I was on Social Media recently when someone said “Maria, we’d guess that you have some cool chip and dip pairings with wine.” Surprisingly I didn’t so when I saw this cheese at the Durham Farmer’s Market, my gears started turning. What if we used this soft-ripened cheese, that is essentially a dip, with some multigrain chips and turned them into bruschetta? And since bruschetta is Italian, we could see what kind of Italian wine we could find to pair with it. Not quite chips and dip in the traditional sense but we are far from traditional people. We present to you, our version of chips and dip featuring a Super Tuscan Wine, Cottonbell Cheese (by Boxcarr Handmade Cheese) and Italian Tomatoes.
This next Chardon-May entry features the Eve Chardonnay from Charles Smith Wines. Charles Smith Wines is a brand from Washington that features funky black and white label designs. We’ve tried a handful of their wines but this will be our first time with their Chardonnay. Come to think of it, this might be our first time trying a Washington Chardonnay too.* The cheese we’ll be tasting for this entry is from North Carolina, and yup, you guessed it, it’s another one from the Durham Farmer’s Market. We really lucked out with the selection of cheeses available there. We hope you enjoy the second Chardon-May pairing of Eve Chardonnay and Rocket’s Robiola.
How long have you been reading WineAndCheeseFriday? Did you ever read our Pinot-Vember series of entries? Today we begin Chardon-May which will continue throughout the entire month of May. Not only will this be part of another fun set of entries but they just happen to fall within the same month as Chardonnay Day (May 24). Are you ready to learn about Chardonnay from some of the lesser known regions of the world? We’ll begin Chardon-May with the pairing of Biltmore Chardonnay and Carolina Moon, both from North Carolina. Be sure to keep checking back this month for more Chardonnay pairings.
I enjoy taking part in twitter chats especially those involving wine. If you’re looking for me after dinner, most nights of the week, that’s where you’ll find me (@winecheesefri). One day, I heard about a chat with the topic of wine travel. This definitely piqued my interest. As luck would have it, this chat was having a contest for a wine prize pack, and I won! The prize included a wine aerator, a wine vacuum, a backpack and a 3-month subscription to VineBox. Have you heard of VineBox? Its a wine club that sends out three wine samples per month to expose you to their wines before purchasing them. What a cool gift! As you may have guessed, this week's WineAndCheeseFriday entry will be about our first VineBox shipment.