For this pairing I was joined with my girlfriend, Sydney, close friends JT and Lydia as well as my mom (who is a big fan of the class!). Sydney and JT are also in the class and we all have had a blast learning all about wine together.
Now onto the wine and cheese!
For the wine we chose a non-vintage Brut Opera Prima sparkling wine to start. Next was a non-vintage Woodbridge Sauvignon Blanc from Acampo, California. Our final wine was a 2021 Angeline Pinot Noir from Sonoma, CA.
For the cheeses we had a smorgasbord to choose from but I went with pepper jack (bottom left of 1st photo) to pair with the sparkling, raclette (middle of board) to go with the sauvignon blanc, and brie (top right of board) to pair with the pinot noir. I have never had the raclette cheese before, but I have had pepper jack and brie.
Notes on the pairings:
For the Brut I found it to not be very balanced with a very strong acidity right from the first taste and staying for the majority of the experience. It is a Brut, which is known to be a dry wine, so with that in mind I understood that it was going to be dry but wow it was extremely dry! The finish was on the shorter side with the experience ending about 15 seconds after tasting. For the aroma I had trouble getting lots of smells from it, but a did get a faint amount of light fruity like citrus.
When I paired it with the pepper jack I found it to completely enhance the wine. It paired very well with the wine as it brought out the flavors of the wine especially by removing that sharp acidity that I first experienced. The pepper jack also had a bit of spice that did mask some of the flavors of the wine. With the wine being sparkling it almost popped up the cheese from my palate and really mixed with the wine well.
Next up was the Woodbridge Sauvignon Blanc. Without the cheese I found it to not be too dry and have a very light body. I do think it did not have a great balance, with the acidity being brutal for the first half of the tasting. The finish was very long and not in a good way. I was able to pick up notes of apple and possibly a floral aroma but did not enjoy the wine by itself.
However, when I paired it with the raclette it made it such a better experience! The acidity was completely cancelled out and allowed me to truly get a taste of the wine. I thought that the wine and cheese balanced each other very well as one did not overpower the other. The cheese did have a greater effect of the wine than vice versa, but this wasn't a bad thing as I thought the wine needed a little help.
Finally we had the Pinot Noir. This was my favorite wine out of the three with it not being dry with an even balance and a medium finish. The initial taste was somewhat sweet when compared to the previous wines and very berry forward. I picked up notes of raspberry and a little licorice. The finish was warm and the wine definitely had plenty of tannins.
With the brie the tannins were no more. This allowed for the berries to come forward in the wine and allow for me to find what berries specifically were there. Brie is a very strong cheese with this one being no exception and the wine did mellow out the intensity of it. This allowed the cheese to be more of smooth creamy experience on the palate.
This was a great time and being able to laugh, discuss, and (most importantly) drink wine with family and friends will be a highlight of my semester!!
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