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How to taste and pair wine and cheese with Twin Cities Live

Updated: 1 day ago

The Science of Taste: How to Pair Cheese and Wine Like a Pro

There's a reason cheese and wine have been served together for centuries — when you get the pairing right, each one makes the other taste better. It's not magic, it's science: fat coats your palate and softens tannins, acidity cuts through richness, and sweetness balances salt. Once you understand those basic building blocks, tasting becomes a lot more fun (and a lot less intimidating).

Here's how to taste like you know what you're doing, plus three pairings we'll be walking through together.

How to Actually Taste (Not Just Eat) Cheese and Wine

  1. Look first. Notice the wine's color and clarity, and the cheese's rind, color, and any veining. Your eyes set expectations before your tongue gets involved.

  2. Smell before you sip or bite. Swirl the wine and take a slow sniff. Aroma is most of what we perceive as "flavor," so this step matters more than people think.

  3. Taste the wine alone first. Let it sit on your tongue for a second. Note the acidity, body, and finish.

  4. Taste the cheese alone next. Pay attention to texture (creamy? crumbly? firm?) and how the flavor evolves as it melts on your tongue.

  5. Then taste them together. Take a bite of cheese, let it start to melt, then sip the wine. This order matters — cheese first, wine second, so the wine can wash across a palate already coated in fat.

  6. Ask what changed. Did the wine taste fruitier? Did the cheese taste creamier or sharper? That shift is the pairing at work.

Now, onto the lineup.

Pairing One: LaClare Original Goat Cheese + Wandering Cellars 2022 Old Vine Chenin Blanc

Goat cheese is tangy and bright, and Chenin Blanc — especially an old-vine bottling with real depth — brings its own acidity and a touch of honeyed fruit to match it. The result is a pairing where neither one overpowers the other; the wine's acidity mirrors the cheese's tang, while its fruit softens the edges.

About LaClare Creamery: LaClare's story starts in the late 1970s, when Larry and Clara Hedrich bought a hobby farm in the heart of Wisconsin's Dairyland, looking to get back to their rural roots. The farm came with two goats, a dozen or so chickens, and a pair of peacocks — and those goats ended up taking over the family's life in the best way possible. That's how LaClare Creamery got its name: a mash-up of its founders, Larry and Clara.

About Wandering Cellars: A Minnesota-based winery built around a simple philosophy — source great fruit and let the varietal speak for itself, with minimal intervention in the winemaking process. Bill and Chris Thompson make wine in California and South Africa. Hence "Wandering Cellars"

Pairing Two: Widmer's Matterhorn + Wandering Cellars 2022 Old Vine Chenin Blanc and 2022 Righteous

Matterhorn is a firm, Alpine-style cheddar with a nutty, slightly sharp flavor and just a hint of sweetness. It's a cheese that gets bolder and more savory as it ages, which makes it flexible enough to work with two very different wines side by side. Against the Chenin Blanc, the wine's fruit and acidity play up the cheese's sweetness. Against the Righteous, a fuller-bodied red, the wine's structure meets the cheese's boldness head-on for a richer, more savory combination.

About Widmer's Cheese Cellars: Widmer's has been making cheese in the same small factory in Theresa, Wisconsin for over 100 years. It was founded by John O. Widmer, a Swiss immigrant who apprenticed at various cheese factories before settling in Theresa in 1922. The business is now run by the fourth generation of the Widmer family, and it's recognized as one of the last small, family-run cheese factories still operating the way it always has.

Pairing Three: Roelli Red Rock + Wandering Cellars 2022 Righteous

Red Rock is an American-style cheddar with a naturally bloomy rind and a streak of blue running through it — annatto gives it that warm color, and cave-aging mellows it into something mild and creamy. Pairing it with the Righteous, a bolder red, gives the wine's structure something substantial to play against, while the cheese's subtle blue notes pick up on the wine's deeper, earthier tones.

About Roelli Cheese Haus: Adolph Roelli came to Wisconsin's Lafayette County from Switzerland in the 1920s, and four generations of the Roelli family have made cheese at the same location ever since. Today's cheesemaker, Chris Roelli, is a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker known for putting his own spin on tradition — Red Rock is one of his original recipes, and it's earned a serious following for its unusual cheddar-blue hybrid style.

The Takeaway

Great pairings aren't about rules — they're about contrast and balance. Bright wine with bold cheese, rich wine with delicate cheese, and always: taste the cheese, then the wine, then both together. Once you slow down and pay attention to what's actually happening in your mouth, you'll start finding your own favorite combinations. After all, THE BEST pairing is the one you like!

Tune in to see these three pairings in action — should be a fun one!


Don't forget:

  1. use code FORAGETOFROMAGE on Cheesegrotto.com for 10% off your purchase

  2. Mike and I do private cheese tasting events! Get in touch: foragetofromage@gmail.com



 
 
 
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