Wine and Cheese Pairing

One thing readers may not be aware of is that I am, in fact, not a geography major. Contrary to assumptions you may have made given my impressive writing style and the highly advanced vocabulary I have employed throughout my blogs, I am also not studying journalism, communications, or even English. Nope, friends, I am an engineering major. Aerospace engineering, to be exact. Now this may come as a shock to you, I know, but when I am not drinking wine or writing about drinking wine, I am, in fact, doing intense amounts of math and calculations related to aircraft and spacecraft.

One thing we engineers are really good at is equations. Let me use some of my engineering talent here and draw you up a quick equation:

[5*(Bottles of wine) + 5*(Cheeses) + 1*(Papa John's Pizza) + 2*Friends*(Immense amounts of Hokie House anticipation) ] / [5*(Hungry, thirsty Friends) ] = A night to remember.

Throughout this blog, I will break down each of these terms to quantify exactly how and why everything went down the way it did.

In anxious anticipation for a night I had been excited for all week, I had to start with the outfit. I started with a nice worn pair of jeans with my comfy sneakers. I then decided to wear my new flannel I got for my birthday. I needed a white undershirt to go with it, but I was feeling extra festive that night, so I decided to put on my special Justin Bieber shirt (gifted for Secret Santa two years ago) that I only bring out on the most special occasions.

Another thing that may come as a surprise is that I really don't like cheese. I have never been a picky eater, and I would eat almost anything placed in front of me, however, I have always a strong dislike for cheese and struggled to enjoy them. Needless to say, this entire pairing was very difficult for me, but I did my best to make the most of it.

We all ended up tasting 5 wines over the course of about 5 hours or so, meaning we were eating and drinking from around 5pm to 10pm. We started with our weekly 2 bottle tastings, followed by the pairing of 3 wines and cheeses. Myself and Nate had not yet eaten, so by the second wine we were starving and ordered a Papa John's pizza. My roommate, Kyle (pictured below) wanted to go to Hokie House after our tasting, and we managed to convince him to be our delivery driver and pick up our pizza on his way over, in exchange for a slice. He ended up hanging out with us for the rest of the tasting, and he even tried a few tastes of our wines, though his go-to drink is a blue motorcycle.

Now, let's get to the wines. We had heard great things about the Malbec, and we decided to decant it before beginning our tastings. Sydney had gotten a new decanter a few hours prior, and we felt it was a great opportunity to try it out.

We opened and poured our Malbec at around 5pm, and didn't get around to tasting it until around 9:30, meaning it had plenty of time to decant. In the meantime, we tasted two chardonnays at varying price points, and began our pairings.

Wine #1

Name: Bell'Agio Chianti

Variety of Grape(s): Sangiovese

Country of Origin: Italy

Region of Origin: Chianti

Vintage Year: 2022

Price: $12.99

Being less familiar with red wines, I found myself struggling a bit to separate the aromas and flavors from these wines. From what I could tell, I noticed a slight sweetness from this Chianti, as well as a small hit of tannins on the finish. Besides that, it really just smelled like red wine to me, and I couldn't pick out much else.

The flavor was delicious. I found it quite sweet and earthy, and following two chardonnays, I found myself latching onto the tannins and enjoying the deeper complexity found within. I got nice notes of wood, moss, and damp earth that I found quite pleasant.

I paired the Chianti with a fontina cheese which I found easiest to get down. The cheese itself was quite milky and creamy with a slight funk to it that I didn't enjoy. Paired with the Chianti, I found the cheese much more pleasant, and I found the wine to be much more mellow. The funk was gone, replaced by a stronger milky, creamy flavor, and the tannins and earthy flavors I enjoyed from the Chianti were brought out much more.

I very much enjoyed this pairing, and I found I was able to enjoy both the wine and the cheese at a deeper level through the combination.

Wine #2

Name: Barefoot Merlot

Variety of Grape(s): Merlot

Country of Origin: United States of America

Region of Origin: California

Vintage Year: N/A

Price: $6.99

Full transparency, I had a strong bias against barefoot due to previous bad experiences and the opinions of my parents, so I went into this tasting with pretty low expectations overall. Also, this was now my fourth glass of wine, and I felt a stronger need to clear my palate between wines as the night went on. I felt like my taste buds were numbing a bit, and I was struggling to find the individual flavors with this wine.

The aroma was very simple to me. It smelled like tannic grape juice to me. I had no other notes on the aroma, and I found that those flavors overpowered anything else that might be hidden in the aromas.

The flavor was very clear to me. It tasted like someone had tried to turn grape juice into wine. From the instant I first tasted this wine, I noticed the sweetness and sugar with a significant lack of tannins in contrast to the Chianti I was coming from. It was very grapey and fruity with notes of jam and a lack of much needed tannins and acidity to balance the flavor. I kept going back to my initial impression. This tasted like someone made grape juice and then tried to use ancient alchemy to turn it directly into a wine. Unfortunately for me, that person was a bad alchemist and the spells just managed to make a really bad red wine.

I paired it with the fontina again and a sharp cheddar. I found the fontina did not enhance any part of the wine, and the wine didn't enhance any part of the fontina. I really struggled with the cheddar because I found the sharpness extremely off-putting, and the wine did not seem to do much to mask the flavors that repulsed me.

Wine #3

Name: Maipe Casir dos Santos Malbec

Variety of Grape(s): Malbec

Country of Origin: Mendoza

Region of Origin: Argentina

Vintage Year: 2019

Price: $8.99

This bottle was met with intense anticipation. We had left it to decant for a few hours, and taken plenty of photos with the decanter, so it was on all of our minds. The opportunity to finally taste it was exhilarating.

The aroma hit me hard. It was extremely strong and pungent, and I was unsure if I liked it. The first notes I noticed was a metallic aroma that may have been a result of oxidation. I next got notes of salted meats like pepperoni or salami, followed by an off-putting sour or rotten odor that worried me a bit.

I finally tasted the wine, and to my surprise, it was really quite nice. The metallic, rotten odors were not nearly as present, and I was met with a hot, peppery flavor with strong tannins that I felt all the way down. It was very dry and bitter, with notes of tobacco I really enjoyed, and I found myself having an overall pleasant experience tasting this wine.

At this point, I felt it was time for me to finally taste the blue cheese. I had been nervous all night, and I was not fully prepared for what I was about to experience. My friends had seemed to enjoy the pairing, so I thought I may as well try it. I can confirm, I was not prepared for that experience.

As you can see, I had a physical reaction immediately after trying the blue cheese, and to be honest, I was unable to move forward with the rest of the tasting. I have no notes on the cheese and no notes on the pairing, and I spent the rest of the evening drinking water in an attempt to wash the horrible funky taste of the blue cheese out of my mouth.'

Following this awful experience, myself and my friends headed out to go to Hokie House and we had a great night playing pool and darts and trying to ignore the awful experience of that blue cheese.