One of the most difficult questions we get from customers is what cheese to pair with a big, powerful red wine. Sometimes I dodge the question with a “well, whatever you like might work.” Or, I try to steer the customer towards a different wine, something light and easy to pair with anything. While I do believe cheese and big red wines is a tough pairing to get right, it is certainly not impossible. Was I being lazy in those conversations? Perhaps yes. Ok fine, YES! I just wanted a sure hit and I wasn’t confident because cheese can easily get lost with an intensely flavored beverage. However, we have a Cabernet Sauvignon tasting happening tomorrow so I decided it was time to put my big girl pants on and put in the work (aka trying cheese and wine) to write about, with confidence, pairings with this full red wine.

I talked to one of our wine experts, Molly, and she reminded me that Cabernet Sauvignon have a whole variety of tastes. They can be lighter with notes of strawberries and black currents, or heavily tannic tasting of dark chocolate and cedar. Molly tells me that the wines in our Friday wine tasting lineup exemplify the spectrum of flavors Cabernet Sauvignon. SO what cheese, what cheese to go with this intense wine?

Barricato al Pepe – This cow’s milk cheese from the Veneto in Italy is a good place to start because it literally has black pepper in the cheese, and black pepper happens to be a common flavor in Cabernet. Barricato has peppercorns within the paste, as well as covering the rind, so you can customize the level of pepper you’re tasting depending on whether you eat the rind or leave it behind. With these wines, I recommend leaning into the black pepper on the cheese, thus balancing the flavors of the Barricato with the strength of the wine.

Bay Blue – This blue cheese from California is cheesemonger David’s FAVORITE cheese. While the rest of us are dodgy about our favorite cheese – it changes by the day – David is very positive that this is the best cheese ever. He loves that it has a pleasant sweet/savory balance with a good tang from the blue and a salted caramel finish. To pair with a Cabernet Sauvignon, I like a sweeter blue as opposed to a grassy, barn-y one because the tannins in the wine can really push a grassy, animally blue into “I feel like I’m licking a cow” territory. Bay Blue does not have this problem, so don’t be shy, grab a nice big bite with your next glass of Cab. 

Garrotxa – Firm, aged, stronger goat’s milk cheeses like Garrotxa can also pair very nicely with the fruitier, smoother Cabernet Sauvignon. Garrotxa, crumbly, earthy, woodsy, works very well with jams made of dark fruits, and some Cabs are almost like plum, huckleberry jam in wine form! The contrasting texture of the dry cheese and silky wine also makes this a good match because it encourages you to keep going back and forth from one to the other for that perfect bite.

These are just a few options from a long list we made today of cheeses that would make happy pairings with and full-flavored red wine. Now, I’m very prepared for anything! Or at least that tough question.

For the love of cheese and challenges,

Kiri