The ultimate cheese and wine party

I feel lucky, as through my work, I have had some pretty amazing experiences of cheese. While working in book publishing I had the fortune of editing a comprehensive guide to cheese by Juliet Harbutt which really exposed me to this fascinating, complex and utterly delicious subject. Wine has always played a dominant role in my life (another fascinating, complex and delicious subject), so I became completely hooked. I’ve also had the pleasure of working with another cheese aficionado, Fiona Beckett, with whom I share an unbridled passion for matching food and wine. Furthermore, for many years I lived within walking distance of Patricia Michelson’s original branch of La Fromagerie in Highbury. Finally, to top this all off, I am an unapologetic Francophile and visit France on a regular basis. You are probably getting the picture.

Several years ago, all these threads came together when I was approached to organise the launch of the English edition of the Hachette Wine Guide. This annual guide lists the best wines in France, region by region. The highest rating is the ‘coup de coeur’ which is given to the very finest examples: a couple of hundred of the 9,000 wines included in the guide. To my delight, I discovered that I would be supplied with the ‘coup de coeur’ wines to serve at the launch event.

As all these wines gradually arrived at my tiny flat, I wondered how best to order them to make sense of such a disparate selection. Arranging them according to style seemed the best idea, and it struck me that I had the perfect opportunity to turn this event into the ultimate cheese and wine party. What a wonderful way of showcasing some of the best French produce and, with La Fromagerie agreeing to supply the cheese, the book launch became ‘The Finest Taste of France’. Once I had my complete list of 132 wines, carefully divided up, I was able to brief Patricia to provide seasonal French cheeses to accompany this amazing array of wine. She and a colleague were also able to attend, as were some of the wine producers, which made the evening even more informative and memorable.

‘The Finest Taste of France’ began with lighter, unoaked whites such as Muscadet, Sancerre and Chablis served with some refreshing, tangy goats’ cheese, delicious with the clean minerality of these wines.

These were followed by a larger selection of heavier, oaked whites such as classic white Burgundy (Chablis 1ers and Grands Crus from Drouhin and Fèvre, Meursault from Michel Bouzereau and a Chevalier-Montrachet), white Bordeaux (including gems from Châteaux Smith Haut Lafitte and Haut Brion) and some interesting white Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Château La Nerthe). Stronger, stickier cheeses worked superbly with these wines; rich and creamy Brie made a great partner to carefully oaked whites. Aged Beaufort from the Alps was also a luxurious choice for these wines.

Red wines included a stellar line up of classed growth clarets (Châteaux Léoville-Barton, Langoa Barton, Lynch Bages, Rauzan-Ségla, Ducru-Beaucaillou), Hermitage and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This is where harder, more mature cheeses came into their own, working well with the complex flavours and tannic structure of the wines. Aged Mimolette was a particularly special choice for these fine reds.

The tasting concluded with an impressive range of sweet wines: Jurançon, Coteaux du Layon, Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, Muscats and an array of Sauternes and Barsac. Guests were treated to Châteaux Doisy Daëne, Bastor-Lamontagne, de Fargues to name a few. Buttery, rich blue cheeses were the dominant choice on this table. Roquefort is always a delicious foil to sweet wine – the saltiness contrasting with the sweetness of the wine, whereas the more subtle Fourme d’Ambert also worked deliciously, but in a less strident way. Many people seemed unable to leave this delectable table.

What wonderful memories. Essentially, wine is fermented grape juice and cheese is preserved milk (also through fermentation), but the evening demonstrated the extraordinary scope of these glorious gifts from nature and the unforgettable pleasure they can give. Yes, I feel very lucky indeed.

http://www.lafromagerie.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Hachette-vins-France-2010/dp/2012375146/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272658570&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cheese-Complete-Guide-Cheeses-Distinction/dp/1840000805/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272658405&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fiona-Becketts-Cheese-Course-Beckett/dp/1845979168/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272658447&sr=1-1

http://vivelecheese.wordpress.com/

Macaroni cheese: the ultimate comfort food

Here in the UK we've been treated to practically Arctic winter conditions, so rich, warming, comfort food has been featuring everywhere. Inspired by this, leading food and drink writer, blogger and passionate cheeselover, Fiona Beckett, is currently trying to find the best version of uber comfort food, macaroni cheese (http://thecheeselover.blogspot.com). Personally, I like mine really cheesy with lots of sauce and here I've balanced the richness with some red onion. I've stuck to mature cheddar as it's beautiful to cook with, and the stronger the better. The cheese and breadcrumb topping includes mustard powder for some extra bite. We enjoyed this with some mixed salad leaves.

400g macaroni (I used schioppi: fairly large ridged tubes)
3 medium red onions, sliced
40g butter
30g plain flour
500ml milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper
300g strong cheddar cheese, grated
4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon mustard powder

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cook the macaroni in a large pan of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a heavy based pan and cook the sliced onions until soft and translucent. Add the flour and cook, stirring for a minute or so before gradually adding the milk. Bring to the boil, allow to simmer for a couple of minutes and keep stirring (especially to prevent the onion from catching on the bottom of the pan). Season the sauce with salt and pepper and add 200g of grated cheese. Stir the sauce well and gently combine with the cooked macaroni.

Turn the macaroni cheese mixture into an ovenproof dish (mine holds about 2 litres). Mix the rest of the cheese with the breadcrumbs and the mustard powder and sprinkle generously over the macaroni. You might need to increase the amount of topping according to the size of the dish.

Bake in the oven for 20–30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling. Serve piping hot. We had salad, but it's also great with baked tomatoes (which can cook at the same time). Serves 4.

A note about wine:
I had a hunch that some maturing white Burgundy might work nicely with this and help add to the sense of occasion. Our Rully 1er Cru 2000 Les Cloux (Vincent Girardin) was complex, buttery, nutty with a mineral backbone and refreshing acidity. Absolutely delicious with the rich macaroni cheese: luxurious, yet poised and elegant.

As a contrast we also tasted the much simpler Réserve de la Saurine 2008 Vin de Pays du Gard as we had a bottle already open. It was fresh and had a quite an interesting, slightly savoury style and was pleasantly cleansing, but overwhelmed by the food.

Out of interest, a couple of evenings later, we opened a bottle of Anjou Le Haut de Garde 2006 (Château Pierre-Bise) to enjoy with the leftovers. There was a drop of the Rully left to taste against it. My husband loved the Anjou Blanc with the food, although I found it a bit too opulent and honied, despite its distinct minerality and fresh acidity. The Rully won hands down for me!