We’ll be celebrating 5 years of WineAndCheeseFriday all month long! We’ve tasted a lot of wines along the way (see the comprehensive list in our slideshow entry) and have compiled our top 5 wines each. As you can imagine this was a task but it’s always fun to go back and reread some of this older entries! Also it’s a great way to identify those wines that we should look for again.
Maria and Neil have been reviewing wines and cheeses for 5 years already. In addition to their standard wine and cheese pairings, they've been on the quest for all kinds of wine and cheese experiences. They've gone cheese tasting, made cheese, tried some well-known and not so well-known wines, explored wine and cheeses from many regions of the world, eaten wine ice cream, paired wine and chocolate cake, played bocce while drinking wine, explored a cheese cave in Europe and visited a few farms.
They created a slideshow with behind the scenes moments for you to enjoy. Won't you join us in our celebration of 5 years?
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!
We were inspired by a #WiningHourChat to give Spanish Rioja wines a try. We’ve seen them in the stores before but we’ve noticed they usually cost more than the other wines. Here in Panama, the wines are significantly less expensive than we have found in other parts of the world so it was our chance to pick up a bottle. The cheese we chose to pair with it also hails from Spain. We didn’t know much about it other than the fact that it would be harder cheese. Sounds good to us! Have you tried pairing wine and cheese by country before? Why not give it a whirl next time you are in the store?
Our quest for new wines continues this week, with a chenin blanc/chardonnay blend that looked like a great wine to try. The cheese we chose to pair with it, Quesos Deleite, is actually made right next door to where we are staying. We’ve seen them receiving raw milk on the loading dock and working away, but haven’t had a chance to go inside yet. Do you like Chenin Blanc or Chardonnay? Have you tried a blend of the two? Read on for our review of this new-to-us blend paired with the fresh Quesos Deleite.
During our time in Costa Rica, I kept coming across a South African wine but never picked it up. Then after we arrived in Panama, I saw one here too and I thought, “Ok I need to get this.” In my continued quest to learn about new wines and regions I thought this would be our first South African wine but then realized there have been a few others. We are ready to learn about a new area, while we are in a new place. Speaking of that new place, Panama has been a place with the challenge of finding cheeses worthy of wine pairings. There’s a lot of cheese but it’s mainly processed grocery store stuff. We need to find a local cheese shop! That being said, this Grana Padano seemed the closest thing to something artisan around here. All we know is that it is an Italian cheese similar to Parmesan. Let’s see how they work together while we enjoy some Wine and Cheese with our new Landlady Pame (PAH may)!