Canadian Whisky - BlueToad

the wine connoisseur
Say Cheese
By Gordon Heins
Wine merchandising
specialist for nh
liquor commission
10 | celebrate NH • march 2o12
There are many so-called “wine
and cheese experts.” There
are books, guides, blogs and
websites that are plentiful to
say the least. I lay no such claim, since I
believe wine and cheese pairings are no
different than any other foods – they are
all subjective to the taster and, to some
degree, the situation. But there are surely
things that go better together than others.
Therefore, it is not hard to imagine that
peanut butter and jelly would taste much
better to most people than say, peanut
butter and mustard. That said, I do enjoy
wine and cheese and I do know a little
about wine, which has led me to find
some good rules of thumb over the years
about pairing it with cheese. I have a wine
colleague who states emphatically that
only white wines pair with cheese – “End
of story!” he proclaims. Others say many,
if not most, reds can work with cheese if
the cheese is not too creamy. The truth, I
think, lies somewhere in between and is, as
I have said, always subjective.
I remember when there used to be wine
and cheese parties. This was, I believe,
more about the gathering of folks without
the stress or expense of a sit-down dinner
or buffet table. These congregations often
featured ubiquitous plastic cheese platters
of pepper jack and bright orange cheddar
cubes with colorful tooth picks accompanied
by an assemblage of bland, hard,
crunchy vegetables and centered by an
ocean of, well, ranch dressing. If the hosts
were really going for it, then maybe a port
wine cheese ball and some cocktail weenies
were thrown in for good measure. The
wines were usually a large format of white
and red of uninspiring quality and there
it was – the all-American wine and cheese
party! In the same spirit, I remember my
father-in-law had a bunch of us together at
photo of gordon heins by p.t. sullivan