Great Couples -

Great Couples
Matching Wines And Cheeses Takes Some Know-how

"PHOTO"
Sean D. Elliot
A Pecorino di Sardo cheese and Serego Alighieri Vaio Armaron wine are a match made in heaven, according to Ryan Connolly, manager of Brie & Bleu in New London.

By ELISSA BASS
Day Staff Columnist, Feature Editor
Published on 6/29/2005

Bogie and Bacall. John and Yoko. Hepburn and Tracy. Fred and Wilma.

Something special happens when a great match is made. The same is true of wine and cheese. But while Lauren and Humphrey may have known it was love at first sight, how is the average consumer to know if a Pinot Grigio will get along with a Camembert?

We sought help from Ryan Connolly, manager of Brie & Bleu, a gourmet cheese shop on downtown New London's Bank Street that opened last October. Brie & Bleu is — not coincidentally — next door to Thames River Wine & Spirits, an upscale wine store. Both are owned by Charlotte Hennegan and Fred Argilagos, proprietors of Thames River Greenery, which is around the corner on State Street.

One way to successfully pair cheeses with wines is geographically, Connolly says.

“Geography plays into it a lot,” he says. “The grasses, the flavors that are specific to that region. ... Within a certain micro-climate exists something unique to that place” and it translates into the wine and the cheese that comes from that place.

We asked Connolly to suggest some wine-and-cheese couplings. The cheeses are all available at Brie & Bleu and the wines are for sale at Thames River Wine & Spirits.

1. Cobb Hill Caerphilly and Sharpe Hill Cabernet Franc

Cobb Hill is a small farm in Vermont that has been making cheese for about five years. Caerphilly is an English-style cow's milk cheese, comparable in texture to a soft cheddar. But Cobb Hill's Caerphilly is unique, Connolly says, because it comes from Vermont.

“The taste is really its own, because it comes from this small farm, so it is not like anything else,” he explains. “It's the American expression of an English cheese. It is very different in flavor than English Caerphilly, which is bland. This is a lot richer flavor.”

Cost:$21 per pound.

Sharpe Hill is a small vineyard in Pomfret, “about as close as a winery gets to Vermont,” Connolly says. He describes it as a “light-bodied red.”

Cost:$17 a bottle.

2. Porbica and Dão Particular

“This is one of my favorite cheeses,” Connolly says of Porbica, a Portuguese cheese made of a blend of cow, goat and sheep milk. “It is rubbed with paprika, which imparts a nice flavor.” It is a mild cheese, but the combination of the three milks makes it “complex,” Connolly says. “It is more of a textural exercise. It's soft; it coats your mouth.”

Cost:$19 per pound.

The Dão is a single-vineyard Portuguese wine: its grapes come from only one vineyard. The winery is quite small, manufacturing only a few thousand cases a year. “It is very reflective of the place it comes from,” Connolly says of the wine's flavor. “And the great thing is, it is only 12 dollars (a bottle). Because they aren't known yet, they price themselves so people will be willing to experiment. This is one of the best 12-dollar bottles of wine you'll have in your life.”

3. Beltane Farm goat cheese and Chamard Estate Chardonnay

Beltane Farm is in Lebanon, and Chamard Vineyard is in Clinton, making them practically next door neighbors in the world of wines and cheeses. “These both show what Connecticut is capable of,” Connolly says.

“These pair together really well,” he says of the goat cheese, which is rolled in dill, and the Chardonnay. Because Beltane is just up the highway, the cheese “is about as fresh as you can get. This was milked three weeks ago.”

Cost:$7 per 4 ounces.

The Chardonnay is Chamard's Estate Reserve, which means all the grapes that went into it were grown at the vineyard in Clinton. “It is an amazing Chardonnay,” Connolly says. “It has a gorgeous golden color. It has oak (flavor) but is not over-oaked.”

Cost:$13 a bottle.

4. Pecorino di Sardo and Serego Alighieri Vaio Armaron

This sheep's milk cheese is hard and sharp. It can be served on its own, with crusty bread or crackers, or in an antipasto.

Cost:$12 per pound.

This wine goes for $60 a bottle, but it's worth it, Connolly says. The grapes at the Italian vineyard are hand-picked and then laid on hay mats to partially dry in the sun in order to concentrate the juice.

“It is the most intense, rich, deep wine,” Connolly says. “It is inky purple. It has a gorgeous flavor.” It goes well with the Pecorino, he says, because “it has enough to it to stand up to the strong flavor of the cheese.”