Wine and Cheese #2

On Wednesday night I went to Blu for my wine and cheese pairing. We ordered the cheese board and a flight of the Big is Beautiful. From left to right it was Alexander Valley Merlot, Schild Estate Shiraz, and Poppy Cabernet. The Merlot was very tannic on its own with tastes of dark cherries. The Shiraz was probably my least favorite, it didn't have a lot of flavor to it. Lastly, the Cabernet was rich and smooth with hints of cherries and pepper.


Our cheese board consisted of Gorgonzola (Back), Irish Cheddar (Middle), and Mozzarella (Front). I first tried the Merlot with the mozzarella, on its own the mozzarella had almost no flavor, there was fresh pepper on it and that was pretty much where all the flavor came from. The merlot did enhance this cheese, really just the pepper flavor, however the cheese was very smooth and silky so that was a decent pairing with this wine. However, I do think that this wine overpowered the mozzarella. I then tried the Irish cheddar with the merlot and I think this was a great pairing, they were both equally powerful, in a way I think the wine brought out the sharpness of the cheese, and the cheese brought out the tannic structure of the wine. The gorgonzola was my least favorite cheese, I paired it with the merlot and I think it brought down the quality of the wine. It left a bitter taste in my mouth after I swallowed the wine.
I then moved onto the shiraz, I paired it with the gorgonzola, and after drinking a sip the shiraz began to taste like wet dog, it made it way worse, and I don't think this pairing worked at all. I paired the shiraz with the mozzarella and the wine enhanced the flavors of the cheese, but ultimately the mozzarella doesn't have a lot of flavors so I think that any wine could overpower this cheese. After this one I tried the Irish cheddar with the shiraz, this cheese overpowered the wine. It was too sharp to pair with this wine, but it was my favorite cheese so it didn't make the pairing too terrible.

When I finished my shiraz, all that was left was the Cabernet, to start the pairing I went with mozzarella, they actually went really well together. I think that they each sort of complimented each other. The cabernet and the gorgonzola was next, and I feel like if I liked this cheese it would have paired well together. It wasn't super overpowering on either end, but after I got the taste of the gorgonzola in my mouth it kind of ruined the pairing for me. My last pairing was the Irish cheddar and this cab, and I think that is was a great pairing. The cab went down even smoother after eating the cheese. The sharpness from this cheese was a fantastic compliment to the cab. I honestly couldn't get enough of this pairing!And of course, as you can see from the empty wine glasses I really enjoyed this pairing!