Piemonte Wine Cheese Pairings

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Mark Middlebrook, and I'm here in the Paul Marcus Wines Cantina. And in this segment I'm going to talk about Piemonte's cheeses and wines. Or at least Piemonte's wines with cheese. Piemonte is a great region for cheese. And the best in Italy that I've found. There are many regions of Italy that make good cheese, but they'll one or two different kinds. They're often very famous, justly so. Parmigiano Reggiano, things like that. But Piemonte has a real range of cheeses in part because a lot of it is mountainous or high pastures where animals can graze. And you can milk the goats, and the sheep, and the cows and make great cheeses. So you get a real wide variety of cheeses when you're there. And the cheese plates at restaurants or if you're staying at a B & B where they serve you breakfast, often have several kinds of just really amazing cheeses to try. And as you would imagine the wines often go very well together with those things, with the cheeses that come from the area. This is a cheese style from Piemonte called Brunet. From the Alte Langhe, the high Langhe area. They make a number of cheeses in this stock and of a softer cheese that would go, this is a goat's milk cheese. It would go really well with a white wine like Roero Arneis. I wouldn't necessarily, and you might do a young Barbera or that kind of red. But I wouldn't do an important Nebbiolo based wine with that cheese. I don't think it would taste very good with those flavors. But with these lighter, creamier, fresher cheeses, I would aim for a white or maybe a real fresh Barbera. Other hearty cheeses go really well with red wines. This is a sheep's milk cheese, a pecorino. I'm not sure exactly where it's from. But, any sheep's milk or cow's milk cheese has got some aging. Those flavors have developed in the cheese as it ages. Really work nicely with red wines and particularly with the Nebbiolo based wines. If I'm doing sometimes when I want to drink a Barolo or Barbaresco, an important Nebbiolo wine, I'll just have it as a separate course after the main meal. And I'll pour the wine and then I'll bring out even it doesn't have to be a Piemonte's cheese, a piece of parmigiana is a great combination with these great red wines. You want a cheese that's got that kind of hard salty, crystally, character to bring out the best in the wine. So try some of these Piemonte's cheeses. If you have a good cheese monger who brings them in. Taste them and take them home. Try them especially with some of the younger wines. And enjoy."