Sparkling Wine & Cheese Pairing: A Class Guide

Last night I taught one of my favorite classes ever at the Cheese School of San Francisco- Cremes & Bubblies, and in its honor, I'm creating a guide to pairing sparkling and creamy cheese. Why was it one my favorite classes? Two reasons. One, I love cremes and bubbles. Separate, together, at a dinner table, at a party, on the side of the road, however, wherever. Two, I loved this class because the students were into it.

The first sign of whether students are going to be down with the class is if they laugh at the name of my blog. These guys did- hearty chuckles. If they don't, I know it's going to be a loooooong night, and it's very likely my jokes will fall flat. But these guys didn't just assuage my fragile ego by making me feel funny, they asked questions, they commented on flavors rather than starring at me questioningly when asked "what do you taste?," they contributed fun information to the class, and they ate and drank like pros. As a side note, I also attribute the class's success to listening to Def Leopard while crossing the Bay Bridge to teach- I was inspired, and the students felt it. Do you want to get rocked? Why yes, yes I do (get those cheese class engines revving!).

In short, it's hard to get a bad pairing with bubbles and cremes. Cremes are creamy, soft cheeses that are high in moisture and taste especially rich. If you nibble on them with a sparkling, you've got a win-win situation- the bubbles (like the carbonation in beer) and the acidity in wines like Champagne help cut the fat in the cheese and uplift the pairing experience. I always imagine the bubbles wrapping themselves around the creamy cheese molecules and taking them to a happy place, like cheese heaven. Truth be told,  it's hard to fall flat when matching bubbles to creamy cheeses, almost everything tastes at least good. But some pairings are much better then others. Below I divulge the pairings in the class that were the favorites, and why they worked to create a light and easy pairing guide for sparklings.

A 4-Step Guide to Sparkling and Cheese Pairings

1. Light, lively cheeses like light, lively bubbles.

La Tur (cow, sheep and goat) from Piedmont Italy, and Crémont (goat and cow) with Prosecco. When you have goat cheese, think light, low-oak, and unoaked sparklings. Proseccos. Cavas. If you don't know if they're low oak or un-oaked, ask your wine salesperson. You can go fruity, but don't go bold and heavy with your wine. Your spunky little goat cheese or milk blends like to shine without heavy oak getting in the way.

2. Richer cremes like richer wines.

Nettle Meadow Kunik (triple creme cow, sheep and goat) and Brillat-Savarin (triple cow) with cremants or Champagnes. Cremants are sparklings made in the Champagne Method that are not from the Champagne region. They age in barrels, accumulate a light creamy, yeasty flavor. Champagnes generally (but not always) achieve a greater creamy, yeasty flavor and have more acidity than cremants. When I'm pairing creamy triples with sparkling, I either go cremant or Champange. Cremants are less expensive, so I often go there. When triple cremes are still clean-flavored and buttery like Kunik and Cremont, you don't need the richness and earthiness of Champagne.

3. Sultry cheeses like sultry, full-bodied, earthy Champagnes.

Old Chatham Nancy's Camembert (sheep and cow) and Bent River Camembert with Champagne. A full-bodied champagne is yeasty, toasty, creamy, earthy, sometimes mushroomy. They replicate what's going on with these cheeses. Sheep's milk cheese? Earthy, buttery, toasty. Camembert? Earthy, yeasty, mushroomy. These are easy pairing matches made in heaven. It's also possible to get an earthy cremant if you don't feeling like dishing out the dough for a Champagne- ask your winemonger, they should be able to direct your choice.

4. Washed rind creamies with rosés.

Rush Creek Reserve (cow) and Pont L'Eveque (cow) with sparkling rosés. This is a pairing inspired by the regional Époisses and Burgundy pairing. The stinky washed rind Époisses is traditionally matched with a Pinot Noir, so when I think of other creamy washed rinds, I let this guide me. A rosés light red fruit goes with the washed rind funk. Most sparking rosés are going to be heavy on the Pinot, but a rosé need not be Pinot Noir to pair well. But it helps.

Lastly, I'm teaching a class at the Cheese School that I'm super excited about. Southern Cheese & Spirits in March. I'm very excited about it. Think artisan cheese, paired to southern beer and .... moonshine. If you're in the SF area, please come! Geek out and feel the moonshine burn with me.

La Clarine Sierra Mountain Tomme

La Clarine winery, farm, and cheese company first wins you over with its sweet husband and wife, small-production, all-natural approach story. Then, after a taste of their Sierra Mountain Tomme, the glory of the cheese itself hits and you consider calling to see if they need an intern.

Earthy, tangy and vibrant, La Clarine’s Tomme speaks to the virtues of biodynamics, living in the mountains, and raw-milk. A semi-hard cheese with a grey mold-dusted exterior, this goat's milk number exhibits a complexity that is entirely its own. Slightly salty and blessed with flavors of fruity green olives, grass, herbs and pepper, this cheese flips on its head the idea that goat cheese is sour, funky, and tastes like it came from a barnyard.

Instead, La Clarine's Tomme tastes like it came from a goat's heaven, full of fuzzy kids prancing about day and mother's grazing on whatever their little herbal and thistle-inspired hearts desire. Except tin cans.

Side Nibbles

Pair with something nutty and slightly sweet, like the Spanish fig cake pictured above, Medjool dates, or crispy apples. Alternatively, grate over a bowl of pasta cooked al-dente, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and lots of freshly ground pepper.

Wine

Try a slice of La Clarine with a bright, light, and high-acidity red wine that will highlight the fresh, grassy flavors in the cheese, like Edmunds St. John Bone-Jolly Gamay or the Domaine de Collette Regnie Beaujoulais.

La Tur: A Cheese, a Girl, and a Spoon

* Kitchen Curd participants, see end of post*

Although numerous sophisticates allege that the firmer, aged cheeses are the most nuanced examples of fermented milk, I’ve always secretly preferred cheese that I can eat with my favorite baby spoon. One of the softies closest to my heart is La Tur.

In La Tur exists all the best characteristics of a soft goat, sheep, and cow’s milk cheese combined. Crafted with expert amounts of each animal’s milk, the flavors in La Tur miraculously highlight one another’s flavors without competing for attention. Grassy and lemony and tangy like a goat cheese, mildly nutty like a sheep’s cheese, and rich and buttery like a cow’s cheese, La Tur has more texture and flavor variations than Mariah Carey has pink stilettos.

About one-and-a-half inches tall and two inches across, La Tur has a rippled surface, reminiscent of a French natural-rind goat cheese crottin, that calms one’s heart like lapping ocean waves. Underneath this is a layer of pure cheese silk. When the cheese is young, the silky layer is thin, and the center is soft and slighty grainy like a chevre. Then, during the height of ripeness, the silk completely takes over the cheese’s interior so that the center becomes creamy, shiny, and soft, like the center of Old Chatham’s Nancy’s Camembert or Spanish Nevat. This is where the spoon comes in.

Produced in the Langhe region of Piedmont, Italy, La Tur is made by the Caseificio Dell’Alta Langa company, craftspeople of softer style Italian cheeses. The mixed-milk curds are ladled into molds, where they age for ten days before they makes their way home to our fridges. Where they then, of course, patiently await us. And wine.

Knowing La Tur is a fresh cheese from the Piedmont region of Italy helps with wine pairing. Try La Tur with a low-oak red wine like a Barbera, Dolcetto or Nebbiolo, from the same Piedmont region as the cheese. If you want to branch out, one could pair the cheese with a equally bright, low oak wine like a Cru Beaujolais (Gamay) or light Loire Valley Red (Cabernet Franc) from the Saumur Champigny or Bourgueil region. As for whites, try a punchy style, such as a  a Sauvignon Blanc, or an unoaked still or sparkling white from Italy.

Whatever you do, give the cheese a chance to shine. Let it come to room temperature, when it will charmingly stick to the cheese paper with which it’s packed.

And remember, La Tur is one of the classiest cheeses you can put on a baby spoon.

Cheese Category: natural/surface ripened

milk: cow, sheep, goat

* Kitchen Curders * Some friends and I tried making the mozz as directed in the Home Creamery book and had a problem towards the end, when the author said to heat the 8 cups of water to 108 degrees. I think she meant 180. Hello recipe testers? Anyhow, I would either suggest trying heating the milk to 180, using another recipe, or doing what we did after the mishap, which was instead of pouring the room temp 108 degree water over the curds, was to heat the curds in the microwave method following her recipe. Then, we'll discuss the outcomes and tribulations in the Kitchen Curd posts coming our way early July.