Wine vs Beer vs Cheese

What started off as a typical Saturday night in store sampling of wine and cheese turned into a quick lesson of what doesn't work well.  The wine we sampled tonight was a new Spanish white from the Ribeiro region of Galicia, most notable for the white wine Albariño.

The name of the mystery grape tonight was Treixadura, something unknown to me.  The producer blended this wine with a small percentage Albariño.  To me, it lightened the citrusy/minerally edge of Albariño.  Great on it's own, but I would go out on a limb and say that this would be GREAT with seafood when the weather around these parts get warmer.  The two cheeses we sampled out tonight were #1 both locally produced and #2 made from cow's milk.  If you're looking at the picture above, the cheese in your right is a raw Jersey cow's milk cheese from Beaver Brook Farms in Lyme, CT called Nehantic Abbey. The cheese itself was smooth, creamy but that tang I usually get from raw milk was a little muted.  Still a good noshing cheese, not bad with the vino.  The other cheese is called The Melville produced by the Mystic Cheese Company.  Soft, creamy, decadent, versatile as a noshing cheese and makes for a great melter.  The wine however, not a good match.  The butteriness of the Melville and the steely edge on the vino clashed producing some off flavors.  Nothing horrendous, but nothing memorable or enjoyable.  Maybe I'm being too pompous or anal about this.  It just didn't work for me.  I would go out on a limb to say that going by laws of terrior association that Spanish Garroxta aged goat cheese would've been much better with this wine.

 So with that we decided that experimentation would be the next best thing or as we like to call it "quality control" on Saturday nights.

How about a beer?  Great choice! The beer was the Hop Session IPA from White Birch Brewing of New Hampshire.  The beer itself had that mild citrusy bouquet I usually expect from a domestic IPA, but the hops were rather controlled without being over the top bitter. Onto the cheese...

The Melville...

The slight bitterness of the hops cut through the creaminess of the cheese and blending the flavors into something more like fresh floral notes. 

The Nehantic Abbey from Beaver Brook..

This is a firmer cheese, but still creamy being its made from the fatty Jersey Cow's milk.  Again, once the hops hit the fattiness of the cheese it backs off the bitterness and gets tamed down.  Very harmonious. Perfect pairing.  The Hop Session itself is about at the bitter limit of what and how I like my IPA's to be.  Very drinkable on its own and I get a sense of how this beer would be better with food.  What else can you think of that would pair with THIS beer if you've had it before.  Let me know as I would like to experiment.  Find me on the Twitter Box at Wine1011 or drop me an email to wineschool101@gmail.com.  I look forward and would love to hear from you all!