About Wine & Cheese Pairing

Series Summary

Wine is made from the fermentation of grape juice and is made all over the world. Archaeologists believe wine was first created in Ancient Sumer, what is now Georgia and Iran. It was introduced into Europe by the Greeks over 5000 years ago and carried on into cultural and religious history by it being the representation of the blood of Christ given by Jesus at the Last Supper. Besides being an important part of the Eucharist, red wine plays an important role in fine dining cuisine all over the world and carries with it a unique personality and heritage.

We have all heard of it- cheese and wine make excellent partners for one another. Due to cheese's hight fat and wine's tannin, the two can compliment each other in remarkable ways. However, if you are just beginning your wine and cheese pairing knowledge, it can be difficult to even know where to start. Luckily, with the help of Expert Village, our expert, Jane Nickles, shows you how to pair cheese and wine. Learn how to pair all kinds of cheeses with wine: soft, semi-firm, firm, cheddar, and more! With her help, you can host your very own cheese and wine pairing party!

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Jane Nickles and I'm going to talk to you about wine and cheese pairing. Wine and cheese pairing is a huge subject so I've broken it down by the types of cheese. We know that there's lots of types of wine out there, but there's probably about a dozen different varieties of categories of cheese that we can classify. Wine and cheese goes great together, that's probably why you go to wine and cheese parties. The thing about cheese is it's got nice high levels of fat and protein which will smooth over the acidity or tannen in just about any wine. So in general, wine and cheese is a really good match. But cheese has a lot of different properties to it also. Some cheeses are very soft and very high in acid, and some cheeses have a lot of salt to them. Some cheeses have mild, nutty flavors. Some cheeses have rich, earthy flavors. And some cheeses like blue cheese or Roquefort cheeses even have high levels of bitterness in them. All of these different tastes and flavors in the textures and the cheese will have an impact on what type of wine that it pairs up with. So wine and cheese do go well together, but there's a lot of intricacies to know, and I'm going to tell you about the types of cheeses and the best types of wine for each of them, so if you're going to have a wine and cheese match, they'll be sure to make a good one."