The Science Of Wine & Cheese
Cheese & Wine is a culinary culture that has survived many an upheaval including the French revolution, phylloxera and more recently a vegan pandemic so it’s worth skimming through its legit science that makes this pairing a generational phenomenon that’s still going.
Yes, wine and cheese is definitely a thing and not just because old rich European folk with too much time on their hands in some foggy century made it up. Wine and cheese is a bonafide tradition which does find its roots in Europe but became and remains and international phenomenon with a solid culinary science to boot. The compelling reason though was the science – wine and cheese contrast each other in taste and texture, thereby lifting and enhancing each other’s flavours. Wine teems with intense flavours while cheese has a good amount of fat content. The interplay between wine’s flavours and cheese’s texture is where the secret of this culinary pleasure resides. The wine’s sharp astringency can cut through the cheese’s fatty texture and cleanses the palate while cheese can draw out and elevate the wine’s key flavours and makes wines taste better. It’s scientifically proven that cheese enhances the palate’s ability to discern the wine’s copious flavour and appreciate acidity while tempering sharp tannins and astringent tones in red wines.
Both are natural products which are incredibly influenced by the soil and climate of the specific region in which they are produced and share the commonality of the ageing process which most times make them even better. Nearly all of the world’s significant wine grapes originated in France, Italy and Spain and coincidentally so did the cheeses. In fact one of the popular pairing tips dictates matching wine and cheese from the same region. There’s no doubting the sober truth that these two European originals make each other better, confirmed by science and much loved by enthusiasts of the lot of two. Might as well, consider a couple more pairing tips — be sure to pair wines and cheeses that have the same intensity of flavour. When you’ve got yourself some full bodied reds, then opt for aged cheese. If your cheese is quite the bit on the stinkier side, then open an off dry or straight up sweet wine – the wine’s sweetness softens the pungent flavours and makes the cheese rather creamy. So the science is solid, the pairings are legit and the eventual experience is worth the effort. Time to crack up the cheese and uncork them ferments!
