and has a 14.5% ABV. The wine had a very strong scent that hit me hard on my first whiff. I swirled the wine more and the second whiff provided a much more subtle earthly scent. The first taste was subtle, but has the aftertaste came in it ended up being a very sweet taste. I paired this cabernet with both Gouda and Parmesan cheese. The saltiness of the Parmesan was a great pair to match with sharp and sweet flavor of the wine. It worked very well in counter balancing each others flavors. The Gouda was another great match as well. The Gouda retained some of the saltiness that the Parmesan had, but added an extra depth of flavor that was present due to its dry aged status.
The Rascal Pinot Noir is made in Chile and was the lower ABV wine of the night coming in at 13%. The scent and taste of the Pinot Noir was both strong and fruity. The cheeses I paired this with were a Fontina cheese and a North Sea cheese. The fontina cheese I was not a fan of. Although I like mozzarella cheese, the fontina texture reminded me too much of string cheese which almost distracted from the wine taste as I attempted to pair them. The North Sea Cheese was much more complex of a cheese and proved to be both very tasteful on it's own and paired with the Pinot Noir. It had a mixed flavor profile that blended both sweetness and saltiness that meshed very well with the sharp fruity taste of the noir.
Below are photos attached of the different wines and the cheese and meat spread.
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