Best of Wines and Cheeses in Costa Rica

Best of Wines and Cheeses in Costa Rica

During our time in Costa Rica (much longer than we expected) we’ve been finding some really nice wines and cheeses. This trip we’ve had more purchasing options since we’ve been traveling around the country more. This has allowed us to find brands and shops that we never visited before. We’re also aware that it isn’t crucial to refrigerate cheese immediately so we’ve been fine taking the chance of driving home with it for a couple hours without thinking twice.

Wine and Handmade Cheese on the Train

wheel of handmade camembert

Well I promised you a cheese adventure so here goes!

We left Longmont, CO with our cheese in hand on the morning of September 30. We’d be riding the Amtrak train all day (11 hours) heading to Grand Junction, CO so we put our camembert into a lunch bag with some ice. We had already declared it ready to eat but our last few days were a bit hectic so we didn’t get around to eating it.

Happy Chardonnay Day

Happy Chardonnay Day 1

In order to celebrate Chardonnay Day today, I’ve looked through past WineAndCheeseFriday entries to find those featuring Chardonnay. All of you Chardonnay Lovers out there will be excited to see that we’ve written many entries featuring this grape. We even went as far as creating “Chardon-May” last year and had a month long celebration of this popular white wine.

Chardon-May, Our Favorite Chardonnay

Chardon-May, Our Favorite Chardonnay

When we came up with the idea for Chardon-May, I wanted to find wines from less common growing areas than most people are familiar with for Chardonnay. We have enjoyed Chardonnay on many occasions and it is a wine that can range in flavor quite a bit. I was also curious how many of them would be lighter and fruitier than the heavily oaked versions we knew from California.

Chardon-May, Finca Sophenia Chardonnay and Campo de Montalban

Chardon-May, Finca Sophenia Chardonnay and Campo de Montalban

This Chardon-May entry features a Chardonnay from Argentina and a cheese from Spain. We found this wine, as well as the Australian Chardonnay from our last entry at Wine Authorities. Also similar to the previous entry, the cheese is from Whole Foods. I love cheese and they have such a terrific selection of cheeses from around the world there! In order to celebrate WineAndCheeseFriday, we brought in guest tasters, Jo and Francis, our landlords in Durham, NC. They both enjoy wine and figured they’d give wine and cheese pairing with us a try. I didn’t realize Jo is usually an AnythingButChardonnay kind of girl when we invited them up so we’ll see how it goes.

Chardon-May, Woodlands Chardonnay and New Zealand Cheddar

Chardon-May, Woodlands Chardonnay and New Zealand Cheddar

Where do Chardonnay grapes grow? Have you ever looked into it? The more popular areas are California and France, but as you know we like to explore outside the box. As we went through our previous Chardonnay entries we were really surprised to find out that we’ve mainly tasted California chardonnay. We’re taking the opportunity with Chardon-May to try some of those other regions.