Wino Wednesday: Wine + Cheese

After a fairly lengthy hiatus due to a plethora of weddings this summer, wine club kicked off fall last week with our first wine and cheese pairing. It was delicious, even though we all felt pretty gluttonous afterward. My cheese offering was gruyere gougieres, a recipe I'll post tomorrow. It's the cheese biscuit you see in the above picture (even though it was definitely supposed to be a cheese puff).

Above, you see colby, muenster and gruyere gougieres.

In this picture, gouda and two types of blue cheese.

And as always, brie.

I brought Columbia Crest's Two Vines Chardonnay, which was a great pairing for the gruyere. The Chard was a little tart, but crisp. It improved after a couple sips, for sure.

Erica taught us a little tip about wine and cheese: Sip the wine first, then have the cheese, which will enhance the flavor rather than overpower it. The key to pairing wine and cheese, she said, was trying to match the strength of the cheese to the strength of the wine, so one didn't totally drown the other out.

We were all pretty big fans of the Mendoza Station Sauvignon Blanc, which we paired with

I love Riesling, and it paired well with gouda cheese. That's a kind of surprising pair, but the sweetness and the savory were a good mix.

This spicy Earth, Zin and Fire Zinfandel was a nice match to mild muenster.

I forgot to take a picture of the champagne we had, but we paired it with colby, which is surprisingly delicious. I didn't take a picture of it, because it's pretty much our wine club favorite, but we also paired Prince Michel Cabernet Franc with blue cheese and OMG that might have been the best match. The strong flavors don't compete, but blend perfectly.

For more tips on pairing wine and cheese, I found this very helpful guide.