Just say cheese! Great wine and cheese pairings

If you’re like us and you love cheese, today is your day! Cheese Lovers Day is coming soon on 20th January.

Here at Decántalo, both we and our wines love cheese. If you’re a die-hard cheese fan, here are 5 pairings for you to celebrate this day in style. And remember, as they say, “Wine and cheese tastes like a kiss”

5 delicious cheese and wine pairings

Idiazábal cheese and Txakolí

Idiazábal is a cheese from the Basque Country and Navarra that is made exclusively with sheep’s milk. This cheese is compact, with intense aromas and light smoky notes. Its flavour is consistent, with medium saltiness and with a certain grainy texture. It leaves a delicious and persistent taste in the mouth. You can’t go wrong by pairing it with its star partner: txakoli, like this Txomin Etxaniz Rosado that provides a very interesting regional pairing. This wine has a low alcohol content, it is fresh and usually has a subtle presence of carbon, which all makes it the perfect accompaniment to the smoky essence of the cheeses and a great way to refresh and cleanse the palate from its characteristic creaminess.

Brie cheese and Champagne

This French soft cheese is made with cow’s milk and is covered by a characteristic layer of mould that is also edible. Originally from the Brie region, the Brie de Meaux is one of the most famous cheeses.

Creamy and soft cheeses, which tend to leave a layer of protein and fat on the palate, are best paired with a fresh wine with balanced acidity that can act as a natural cleanser. 

An ideal option would be to enjoy a cheese like brie with the Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve champagne. Its elegant bubbles and balanced acidity go wonderfully with the thick creaminess of these kinds of cheeses and create an exquisite contrast. 

Comté cheese and Oloroso

Comté is made with cow’s milk and is one of the best known and most popular cheeses. It has a great aromatic richness with floral aromas and fruity flavours in the summer, and aromas of walnuts in winter.

One of its star pairings is, obviously, with wines from the Jura region, its birthplace, but since you probably already know about this combination, here is a perhaps more surprising suggestion.

Try Comté cheese with a good dry Oloroso wine like Oloroso Don Nuño. Both share aromas of walnuts, they are mature and the touch of sweetness in the cheese contributes to the Oloroso being soft, pleasant and very sensual.

Stilton cheese and Port

There are two varieties of this cheese, but the best known is the English blue stilton. It is made with cow’s milk that is fermented with Penicillium cultures, which is what gives it those beautiful greenish-blue streaks. It is an intense and creamy cheese. On the palate it offers sweet flavours first, and then more spicy undertones accompanied by aromas of nuts. 

If you’re someone who doesn’t dare try blue cheeses, why not try it with a Port wine. We would recommend Graham’s 10 Year Old Tawny Port, a mature and sweet fortified wine with touches of nuts that go perfectly with stilton cheese, alongside some ripe fruit, figs and honey. We promise you’ll want to keep going back for more!

Manchego cheese and red wine

Manchego is one of the most famous Spanish cheeses around the world. It is made with milk from La Mancha sheep, in Castilla La Mancha, and this cheese has a buttery texture, slight elasticity and a grainy texture. It has aromas of nuts, with a slightly acidic flavour and a touch of sweetness or spice in the more mature cheeses.

If you prefer to open a red wine with your cheeses, manchego is a great option because it pairs very well with wines like Italian Chianti, mature red wines from Bordeaux and Rioja wines like Viña Ardanza, a red that is full of flavour and pleasant acidity. On the palate this wine has highly polished tannins and an elegant structure that goes perfectly with smoked and cured cheeses.

Fortunately, there are as many cheeses and wines as there are surnames in the world. Choose your favourite cheeses and we will help with the wines. Here at Decántalo, you will find a wide variety of options to create the most seductive and surprising pairings to celebrate #CheeseLoversDay whenever you feel like it.