Cheese and wine pairing session at Nantucket Wine Festival

This session under a large tent behind the White Elephant Hotel was led by Lauren Collins and Louis Risoli. Lauren is wine director at L'Espalier in Boston and Louis is maitre d'hotel at L'Espalier and a cheese expert. The format was fun. Participants had large servings of four cheeses on the plate and four glasses of different wines. We were to taste each wine with the first cheese, then with the second cheese, etc. and rate the pairings from negative 2 to plus 2. The audience reached some consensus on the worst pairings but sometimes differed by one to two points on other pairings--my +1 might be a neutral zero or a negative 1 for someone else.

The cheeses were Moses Sleeper (cow cheese) Jasper Hill Farm, Greensboro, VT; Lake's Edge (goat cheese) Blue Ledge Farm, Salisbury, VT; Maxx Extra (cow cheese) Canton Thurgau, Switzerland; and Bayley Hazen (cow cheese) Jasper Hill Farm, Greensboro, VT. The Bayley Hazen was the only cheese I had had previously.

The wines were the 2004 Billecart Salmon "Extra Brut" Champagne, the 2012 Christian Moreau Chablis, 2011 Frog's Leap Zinfandel from Napa Valley, and 2008 Dow's Late Bottled Vintage Port.

Mr. Risoli offered some facts about the dairy farms and the methods of cheese making. He explained how some of the Alpine cheeses deliver a nutty flavor.

Overall, I had the most favorable pairings with the Moses Sleeper cheese--+2 with both the Chablis and the Zinfandel, +1 with the Champagne and a negative 1 with the Port. I had no negative ratings with the Bayley Hazen cheese from the same farm--+1 with both the Chablis and the Zinfandel and a neutral 0 with the Champagne and the Port (not a terrible pairing but the cheese didn't enhance the wine and vice versa.) For me the worst pairing was the Maxx Extra from Switzerland with the Zinfandel. I liked the cheese by itself but didn't think it paired that well with any of the wines; probably the Chablis pairing was the least offputting. The Port, IMHO, paired best with the Lake's Edge goat cheese (I loved this cheese with an ash rind.) Zinfandel was chosen as the red wine for pairing because it is acidic but doesn't have a lot of tannins.

I enjoyed this session but all that cheese did decrease my appetite for dinner and I ended up ordering no appetizer, no dessert and only eating half of my trout entree.

Thanks for sharing, it sounds like a lot of fun and something I would have certainly enjoyed myself.

Lauren is a really fine sommelier, she's taken good care of us a number of times over the years. A link to a short interview with her if you're interested:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/top-lists/ask-a-boston-sommelier-lespalier-wine-director-lauren-collins/

-Michael

Thanks for the link, Michael. Glad to see her interest in wines from the Sonoma Coast as this has become something of a focus for me lately as well. I would buy more Burgundies if I had an unlimited budget, but find Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast more affordable.

I would buy more Burgundies if I had an unlimited budget, but find Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast more affordable.

When I started teaching wine classes 12 years ago my standard caveat was "Burgundy is a mine field", you pay your money and you take your chances. But today there has been a huge improvement, for several reasons. First, the young people have taken over, and they want to drive Audis and BMWs. Unlike their parents (father for the most part), they don't smoke, they have all been to university, and most have worked elsewhere (California, Bordeaux, etc.) and most importantly they taste each others wine. Their parents, for the most part, didn't even visit the adjacent village.
In addition to this, they have been blessed with a mostly wonderful (thanks to global warming) climate. Burgundy has become a beautiful region for the sophomoric wine lover to dip his/her toe into one of the most enchanting wine regions of the world. But you must do some homework. The structure that this beautiful region provides accrues only to those with the patience to study and appreciate their somewhat arcane classification system. It is well worth the effort. Particularly today, with good Bourgogne available for $12-$20. But is does require some work. Persevere!

Richard, it also has to do with what is available locally. The selection of inexpensive Burgundies is very limited within easy driving distance. The California wines can be shipped directly from the winery and I am on several mailing lists. In addition, retail shops like Taylor's Wine Shop in North Raleigh carry some good Pinots from California and Oregon. (Love their logo which I have on a wine tote bag: Fine Wine and Live Bait.) For a good Burgundy selection I might have to go as far as Charlotte.