Me and my parents decided to go to Dominion Wine and Beer located in Falls Church, Va to do this wine and cheese pairing. I wanted to put in the menu to show just how awesome this place is first off, and also to show our selection choices despite this amazing menu. Also, they did not give me pictures of the cheeses so this is to also show the types of cheese because it came as a pretty charcuterie board. We chose Fromage D'Affinois Brie which is described on the menu as from France, Cow's milk, Triple Cream, buttery, which if you ask me Triple Cream Brie is the best brie out there and you can argue with a wall haha. Then, we got the Vermont Creamery Goat Cheese which is described as mild and creamy. Our last cheese was Mitica Manchego which is from Spain, sheep's milk semi-firm, light, and buttery.
From the wines, we chose Chardonnay The Calling Dutton Ranch 21-CA, Sauvignon Blanc, Frenzy 22- New Zealand, and Pinot Grigio Il Vince 22 from Italy. We decided to stick with all whites just to get a good comparison of how each cheese would pair or not pair. I thought it would be more beneficial to stick with all the same colors of wine, plus I am a sucker for white wine and wanted to try more of them.
Here are the wines in the bottles from Left to Right: Sauvignon Blanc Pinot Grigio, and Chardonnay.
Here are the wines by the glass from left to right: the Chardonnay, the Sauvignon Blanc, and the Pinot Grigio. Also, there is my dad featured in the picture.
here are two good pictures of the charcuterie because the more the merrier, but the cheeses are Brie most far left, then the Goat cheese which is to the right of the brie in two ball forms, and then the Manchego is spread across the board in triangles.
Now onto the nuts and bolts of this assignment:
Let's start with the Pinot Grigio, the Pinot Grigio Il Vince 22 from Italy on its own was very light and tasted like apricots and bright green leaves with some honeysuckle undertones. The acidity made it very light and almost refreshing tasting. Tasted very florally almost like a bouquet of flowers. With the brie, I did not like it at all because it made the wine way too acidic. The brie has some bite to it and when paired with the pinot grigio the buttery aspect of the cheese went away and the acidity of the wine shot up way too high for my liking. On the other hand, the manchego with the pinot grigio was one of my absolute favorites, the saltiness of the cheese with the wine allowed for all the flavors to be showcased; in the wine, I got more of the honeysuckle taste that I was tasting overall making the wine sweeter. The cheese's saltiness was highlighted by the wine, as well as the lightness of the cheese. I really enjoyed the saltiness of this cheese with the acidity and sweetness of this wine they cut through each other perfectly allowing me to really enjoy this combination. Finally, the goat cheese, was interesting because I do not know if you can see it in the picture but it has honey drizzled on it, so I tried this in two parts, one bite with no honey on it and one with. The one without honey was so bad, but honestly not many people are just having straight goat cheese these days (in my opinion), but the goat cheese on its own tastes like sour milk and is way way too acidic, which made me really not like the pinot grigio because it enhanced the acidic flavors of the wine, as we have come to find out I really do not enjoy. However, with the honey, it was so amazing because the honey brought out the honey and fruity apricot of the pinot grigio and made a perfect balance. Also here the creaminess of the goat cheese I did like in addition to the wine, unlike the brie because it felt lighter and that it added into the wine making it almost creamy, but not in a bad way.
Next, we will do the Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. The Sauvignon Blanc tasted a lot like the pinot grigio to me, which I did not expect and probably tells you my taste buds are lacking, but the major thing is the Sauvignon Blanc is much more citrusy forward and not as apricotty, but more fruit forward. I did not get any leave taste like I did with the grigio. This wine with the brie made the wine very sweet and creamy, which I did enjoy. The brie did not taste as dense and plastic-y and the flavors more so combined together rather than feeling like wine and cheese as two separate entities. The Manchego with the Sauvignon Blanc was amazing as well because the saltiness with the fruity flavors of the wine was the perfect sweet and salty combo for my tastebuds really allowing the fruit in the wine to come forward making the wine more sweet and fruity and then the saltiness of the cheese just perfectly balanced it out in my mouth, it was wonderful. For the goat cheese, this was my least favorite, honestly just think goat cheese is too acidic for me (there is a theme here lmao). But it was not terrible, the acidity in the goat cheese just made the wine too acidic for me, but with the honey, it did make it slightly better as it paired nicely with the citrusy component, but without the honey, the citrus and acidity made it so bad, not a good acid-acid pairing in my eyes.
Finally, the Chardonnay from CA. Let me start this with I do not like Chardonnay, my mom loves them and its all she will drink, but I can not get behind it. This Chardonnay tasted very buttery and silky with hints of vanilla. I actually liked it more than I thought I would, but I am just biased to a light-bodied white. I do not like heavier wines, which is what this chardonnay felt like. Yes, I know reds are the heaviest, but even for me I just do not like the butteriness of the chard that makes it feel heavy to me despite it being white wine. It still had the slight acidity that white wines have, but was more of an apple taste, and not like a green apple but like a bright red apple that is more sweet, fruity forward, but there is still that hint of acidity. With the brie, however, I am going to shock you because this was AMAZING. Obviously, both are very buttery, so it ought to be good, but we can see my track record I like refreshing and light, but this pairing had me loving chardonnay, never thought I would say this. I loved how creamy it made the chardonnay, but also because the brie is so creamy it almost made the wine more light, which is why I think it made me really enjoy it. It also highlighted the vanilla aspect of the wine, which usually is hard for me to find. I always want more vanilla taste in my wine and this pairing allowed it perfectly. The manchego with this wine was average because the saltiness of the cheese did not add anything to this wine, if anything I thought it clashed because it detracted from the wine's creaminess rather than adding. It did not bring out any of the flavors of the wine that I got on its own, there was no vanilla or sweet fruity flavors like the apple. It was very meh. This wine with the goat cheese was also meh. I think I messed up by doing the brie first with this wine because nothing compared, but the acidity of the goat cheese just did not match the chardonnay at all. I will say that the honey did bring out a sweeter side of the wine and was a nice addition to the creaminess of the chardonnay. With that combo, the acidicity of the goat cheese added to the creaminess in a nice way rather than a gross way and I did enjoy it because the honey kind of cut through the unlikely balance of those two making it palatable.
Overall, loved the Manchego the best with the Pinot Grigio and the Brie with the Chardonnay, those were my two favorite pairings. I did have the goat cheese with some fig jam after doing all the tastes and tried this with the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio and that was unreal it is my new go-to. I did not know I would love fig jam this much, but it made the wines so sweet and fruit froward and made the goat cheese more creamy and not as acidic and all the flavors together were just perfect,perfect, perfect.
