Stumbling into the pairing world... wide eyed.

     I know a lot about cheese, maybe not as much as the big experts who make cheese or run big cheese shops, but I have done my research, read up and played cheese monger at a farmer's market for two years. You'd think with all my experience cutting, slicing, sampling and selling cheese I would know a bit about pairing it with wine, but nope, I had yet to dive into the pairing world, until quite recently.

     I hosted a kick-off party to celebrate QuesoBeso's new relationship with a wine store here in Manhattan Beach. I am now stocking them with American artisan made cheeses that are unavailable anywhere else in the the South Bay of Los Angeles county. Ten cheeses had been chosen as the initial selection for the store and include: 4 chevre, 3 cow, 1 sheep and two with all three milks combined.

     To get wines paired with the cheeses, I asked Joe at Manhattan Fine Wines for help. He went right to work. Some cheeses made the choice of red vs. white wine easy (the Cape Foulweather chevre was begging for a sparkling white). While others really surprised me (Pedrozo Dairy's Peppered Northern Gold with a rose?). By the end of our whirlwind of pairings, Joe had chosen 10 very different wines to go with the 10 very different cheeses.

     For me, the unreal magic of the pairing world came when we arranged the wines into tasting order and placed the cheeses with their matching wines  It wasn't at all what I expected, peppered and mineraly cheddar at the beginning with the whites, a big goat in the middle working up to the mixed milk and truffled sheep cheese? It defied my cheese logic.  But WOW! Was my cheese logic wrong! What's needed is a trust in traditional wine / food pairings, using the flavor profile of the cheese as your guide. I'm convinced that this is a great starting point which will ensure you are on the right track of a great cheese and wine pairing.

     The tasting event was a huge success, everyone was amazed at the synergistic flavor experiences of each of the pairings.  Each on it's own would make a meal more special, choose two or more pairings and they become a cheesy event on their own!

Here is a list of the pairings of wines and cheeses available at Manhattan Fine Wines in Manhattan Beach, CA. The wines are all under $15 per bottle!

Enjoy!

• River's Edge Chevre's: Cape Foulweather & Graham Beck Brut Sparkling (South Africa)
• Pedrozo Dairy, Peppered Northern Gold & Touraine 2011 Rose Val de Loire (France)
• Pedrozo Dairy, Northern Gold & E. Guigal 2009 Cotes du Rhone (France)
• Carr Valley's: Mammoth Cheddar & Pere & Files 2009 White Bourgogne (France)
• River's Edge Chevre's: True Love & La Yunta, 2011 Torrontes (Argentina)
• Carr Valley's: Gran Canaria & Jack Hammer 2011 Pinot Noir (California)
• River's Edge Chevre's: Silt Coos & Tres Picos 2009 Garnacha (Spain)
• Carr Valley's: Caso Bolo & Perrin & Fils 2009 Cotes du Rhone Village (France)
• Soledad Goats "Oh My Goat!" & Masi Capoflorin, 2008 Rosso Del Veronese
• Carr Valley's: Black Sheep Truffle & Oberon 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa)

Cheese Report - Robert Downey Jr.

I worked at the market today. I've been working at the Pacific Palisades Farmer's Market at the Heritage Kitchen booth since January. I work with Edythe Preet selling vintage linens, homemade jams, jellies, pickles, chow-chows and chutneys, fresh baked goods, and CHEESE! I love cheese. I really enjoy spending each Sunday morning displaying, sampling and selling fine artisan made cheeses. What's not to like?
Today I looked up to hand out a sample I had just sliced from the Carr Valley Mobay. It's a sheep and goat cheese with a fine layer of grape vine ash in between the two which creates a beutifully layered wedge when cut. The goat cheese is a pure beautiful white and the sheep half is a buttery yellow. As you can see, I like CHEESE! But I digress. I was sampling the Mobay and as I reached out with the little bit of cheese on a waxed paper square I looked into the eyes of Robert Downey Jr. I stayed calm and sliced more samples and kept handing them out. He asked us which three cheeses we would pick and we steered him to our favorites: Three Sister's Serena and Carr Valley's Snow White Goat Cheddar (which won Best in Show at the 2008 American Cheese Society's annual competition) and Black Truffled Sheep. He sought out our Honeyed Goat Cheese with Blueberries and also picked up some fresh Dinosaur Plum Preserves. He wanted to know what made the Plums Dinosaurs. Edythe, a food historian, explained that Dinosaur Plums are a spotted heirloom variety. He paid for his products and was off. He seemed nice enough. He certainly knew what he wanted... CHEESE!