Cheese & Wine

Ideal partners – cheese and wine

Cheese and wine - a classic culinary delight! Contrary to popular belief, it is more often the white wines than the red wines that really complete the enjoyment. In any case, you are guaranteed to find numerous suitable companions to all cheese variations among the many excellent German wines.

Facts

  • 20.68kg

    is the per capita consumption of cheese in Germany

  • 4

    most popular varieties: Gouda, Emmental, Camembert and cream cheese

  • 2%

    market share accounted for by purely plant-based cheese

A few basic considerations should be made when choosing wine to accompany cheese: For example, cheese and wine from the same region often go well together due to the same climatic and geographical conditions. When it comes to the interplay of flavours, cheese and wine should be roughly equally strong or mild. The more mature the cheese is, the richer and fuller-flavoured the wine is recommended. Cheese with a delicate flavour, on the other hand, goes well with a
subtle, delicate wine.

Sour, salty or very flavourful cheeses require a sweet wine as a counterbalance, i.e. noble wines such as Trockenbeerenauslese or ice wines. Wines emphasising acidity, on the other hand, are well suited to creamy cheeses, while they often make firmer cheeses appear bitter. The harder the cheese, the more tannins the wine can tolerate.

Which wine goes best with which type of cheese?

Slightly spicy white wines with a subtle acidity, such as a semi-dry Riesling, harmonise well with mildly spicy soft cheese with white mould, such as Brie or Camembert. Red wines with less tannin, such as a Pinot Noir, Black Riesling or Trollinger, are also suitable, as is a Burgundy sparkling wine.

A Gewürztraminer is an ideal partner for a red mould wine. A fresh Pinot Gris or fruity to full-bodied red wines such as a Pinot Noir can also be served with it. The very spicy cheese can also be softened with sweeter bouquet wines such as a muscatel.

Blue mould cheese contains a strong acidity because fat is broken down into glycerine, among other things. As the sweetness cancels each other out in terms of flavour, a balance must be achieved between cheese and wine. The acidity-sweetness interplay of high-quality sweet to noble Rieslings such as Spätlesen, Auslesen or ice wines offers an interesting flavour experience.

A young, fruity, berry Pinot Noir pairs well with mild sliced cheeses such as young Gouda, Edam cheese or buttered cheese, as does a dry Silvaner with a delicate herbaceous flavour or a creamy Pinot Gris.

More crispy cheeses such as medium-aged Gouda, young mountain cheese, Appenzeller or Gruyère go very well with a fruity, dry red wine such as Trollinger, Merlot or Dornfelder. As a white wine, a fine tart Riesling or a traditional Gutedel (Chasselas) is recommended.

Dry but fruity white wines such as a very young Pinot Blanc or lighter red wines with a low alcohol content, such as a Trollinger, are suitable for a young, mild hard cheese, Allgäuer Emmentaler or Bergkäse. A full-bodied Pinot Gris or Chardonnay is ideal with a more mature hard cheese, which is stronger and spicier, or a strong, intense red wine.

Mild-flavoured goat and sheep cheeses are ideal with young, light white wines such as fruity Silvaner or Pinot Blanc, but a sparkling, fresh rosé can also be used here. Not too heavy noble wines also harmonise here.

Milk-accentuated fresh wines harmonise best with low-acid, fruit-accentuated white wines with a subtle residue, such as a sweet to sweet Müller-Thurgau or a light Silvaner.

Which wine goes well with tart, salty or very flavourful cheese?

Sweet wines, Trockenbeerenauslese or ice wines provide a nice counterbalance to strong and flavoursome cheeses.

More recipe ideas

with apples Pork medallions

with apples

  • 8 Stück Schweinemedaillons
  • 500 Gramm Bandnudeln
  • 2 große Äpfel
  • 200 ml Sahne
  • 10 Blättchen frischer Salbei
  • 4 Zweige frischer Thymian
  • nach Geschmack Zucker
  • 3 EL Calvados
  • 1 EL Öl
  • zum Abschmecken Salz & Pfeffer

Slightly pepper and salt the medallions on both sides. Pluck the thyme, cut the sage into fine strips and roll the medallions in the herbs. Fry the meat in a pan with a little oil on both sides, not too hot, until it starts to colour. Remove from the pan and place on a preheated tray in the oven at 100 °C until cooked through.

 

Cook the tagliatelle al dente and keep warm.

 

In the meantime, peel the apples and cut into slices approx. 1.5 cm wide. Reheat the meat pan and add the apple slices. After about half a minute, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of sugar over the apples and allow them to caramelise. After a minute, deglaze the apple slices with a generous dash of Calvados and flambé. Add the cream and flavour with salt and pepper.

 

Remove the fillet from the oven. Add the meat juices from the oven dish to the sauce and serve the fillets with the tagliatelle, apple slices and Calvados apple sauce.

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  • Riesling (trocken)

with goat's cheese Courgette and chanterelle salad

with goat's cheese

  • 2 ganze Zucchini
  • 3 EL Rapsöl
  • 1 kleine Schalotte
  • 300 Gramm Pfifferlinge
  • 1 Msp. gemahlener Piment
  • 2 Bund Rucola
  • je 1/2 Bund Kerbel u. glatte Petersilie
  • je 3 EL Walnuss- u. Rapsöl
  • 4 Stück Ziegenkäse-Taler
  • 1 Prise Zucker
  • nach Belieben Salz & Pfeffer

Salad:

Wash the courgettes and slice thinly. Place in a bowl and mix with the oil.

 

Heat a grill pan and fry the courgettes in batches until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper, place in a bowl.

<p

 

<p>Peel and finely dice the shallot. Clean the chanterelles, wash if necessary and pat dry. Depending on size, cut in half if necessary.

<p

 

<p>Sauté the shallot in a pan until translucent. Add the chanterelles and fry vigorously for 3 minutes while stirring. Season with salt, pepper and allspice. Add to the courgettes. Wash the rocket and spin dry.

 

Dressing:

Wash the herbs, shake dry. Pluck the leaves, blend finely with both types of oil and vinegar in a blender or with a hand blender. Flavour with salt, pepper and sugar. Pour over the courgette and chanterelle mix and mix loosely with the rocket. Arrange on plates, sprinkle with goat's cheese.

  • Pinot Blanc (trocken)

with dry sparkling wine Sparkling wine and lime dessert

with dry sparkling wine

  • 300ml Winzersekt
  • 4 Limetten
  • 100g Zucker
  • 30g Speisestärke
  • 100g Butterkekse
  • 50g ungesalzene Butter
  • 2 Eiweiße
  • 50g grieschicher Joghurt
  • 150g Schlagsahne

Pour the sparkling wine and sugar into a pan. Chill the remaining sparkling wine. Wash 1 lime with hot water and finely grate the zest. Halve the lime and 2 others, squeeze out the juice and mix with the cornflour. Pour everything into the pan and bring to the boil briefly. Remove the pan from the heat and chill the cream in the fridge.

 

Fill the shortbread biscuits into a freezer bag, crush with a rolling pin and place in a bowl. Melt the butter in a pan, pour over the crumbled shortbread biscuits, add a pinch of salt and mix well. Leave to cool briefly, divide half into large wine glasses and press down firmly.

 

Cut the lime into slices. Beat the egg whites with salt until stiff. Stir the yoghurt into the chilled champagne and lime cream. Whip the cream until stiff and fold into the cooled cream, one after the other, together with the beaten egg whites. Spread half over wine glasses, add another layer of shortbread biscuits and finish with a layer of cream. Garnish with lime slices and pour in the remaining sparkling wine. Toast and enjoy!

  • Riesling (trocken)
  • Pinot Blanc (trocken)

with semi-frozen goat's milk Lavender waffles

with semi-frozen goat's milk

  • 2 Stück Eigelb
  • 60 ml Ziegenmilch
  • 500 Gramm weiße Kuvertüre
  • 125 ml Sahne
  • Abrieb und Saft einer halben Orange
  • 2 cl Tresterbrand
  • 8 Blatt Minze
  • 125 Gramm Mehl
  • 50 Gramm Zucker
  • 70 Gramm Butter
  • 2 Eier
  • 1 Messerspitze Backpulver
  • 1/2 EL Lavendelzucker
  • 175 ml Milch

Semi-frozen goat's milk: Beat the egg yolks and goat's milk in a bowl over a hot bain-marie until creamy. Remove from the bain-marie and beat the cream until cold. Flavour with the zest of the orange and the marc brandy.

 

Liquefy the couverture in a bain-marie and stir into the lukewarm egg mixture. Whip the cream until stiff and carefully fold in. Line a parfait tin (triangular or gutter shape) with cling film. Pour in the mixture and smooth out. Cover well with cling film and leave to freeze in the freezer for at least 8 hours.

 

About 20 minutes before serving, remove the mould from the freezer and turn the parfait out of the mould. Remove the foil and cut the semi-frozen parfait into 8 slices.

<p

 

<p>Lavender wafers: Lightly mash the butter in a mixing bowl with a fork. Add the sugar and stir a little. Add half of the milk, the lavender sugar and the baking powder. Stir in the eggs and finally the rest of the milk. Mix everything well with a hand mixer for about 2 minutes to create a homogeneous, slightly liquid mixture. Bake the batter in batches in a waffle iron until golden brown.</p

 

<p>Arrange 2 slices of semifreddo on each waffle on a flat plate and decorate with mint leaves.

  • Riesling (halbtrocken & feinherb)