We purchased this wine and cheese in North Carolina about six weeks back but it just so happens to be a Pinot Noir pairing just after Pinot Noir Day! We found the wine from JAQK Cellars at World Market, a great place to buy wine! This is actually a brand that I first heard about in San Francisco over six years ago while job hunting. The cheese comes from Looking Glass Creamery, which we previously visited with our friend Doris. We figured the intensity of the cheese would pair nicely with a Pinot Noir, let’s see how we did!
We told you about our visit to the North Carolina Cheese Shop so now we’ll talk about the NC winery. As you know, Neil and I love traveling for wine (and cheese). There’s just so much out there to learn about and taste! We found this winery on the way out to Asheville and it’s the first NC winery we’ve visited. Mary, one of the owners, greeted us in their tasting room.
We’re always curious to try out some wines we’re not very familiar with. During our visit to the Wine Feed, we came across bottles of Picpoul from two different countries. How fun, we could learn about a new grape and see how it differs around the world! We’ve only tried this type of wine once before, https://wineandcheesefriday.com/tablas-creek-vineyard-paso-robles-ca/, and it was something I remembered wanting to try again. How often do you deviate from the noble grape varieties? Maybe this is a type of white wine you’d like to try?
We visited Asheville, NC, a few weeks back with our friend Doris. While we were coming up with ideas for the trip, I searched for local cheese shops. We were staying in Fletcher which is about a 20 minute drive outside of Asheville. Imagine our surprise when we found Looking Glass Creamery on that list and it was only a few minutes away from our AirBnB. We chose to go there Saturday in the early afternoon. The timing couldn’t have better as the sky opened up into thunderstorms just as we walked into the shop.
Towards the end of our Costa Rica trip, we found ourselves with a whole bunch of wine remaining from that case we had ordered from San Jose! There were a couple that had been earmarked for wine and cheese pairing research and another one that we just wanted to taste. And even two that we didn’t get to but ended up leaving as a Thank You gift for our caretakers. This pairing will kind be a catch all with wine, cheese, multiple dinners and even a little popcorn. We present to you "The Rest of our Wine in Costa Rica."
Being the Wine Fan that I am, people sometimes send me listings for wine events. The Wine Feed, a new wine shop in Durham, puts on a weekly #WineWednesday Free tasting, so how could I resist checking it out. When we arrived we found out the theme for the week was “Italian Wines” and it was being sponsored by a local distributor of wines from Italy. We happily joined in to taste the three wines available that evening.
Maria and Neil started wineandcheesefriday.com to learn more about wine in 2014. We’ve visited wineries, and creameries across the world to learn as much as we can about these two wonderful delacacies. We❤️🍷&🧀
