Italian Rosé and Local Mozzarella cheese

Italian Rosé and local Mozzarella cheese

We were excited to find a handful of Italian wines to try in February. This rosé was purchased as part of that collection. We already told you about the Wine Folly Wine and Cheese List and on there was a Sangiovese Rosé with Mozzarella. After purchasing the rosé we found a cheese that was made in the part of Costa Rica where we were staying, Jaco. What a great chance to do her suggested pairing. I didn’t know which grapes were used to make the rosé but I figured it was a pretty close match. Let’s find out how the pairing went!

Montepulciano and Parmesan

Montepulciano and Parmesan

We’ve dubbed February as Italian Wine Month here on WineAndCheeseFriday.com. Why? Why not. I’ve been getting a little bored with my pandemic wine selection here in Costa Rica so I’ve been creating themes to revisit and learn a little more about each topic. Today’s pairing was suggested by WineFolly on a huge list that I found a while back, https://winefolly.com/wine-pairing/12-classic-wine-and-cheese-pairings-you-have-to-try/. I was excited to find both a Montepulciano and a Parmegiano Reggiano to do this entry, so without further ado, here we go!

White blend, Sparkling Rosé and Two Monte Azul cheeses with Carol

Carol, Maria and Neil preparing tasting notes for the rosé

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.

Handmade Red Wine Truffles

handmade red wine truffles

Each year around the holidays Neil and I look forward to making cookies but this year we didn’t have an oven where we were staying. We had to get creative with what else we could make and have it be comparable to our tasty peanut butter Hershey Kiss cookies. We found this recipe for chocolate wine truffles on Pinterest and it seemed like just the treat. We had the correct cooking set up as well as access to the ingredients here in Costa Rica. Also it would be just the thing to bring to our holiday get together with chocolate and wine lovers!

Argentinian Rosé and Nutty cheese

Argentina Rosé and Nutty cheese

Would you imagine that people are drinking Rosé during this time of the year? Well Neil and I are still in Costa Rica and if we can find rosé in the store, we’re happy to drink it! We’ve never tried this one and it was a Syrah, which we enjoy. We also don’t drink Argentinian wine all that often so we were curious to find out it’s flavor profile. Those of you that are regular readers know the Costa Rican cheese brand, Le Chaudron, as it was just used in last week’s entry too! We actually picked it up during the same trip to L'Épicerie. Now onto the pairing of Argentinian Rosé and Nutty cheese.

Negroamaro and Caprice

Negroamaro and Caprice

This was our second time visiting the specialty grocery store, L'épicerie, in Ojochal. We had such good luck with wine and cheese we purchased from there a few months back that we had to plan another trip! (https://wineandcheesefriday.com/best-of-wines-and-cheeses-in-costa-rica/) As we entered we had wine and cheese on the mind. What would we find this time around? Would there be more wines from other countries that our local distributors don’t carry? And what kind of cheese would we find?