Wine and Cheese Tasting 1

 My two friends and I decided to last minute have a wine tasting and we had an amazing time. The three types of cheeses we had were monterey jack, colby jack, and pepper jack cheese. In addition to the cheese, we also had ritz crackers and three different types of wine.

First wine was Santa Julia. This wine is a 2018 cabernet sauvignon from Mendoza, Argentina. We tried this wine alone at first because we wanted to pair it with the right cheese. The wine tasted like cherry. It was dry and full bodied and a bit strong as well. We decided to pair this wine with colby jack because we felt as if the strong taste in the wine will not overpower the taste of the cheese. Once we paired the wine with the cheese, the cheese in fact over powered the wine. The strength in the wine weakened and you could taste that the wine was kind of watered down. I would say that the cheese was in fact heavier than the wine and it did kind of mask the wine making the wine not have the strong taste that it did on its own. 

 Monsalaia was the wine I tried next. It is a 2011 red wine mixed with the grapes Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese. This wine is from the region Maremma Toscana, Italy. This wine on its on had an earthy vibe to it and tasted like cherries. It was really good because it was different than what I have ever tried before. It was somewhat oaky as well. In order to get a real taste of this with a cheese, I decided to pair it with a cheese that I am most familiar with, hence I chose pepper jack cheese and I didn't regret it. This spicy cheese and the wine really brought out a leathery taste in the wine that I didn't taste before. I would say that the taste of the wine and cheese clashed very well that I was getting a much stronger earthy taste out of the wine. The berry taste was even stronger than before. The wine did however overpower the after taste of the cheese, but I could still taste the spiciness of the cheese. The cheese in my opinion made the wine taste stronger.

This last wine was a 2016 Notissimo Moscato di Noto from Sicily, Italy. This was a red moscato wine. This was not a sweet moscato which was a shock.  This was medium-bodied red wine so I paired it with light cheese as well. Hence, I paired it with monterey jack. This wine overpowered the taste and the cheese didn't really do much to the taste because the wine stayed dry and if anything, the wine made the cheese saltier than it already was. The wine sort of made the cheese taste richer, but the overall taste of the pairing was salty and dry, hence I didn't really enjoy this pairing.