Sparkling Moscato and Cheddar

Our wine and cheese tasting occurred in Chicopee, MA this week, during our trip to my mom’s. This tasting will include additional comments from my mom (Betty), my brother (Vinny) and my brother’s girlfriend (Koren). We chose the sparkling wine as a lighter, sweeter option everyone could enjoy!

During our initial sips of wine, most of us noted fruit flavors, ranging from strawberry and raspberry to watermelon. It reminded Betty of a wine cooler and Vinny of Strawberry Fanta. Neil noticed a hint of a malt beverage flavor. Koren liked the bubbles but Betty described it as “picky”. We all enjoyed the sweetness and light body.

For the cheddar cheese, we came up with many points of view. Betty said it tasted like Vermont! Where Vinny thought it was a smelly cheese. A few of us found it to be milky, creamy and smooth but I thought it was dry and tart. It did have some sharpness to it, but Neil summed it up as “mildly sharp”. I’d say that’s a good way to describe it.

When we tasted the sparkling Moscato and Cheddar cheese together, some of us felt it was a good match while others didn’t. With so many people tasting together, this wasn’t surprising.

Koren said they were extremely flavorful together. A great mix of sweet and tangy that compliment each other very well. She also noted that the smoothness of the cheese calms the fizzle of the wine nicely. Neil felt the wine was sweeter than the cheese could balance but the pairing still worked. Vinny and I found the wine to become even sweeter with the cheese and would prefer to have them separate. And Betty thought the combination made the wine less sweet.

We all had a great time tasting the wine and cheese and it was a fun way to celebrate Betty’s birthday! Consider a sweeter sparkling wine the next time you have a bunch of people over.