We found a fellow WineAndCheese lover here in Quebradas, Costa Rica! Her name is Carol and she lives right down the road from us. Since she’s an expat, we can speak English, which makes it a little easier! We had already gotten together for wine and cheese before so I wanted to do it again as part of WineAndCheeseFriday. Also having some in-person time provided a nice break from all our Christmas video chatting.
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.
After trying a few bottles of Pata Negra Tempranillo, we decided to have one for an official wine and cheese pairing. We’ve tried multiple vintages and styles so we wanted to share it with all of you! The cheese we chose was from Denmark, and we pretty much jump at the chance to have blue cheese, when we can find it. We actually figured out during the pairing that the last time we’d had blue cheese was with our family during the holidays. No wonder we were craving it so much. We present to you the pairing of Pata Negra Reserva Tempranillo and Rosenburg blue cheese.
National WineAndCheese Day is every year on July 25.
Below is the video that aired on the WineAndCheeseFriday Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/wineandcheesefriday/ on July 24
When I was approached to be the guest on Just the Bottle we talked through a few ideas of what the theme would be. I had recently done two Spanish wine and Spanish cheese pairings, (https://wineandcheesefriday.com/rioja-with-sheep-cheese-a-little-piece-of-spain/ and https://wineandcheesefriday.com/white-rioja-and-goat-cheese-log/) that were well matched, so I suggested the idea. Christina, the hostess, happily agreed since she is a fan of Spanish wines. This was our chance to get better acquainted with a new region for wine and cheese. We've had Grenache from California and quite a few blue cheeses but neither one from Spain so when we came up with the idea of Garnacha and Valdeon, it was settled.
This was our month for Rioja; first the more traditional red and now the less available white. Wait, you didn’t know there was a white Rioja? It’s ok, I don’t think many people are aware of it. That’s why we chose to include it on WineAndCheeseFriday. It is a new wine for us, too. We only recently found out about it, so we couldn’t pass it up when we saw it in the store. The cheese is coincidentally from Spain as well. Here we are with another Spanish Wine and Cheese Pairing. Let’s see how this one goes!