[ Adventures in Wine and Cheese #2 ]
Okay… so round one was really yummy. We let the Cab sit for the next few hours, and found that it mellowed a bit. The opening and close were still really soft, but the full body of the wine had softened while exposed to the air. I liked it a lot better after letting it sit, which tells me that I need to be a good girl and let my wine decant before drinking it. At least if it’s a cabernet, anyway.
We finished that first bottle, but tried two new cheeses and some blackberry preserves as well. We also added some salami. Both of us liked it better than the turkey summer salami we had in the first tasting, as it was sweet and the salami was nice and smokey.
Cheese
Type: Hickory Smoked Edam
Brand: May-bud
Cost: $4.49
I really, really liked this cheese. It had a very strong smoked flavor that went wonderfully well with the wine. Add some smoked salami and some of the preserves and it was freaking awesome. I’d never really added a fruit flavor to smoky cheese, and found I really like the way the flavors come together. This was my favorite cheese so far, with a sharp opening and a smooth finish, with a rich, full flavor that would go well with any kind of savory dish.
Type: Butterkase semi soft
Brand: Bauer
Cost: $6.29
The description of this cheese is as follows: smooth, mild, and buttery. We rather found it less buttery and more like a swiss. It was very soft and creamy, though, and had a kind of buttery consistency, which must have been what they meant. I liked the flavor, though it seemed more fitting for a hard cheese than a soft one. It had a slightly bitter finish, but went really well with the wine.