On a mission to find the perfect wines to pair with different cheeses, EMILE JOUBERT enlists the help of another expert, with one predictable and a number of unpredictable results.
WHEN ONE IS ASKED for an edible companion for wine, ‘cheese’ is arguably the most common answer. For decades, cheese and wine have been linked, in the same vein as horse and carriage, love and marriage, braaivleis and rugby.
Three or four decades ago, ‘cheese and wine’ parties and soirées were immensely popular social events. When Stellenbosch and other wine regions embarked on wine tourism in the 1970s, cheese was the first food item to be offered as a complement to these early cellars’ hospitality initiatives.
And like wine, South African cheese has come a long way since then. Gouda, or soetmelk, and Cheddar were once the only two cheeses on offer. And while not quite as limited as their dairy counterparts, Cape wines, too, were hardly diverse 40 years ago. When the Stellenbosch Wine Routes was founded in 1971, there were just over 10 members producing wine; now there are 200. Today South Africa has a spectacular array of wines made from various grape varieties and with diverse flavour nuances gleaned from the Cape Winelands’ different terroir pockets. And when it comes to cheese, consumers are also spoilt for choice. Supermarkets offer excellent ranges of local and imported cheeses of all styles, aromas and textures, and South Africans themselves are producing artisanal cheeses with the same degree of commitment, love and expertise as their winemaking counterparts.
I remember when you had to seek out a specialist delicatessen at the lower end of Cape Town’s Long Street to procure a rare wedge of Parmesan cheese; today you only have to pop into a supermarket to find a whole array of Italian dairy delights.
This all makes for a great time to be a South African cheese and wine lover. But is cheese truly the best partner for wine? And if so, which wine varieties and styles would present a sensually satisfying match?
Much has been written about the pairing of cheese and wine, and yet it’s not really so complicated. As with all things wine and culinary, the only opinion that matters is that of the person eating the cheese and drinking the wine.
To illustrate this, I embarked on a fact- finding mission with an expert: René Groenewald. Her expertise on the wine side is that of a Cape Wine Master, South Africa’s top qualification in the field of wine knowledge. But there’s more.
René, who works in product development for Woolworths, is also recognised as a cheese fundi of note, thanks to her work at the retailer and as a judge for cheese competitions in South Africa and France. Just after she’d returned from judging the Mondial Fromage competition in Tours, France, I persuaded her to help me with my mission.
We selected four cheeses that are readily available in South Africa, did some rigorous wine-tasting and cheese-chomping and tried to ascertain whether we could agree on recommendations for wines to accompany the diverse cheeses. The results proved something I have always believed: that personal taste lies in the taste-buds of he or she who decides what is appropriate for ingesting and imbibing.
The first cheese up was a goat’s milk number, from France nogal, called La Bûche Fondante. René’s wine of choice to go with this creamy, mild cheese was the High Hopes Syrah/Grenache 2024 from Lukas van Loggerenberg. Her impression was that this perfumed red wine has a generous, soft and round mouth-feel that never overwhelms. Also, “the creamy smoothness of the goat’s cheese softens the wine’s warmth and spice, creating a lush, balanced mouth-feel”.
Personally, I love this cheese – dense and silky and velvety with a saline lick and none of the wild goat-pen flavour that too many South African goat’s milk cheeses show. But then again, the French do have centuries of fromage culture on us.
But a red wine, even one so immaculately put together by Lukas van Loggerenberg, was for me a bit overwhelming for the cool, smooth and pastoral-tasting chunk of dairy I spread on a crusty baguette. It screamed “white wine” and a complex Chardonnay such as the one from Meerlust was just perfect to enjoy with the cheese. The slightly acidic hit on the dairy allowed the Chardonnay’s richness to come to the fore, bringing white fruits to accompany the goats’ dense, creamy offering.
The next cheese was my choice as – no matter what the French or Italians might say – Cheddar is one of the world’s great cheeses. But not all Cheddars are created equal. Some on supermarket shelves are made in immense volumes due to the cheese’s popularity and the result is lifeless orange slabs with notes of drawing- crayon and rubber inner-tubing. Mature Cheddar is what you want, and Woolworths’ 18-month-matured cheese is more representative of what Cheddar should look and taste like: crumbly, salty and strong, with a hearty, palate-coating presence.
Cape Wine Master René deemed a Pinotage from B Vintners to be a suitable wine to sip while munching on this Cheddar. “Power meets power,” she reckoned. “A mature Cheddar like this gains an umami intensity during the 18 months of ageing. It’s made more delicious by the Pinotage, which is deeply flavoured with ripe dark fruit, a smoky earthiness and subtle spice. There is a savoury energy as the smoky, earthy tones of Pinotage echo the nutty, caramelised depth of mature Cheddar, creating a seamless flavour bridge.”
While agreeing with this eloquent assessment of the cheese requiring a bold wine, I was tempted to up the ante and suggest a Boplaas Tawny Port to truly create an orchestral moment for the senses. The crumbly, assertive Cheddar, with its almost Bovril-like saltiness and evocative shards of concentrated dairy, was taken to a totally new level when the sweet, nutty flavours of a Tawny Port were brought into the equation. Perhaps it’s just the kid in me who likes to bring sweet and salt together, but the heady, expressive and almost decadent combination of a great Cheddar and a very fine Tawny Port is the stuff gastronomic dreams are made of. Tawny Port spends years in old oak barrels, depending on its style, and has a different colour and flavour profile from Vintage, Ruby or LBV Port. The sweet is sweeter, the acid a bit brighter, and its experience with a formidable Cheddar is truly immense.
From Cheddar to the other ubiquitous yellow cheese: Gouda. And specifically a 10-month-matured cheese from the Klein Karoo. This time I went first, and without a doubt my wine to go with Gouda was a Riesling from Paul Clüver Family Wines in Elgin. As for the cheese, this is a Gouda with attitude: deep caramel notes, a savoury nuttiness and those delightful little crystals that crunch between your teeth. It’s rich, dense and unapologetically bold.
Riesling is a wine presented in diverse flavour profiles and the last thing you want here is one of the cloying kind.
Paul Clüver’s Riesling is well balanced, with racy acidity and a hint of sweetness. That acidity slices cleanly through the Gouda’s fat and salt, while the wine’s fruit notes of green apple and lime just brighten every bite. The residual sugar plays beautifully against the cheese’s sharpness, softening it, lifting it.
“THERE IS A SAVOURY ENERGY AS THE SMOKY, EARTHY TONES OF PINOTAGE ECHO THE NUTTY, CARAMELISED DEPTH OF MATURE CHEDDAR, CREATING A SEAMLESS FLAVOUR BRIDGE.”
ABOVE: René Groenewald is a Cape Wine Master and a cheese fundi of note.
As can be predicted by now, René’s wine suggestion for the Gouda was a red wine, the Rock of Eye Cabernet Sauvignon from Coenie Snyman. “Richness meets structure,” was her succinct introduction. “Cabernet Sauvignon is classic and powerful, a wine of depth, confidence and structure.”
As a match for the aged Gouda: “The creamy fat and light sweetness of the cheese coat the palate, softening the wine’s firm tannins and revealing its fruit core.” Suggestion: “Serve the cheese at room temperature and the wine at below room temperature for the ideal texture and aromatics.”
I suggested ending on a high and requested a blue cheese. Mouldy cheese suggests the product has been aged, and confirms that, like wine, cheese is a natural and living thing. My choice was Cremezola, a soft blue- veined cheese from Austria. Abandoning her conservative red wine focus, René went rogue by suggesting that a Cap Classique sparkling wine would do nicely in this instance, specifically the Pinot Meunier Agrafe Cap Classique from Graham Beck. For her, this was a “refined and unconventional, but well- tested pairing”. The mild, creamy blue cheese is more on the rich side than it is pungent. “The Cap Classique shows expressive apple skin, pear character with a luxurious fine mousse of bubbles. It’s complex in flavour and structure due to the extended lees ageing in the secondary fermentation.”
For the combination of Cremezola and Cap Classique René’s tagline is “contrast and harmony”. “The creamy saltiness of the blue cheese finds lift and freshness in the Cap Classique’s acidity, structure and effervescence, ensuring a palate-cleansing contrast that enhances both the cheese and the wine – trust me!” I had to admit, this sparkling wine and mouldy cheese combination hit my spot as well, and I will be engaging in this pairing with eagerness and delight. But my personal suggestion for a wine to strut alongside this style of cheese was a classic Pinot Noir, something like Anthony Hamilton Russell’s, and a bottle that has matured for five years or more.
The cheese is subtle, salty and creamy, but still with an enchantingly gloomy, feral- mouldy depth. So a good Pinot Noir worked splendidly, as the wine has an autumnal forest edge to it, too. What the cheese does so well is amplify the beautiful layers of fruit at the core of Pinot Noir, opening the door to a plum orchard and casting a glowing light on the cheese to create a decadent, heady combination.
It is tradition for wine lovers to bless the grapes, but let’s not forget the cows, goats nd sheep that make of wine an even greater wonder. V