Basic Wine and Cheese Pairings

Filed in archive Food and Wine on May 17, 2008

Wine and cheese are a classic combination, but there are so many different kinds of each, how do you know which ones will complement one another. It's easy if you follow a few basic rules:

Pair wine and cheese of the same region together. A good and simple rule is to pair items from the same part of the world together. A good example is Chianti and Parmesan.

Pair salty with sweet. A salty cheese goes best with a sweet wine. The classic example of this is Stilton with Port.

Pair creamy cheeses with tannic wines. full-bodied red wines go best with creamy, soft-ripening cheese, such as Red Bordeaux with Brie.

Pair acid with acid. This may not be an obvious choice, but it's very good together. An example is Sauvignon Blanc with goat cheese.

Pair rich cheeses with bubbles. Champagne and other sparkling wines go well with rich cheeses, like the French port de salut or chevre.

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