Wine and Cheese blog #1

My friends and I paired three wines with three kinds of cheese to complete a wine and cheese pairing blog. From left to right, we paired a Cala De Poeti Sangiovese with Vermont goat cheese, a Roche Mazet Cabernet Sauvignon with aged english cheddar, and a Roche Mazet Sauvignon Blanc with Parmigiano Reggiano. We used town house pita crackers and sour cream and onion ritz toasted chips as the crackers with the cheeses. Furthermore, we used a grater, wine cutter, and butterfly wine opener as tools for our wine and cheese tastings. 

The first pairing was the Cala De Poeti Sangiovese with Vermont goat cheese. The Sangiovese was very bold for a table wine. There were hints of fruity notes such as cherry and raspberry. With subtle hints of oak and vanilla that I assume came from the aging process. The wine was not as tannic as I expected it to be, being slightly more on the softer side. There was a jammy nature to it that also brought hints of grapy jelly and plum. We paired this wine with a soft goat cheese from Vermont. The cheese did a great job of pairing with the soft nature of the Sangiovese. There was no outright acidity for the cheese to cut through. The goat cheese had a smooth finish that helped blend the wine into having a smooth finish as well and really brought out the depth of the Sangiovese. 

The second pairing was a Roche Mazet Cabernet Sauvignon with aged English cheddar. The Cab was very dry and had immediate hints of oaky vanilla off the first smell and taste. It has a smooth long finish that allowed me to take in its aftertaste of deep current jammy blackberry. I would say the Cab was much more acidic than it was soft. It was smooth and had noticeable tannins. Moreoever, the aged cheddar brought out the depth and body of the tannins within the wine. This melted through the initial acidity of the Cab and allowed me to take full advantage of the smooth finish of the wine. 

The third pairing was a Roche Mazet Sauvignon Blanc with Parmigiano Reggiano. The Blanc had immediate notes of acidity. We made a slight mistake in that we had the blanc last out of the three, this when the white should have been the first of the three due to saving our palate. The blanc was very dry to begin with. The parm immediately took away the acidity when it was paired. Fighting through the acidity allowed for the notes of apple and pear to bleed through. There was also citrus and lemon that was immediately on the nose.