Philippe Tessier Cour-Cheverny and Aged Provolone
When I attended The Strange wine tasting, this wine really intrigued me! (http://mferraro73.tumblr.com/post/90139827273/the-strange-this-week-i-attended-a-wine-tasting) I couldn’t wait to share it with Neil as well as see what happened when I paired it with cheese. This cheese stuck out for us when we read the description, “not your typical deli case provolone”. Let’s see what these new and exciting wine and cheeses hold for us?
During our first S of wine tasting, “see”, we made note of the dark yellow color and appearance of tiny bubbles in the wine. The aromas were a little puzzling for me; tart lemon lifesavers, cleaning solution, and maybe hints of pine sol. Neil identified creamy citrus aromas. Definitely falls into the “strange” category. The flavors threw us a bit of a curveball too. I noticed lemon flavors but they were soft not sour and some apple. Neil noticed dry and lemony flavors, that were acidic but creamy. When I first tried this wine, I was told that the grape is Romorantin. After researching this grape, I’ve found that it is a sibling of Chardonnay and although widely planted in it’s beginning, now is limited to the Cour-Cheverny region of France. If you’d like to learn more about this grape, check out this helpful link, http://www.starchefs.com/cook/crush/wine/romorantin-cazin-cour-cheverny. I think I should head back to William Cross Wine Merchants, http://wmcross.com, and pick up another bottle of this mysterious, tasty wine.
We purchased the cheese at Rainbow Grocery, http://www.rainbow.coop, when we were recently there purchasing some bulk goods. We can never resist a trip over to their cheese section. When I saw the aged provolone, I was reminded of my childhood memories of eating Provolone cheese at my grandparent’s house. They always had a huge chunk of it to share, maybe that’s where my love of cheese came from? I wonder how this one will be different?
When we initially sat down to make wine and cheese pairing notes, we noticed the aroma of the cheese and had to set it off to the side so we could focus on the wine. It’s funny how your palate changes throughout life and you can look forward to a smelly cheese. I described the cheese as having a medium texture and being salty, dry, a little tart, flavorful and tasty. Neil liked the cheese too and found it to be dry and flaky, have “the cow milk funk” with grassy notes, and taste real good! I’m not really sure if it was all that different from my favorite family snack but it was definitely good. Honestly, I know when I was a kid, I wasn’t paying attention to specific flavors, just that I liked to eat!
As we paired the Philippe Tessier Cour-Cheverny and aged provolone, Neil felt the lemon cleanliness was enhanced in the wine and creaminess of cheese was more obvious. He thought it was a good pairing because they played off each other well. I found the wine smelled and tasted more tart and noticed a slight effervescence. The dryness of the cheese increased when paired with the wine. It was a fun pairing but the wine got too tart for me, I’d prefer them separately.