For Holiday Pleasures, Try The Easy Pairing Of French Wine With French Cheese

Whether you’re planning on doing some socially distant entertaining or if you’re just planning an intimate celebration with members of your own household, a simple pairing of French wine and cheese adds an elegant touch.

“Each of these products are about pleasure and enjoying them,” says Charles Duque, managing director of the Americas for the French Dairy Board. “There’s an intimidation factor, and my job is to raise awareness of how people can enjoy French cheese – how they can pair it (with wines and other beverages), teach them where it comes from and how people can use these wonderful cheeses.”

While Duque recommends many different cheese and wine pairings, he outlined three simple pairings of French cheeses and French wines that are readily available at many grocery and liquor stores throughout the United States. “I really want to make these cheeses as accessible as possible,” he says. “I want to show people how they can incorporate them into their daily lives. One thing many people don’t realize is that imported French cheese are often more economical than many artisan American cheese just because of scale. France has been able to produce high quality cheese industrially while keeping the quality.”

For a simple wine and cheese pairing, Duque recommends the magic number of three – three wines with three cheeses.

The first pairing Duque recommends is Brie , a traditional, bloomy rind cheese with DOMAINE DES PINS LES PIERRES SAINT AMOUR, a Beaujolais Villages red wine. “This wine is fruity, light in tannins and high in acidity,” Duque says. “This combination works, as the fattiness of the Brie coats your tongue, and it goes with the acidity in the wine. The rind also matches the brightness and the fruitiness of the wine, and I actually enjoyed both with a fresh raspberry.”

One Brie to try is the Brie from Fromager D’Affinois, which is extra creamy because the Brie is made with an ultra-filtration process in which the milk runs through, but the fat is collected. “But this wine goes with any Brie,” Duque says.

The second pairing Duque suggests is Comte, a hard, mountain cheese, and TISSOT MAIRE CREMANT DE JURA BRUT , a sparkling wine. Both the wine and the cheese come from the same area of France, and they go together beautifully. Comté is perhaps the most eaten cheese in France, and it is the most popular PDO or Protected Designation of Origin cheese in the country. “It’s a big mountain cheese, that comes in wheels of 100 pounds,” Duque says, adding that it is aged for a minimum of three months and up to 36 months.

The last pairing Duque proposes is

Fourme d’Ambert, a creamy blue cheese, and La Fleur Renaissance Sauternes 2016, a sweet wine. “Roquefort may be the most famous blue cheese in the world, and it is made with sheep’s milk,” Duque says. “Fourme’Dambert is made with cow’s milk. It is creamier and milder than a cheese made with sheep’s milk.”

This pairing works, he says, because the sweetness of the wine goes with the saltiness and the creaminess with the cheese.  “There’s an equilibrium here,” he says.

For more information on wine and cheese pairing ideas, Duque recommends heading to: Cheesesofeurope.com.