Wine and cheese…ah, what else does one need in life except some good bread? Well, for starters, one needs the right wine with the right cheese, because there is such huge variety in both. So what goes with what?  There are a number of guidelines, but few rules.  Before getting into the details, I should say that for the most part, most cheese will do most wine no great harm. But to really savor the match, here are some things to consider.

First, I believe that cheese generally belongs at the end of a meal, not as a cocktail snack. Most cheese is too filling and rich to start an evening and the flavors are often too strong. If you want to serve cheese before dinner make sure to select something that isn’t too creamy or pungent but, as will become obvious, these rules have many exceptions.

One place to start is the provenance of both the wine and the cheese. Wine and cheese from the same place are often perfectly matched. Munster – and I mean the real, slimy, stinky, almost runny, washed-rind cheese from Alsace and not the cheese-flavored paraffin they slice behind the deli counter – is perfectly matched with aromatic Alsace wines. Similarly, the great goat cheeses of the Loire Valley (Selles-sur-Cher, Ste Maure, etc) go perfectly with the wines of the region and one can almost tell by tasting that the fresh, slightly grassy wines of Sancerre come from the same soils as the fresh, slightly grassy Crotin de Chavignol. However, regional affinity only goes so far. Lombardy does not produce a wine to match with Gorgonzola, and although Burgindians may drink the local wine with Eppoisses, their local cheese, I think it’s a match made in hell. And what about all those places that produce cheese but no wine (Ireland, Normandy, Wisconsin, Vermont) or produce wine but no cheese (Bordeaux)?

If we look at wine and cheese by stylistic groups, we can make certain generalizations that will work most of the time.  I might as well say that, just as with wine, there is an enormous difference between huge industrially made products and more natural ones. Just as one wants wine to tell the story of where it was made and by whom, so cheese should have a distinctive character that is determined by where the cow, sheep or goat grazed, and how the cheese was made. Some cheeses are better at one time of year than at another and some can only be made seasonally (like the Beekman 1802 Blaak). I have never tasted Ricotta like what I had in Sicily in March, when the hillsides were the brightest green I have seen anywhere. How can one expect the same product in July when the hills are parched and brown?  Even if unpasteurized cheese is very hard to find, we can at least seek out products that are made in small batches and which is made from the milk of animals that are fed a natural diet like Brent, Josh and Farmer John do at the Beekman Farm.  So I have no use here for anything that comes pre-sliced or wrapped in plastic.

Let’s start with the easy cheeses, the ones with not much flavor but lots of rich texture. These are the double and triple cream cheeses. This means that the fat content of the milk has been enhanced with additional cream. These cheeses are soft but not runny, very rich and quite mild. They include St André, Explorateur, Brillat-Saverin, Pierre Robert etc. They are a fairly neutral match for almost any wine but they are so rich that they need something to cleanse and revive the palate. I like them best with Champagne or another very dry, sparkling wine, like a top Vouvray, Franciacorta or California sparkling wine. The acidity of the wine cuts the richness of the cheese and I like the contrast in texture between the smooth and creamy cheese and the prickly carbonation of the wine (scrubbing bubbles!).

Next, let’s look at Brie and Camembert family. These are soft cows milk cheeses with white, “bloomy” dry rinds that are the result of a mold called Penicillium Camembertii and which is essential to the ripening of the cheese. Unfortunately, the popularity of Brie means that there is a lot of indifferent stuff out there that bears the name, but a really good Brie makes one realize why there are so many wanna Bries. It is rich, buttery and slightly salty, with an aroma that reminds me (in a good way) of boiled cabbage or Brussels sprouts. Look for Brie de Maux for the very best quality. Camembert looks much like smaller Brie, but it has a more concentrated flavor and when ripe it can be… well…ripe. I have heard it said that a good Camembert ought to smell like the feet of God. The rinds of these cheeses are edible, but sometimes, if they have been aged in a damp place, they can start to smell of ammonia. The cheese itself is usually untainted, so just skip the rind. These cheeses are quite easily paired with wine. In my opinion they do best with young, fruity wines, either red or white. If you want red, try Beaujolais – for a perfect match try a good Beaujolais with St Marcelin, which looks like a tiny Camembert and which is so runny it always comes in a little cup — and for white, try a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. However, if you feel like something finer, go right ahead.

The big technical difference between the Brie Family, with their dry white rinds, and the Munster, Pont l”Eveque, Eppoise, Tallegio family, with their slimy orange-reddish rinds, is that the latter are rinsed at regular intervals with wine, beer, brandy or brine as they age and the most noticeable feature that these cheese share is their smell. These are truly stinky cheeses and the stink obliterates the subtleties of many fine wines. As mentioned above, Aromatic white wines, such as Alsace Riesling or Pinot Gris Gewürztraminer, Argentine Torontes, or Spanish Alberino are my recommendations. Avoid fine or subtle red wines, although this might just be one of the few good matches for a bruiser of a Zinfandel with fifteen percent alcohol (let me know if you try it, I’m not about to).

Then there are the semi-soft cheeses like St Nectaire, Tomme de Savoie, etc. They have thick dry rinds that are sometimes edible but sometimes too dry. When ripe, they should be slightly springy when pressed, neither hard nor runny.  These tend to be mild and earthy, often with aromas of wild mushrooms. They are great cheeses for almost any red wine and will not hurt a white. They are a good safe bet if you want a cheese to go with the end of a very good wine and want to be sure the cheese will not be too competitive.

Hard cheeses are another excellent partner for fine red wines. Aged Gruyere, fine aged cheddar, Parmigianno-Reggiano, and aged Gouda (once again, the real thing, not the deli version) have good, strong flavor, but are not so sharp that they will dull your taste buds. And their saltiness brings out the sweetness of the wine. Buy the best examples of these cheeses that you can find. It will be worth the money.

So far I have only been discussing cow’s milk cheeses, but there is also a world of goat and ewe’s milk cheese to explore. Probably the best-known ewe’s milk cheese in the U.S. is Pecorino Romano, a very sharp, hard cheese that is mostly used for cooking. I confess, I don’t like it very much by itself and I suppose I would not pair it with any wine that I thought too good to cook with. However, there are other very fine Pecorino (ewe) cheeses, especially from Tuscany and Spain (Manchego is the most famous). As with cow’s milk cheese, the age and texture of the cheese will help determine the pairing. If it is young, and soft, go with a crisp, dry white, if old and hard, a good Chianti, or Rioja will pair very nicely.

As for goat cheese, as mentioned earlier, they seem to have a special affinity for Sauvignon Blanc, but stick to the old world, where the wines tend to be dryer and more restrained. As mentioned earlier, the Loire Valley is home to both the world’s best goat’s milk cheeses and the best Sauvignon Blanc.

And then there is blue cheese. Blue cheese can be hard or soft and can be made from the milk of cows, ewes or goats, but it always smells and tastes unmistakably blue. The color and flavor are the result of a mold called Penicillium Roquefortii that sometimes occurs naturally (especially in Roquefort, as the name implies) but is more often introduced by piercing the cheese with long needles containing the mold spores. You can tell which is which by the patterns of blue in the cheese. The saltiness and funkiness of most blue cheese can kill almost any wine, so the traditional and, I think, best pairing is sweet wine, whether the match is Roquefort (once again, the real thing, from the Pyrenees) and Sauternes, Stilton and Port or Maytag Blue and late Harvest Zinfandel.  But you might want to use this as an occasion to try some wines you’ve probably never had before. See if you can find Banyuls, a fortified Grenache-based wine from Southern France, or Riciotto di Soave, a sweet white wine from northern Italy.

It can be fun to put together a selection of cheeses and pair each one with a different wine, but it takes a lot of work and planning and it involves opening more bottles than one is likely to finish. So use these guidelines either for selecting your cheeses to flatter the wine, or vice versa.