Cheese is a staple of most tastings, however with some cautious planning you can also make certain what you place out enhances the whiskies being served. (Photograph by Jeff Harris)
The U.S. produces extra cheese yearly than France, Italy, and Switzerland mixed. That statistic is based on Afrim Pristine, maître fromager, or cheese grasp, and proprietor of Cheese Boutique in Toronto, the place he oversees the sale of some 44 tons of cheese annually. After all, that’s not the identical as having the best number of cheeses, a title that goes to France. However nonetheless, the prodigious output of the U.S. is spectacular.
Additional, Pristine says that from “about 1995 to 2002,” North People lastly began to discover the complete scope of that cheese. “I noticed it firsthand,” he recollects, “Individuals stopped shopping for the identical cheese each time and have become rather more concerned with making an attempt completely different varieties.”
Whereas making an attempt new cheeses is rarely a nasty factor, Pristine notes that it could actually result in disappointment. “I inform my clients to purchase smaller items and store extra typically,” he says, “Cheese doesn’t go unhealthy, however when individuals overbuy and it sits round too lengthy, it simply gained’t style the best way it ought to.”
For storing the cheese you do purchase, Pristine suggests avoiding plastic wrap, which may dry out the cheese, and resealable zipper-closure baggage, which trigger the cheese to sweat. As a substitute, he recommends wrapping the cheese first in parchment or waxed paper after which in aluminum foil, because the parchment will permit the cheese to breathe whereas the foil will shield it from absorbing different odors within the fridge and in addition hold your greens from smelling like cheese.
When serving, Pristine says that the longer you may depart it exterior of the fridge, “two, three, and even eight hours,” the higher it can style. Which is exactly how I approached my tasting of what Pristine identifies because the six primary groupings of cheese: goat/sheep, semi-firm, washed rind, bloomy rind, arduous/aged, and blue.
Cheeses created from goat’s or sheep’s milk are usually extra delicate in taste than these created from cow’s milk, so weighty whiskeys like bourbons and straight ryes ought to typically be prevented. With goat’s milk cheese particularly, the relative lightness and nearly paradoxical depth of an Irish whiskey containing a excessive proportion of pot nonetheless spirit makes nice gastronomic sense.
For a youthful gouda, my semi-firm cheese, I sought a complementary relationship in a fruity, sherry wood-aged single malt, and located it in Macallan 12 yr outdated Double Cask. The sherry accents play completely in opposition to the nutty flavors of the cheese, whereas the richness of the gouda attracts out advanced fruit and vanilla notes within the whisky.
(As an apart, balanced Scottish single malts, not too peaty or wealthy, appear to pair finest with all kinds of cheeses, as you would possibly discover on a typical cheese board.)
Washed-rind cheeses, just like the French chaumes I sampled, are likely to have huge aromas—some name them “pungent”—however reasonably gentle flavors, which require spirits of refined complexity and smooth bouquet, the toffee-ish Crown Royal XO becoming this invoice fairly deliciously. For cheeses with bloomy rinds, akin to Bries and Camemberts, which regularly function saltiness and acidity from the rind, a bolder and sweeter accomplice makes essentially the most sense, like Woodford Reserve Double Oaked matched with the traditional Brie de Meaux.
Lastly, I returned to Scotland to search out pairings for each my arduous/aged and blue cheeses, hardly shocking since classics of each camps, cheddar and Stilton, have been born not removed from the place the whiskies advanced. On the whole, I discover that Speyside malts favor mature, agency cheeses and peatier Island whiskies complement blues, though full and spherical bourbons additionally profit the latter.
Pair These Whiskies and Cheeses at House Now
Chabichou du Poitou with Redbreast 12 yr outdated
The dryness of this weeks-old chèvre attracts ahead the whiskey’s sweetness, whereas the spirit accentuates the fruitiness of the cheese.
3 yr outdated Cheddar with Glenlivet 12 yr outdated
The creaminess of the cheddar is underscored by the whisky, whereas the cheese heightens the nutty, fruity flavors of the malt.
Colston Bassett Stilton with Talisker 10 yr outdated
England’s legendary blue cheese meets a Scottish accomplice in energy and assertiveness, to the flavorful advantage of each events.
