During our time in Colorado, we took a trip out to Downtown Boulder to explore the area. The pedestrian mall area is super cool with street performers, shops, restaurants and Savannah Bee Company. Neil and I are fans of bees and their products so we decided to drop in. There were all kinds of lotions, soaps, candles and in the back of the shop, a mead tasting bar. We arrived just as they were closing up but the lady at the tasting bar let me taste a few samples.
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 wrapped up our trip to Chicago by having a bit of an impromptu dinner party with about six people. We had been gathering up some goodies while we made our way around town going from wine shop to wine shop and of course, cheese shops too. Now it was time to try them all out.
We heard about this wine during one of our previous trips to Costa Rica but couldn’t find it until this year. The wine is made from cashews and we really thought hard about how a wine could be made from nuts. We were telling someone about it and they said “Oh silly, the wine is made from the fruit, not the nut!” Did you know cashew was a fruit?? Just shortly after finding the wine in one of our local licorerias (liquor stores) we came across the fruit in the farmer’s market. We told the farmer that we’d be tasting the wine soon so he gave us one of the fruits to taste too.
When we arrived in San Carlos, CA, for Labor Day weekend, there was no question in anyone’s mind that we’d be enjoying lots of wine and cheese in the days to come. Our friend Kristy, a new mom, had been counting the days until we arrived since her wine drinking had been on hiatus during her "mommy to be" days. She planned a grand wine and cheese feast to start out the festivities with 4 cheeses and a bottle of rosé. Maria and Neil were ready! Such a delicious evening!
Cheeselovers Day is only a few days away. What better way to celebrate than with a pairing of 4 wines and 4 cheeses! We did the tasting for this entry back in the summer during our visit to Lake Erie Wine Country. One of our favorite things about wine and cheese in this area is the Reverie Creamery and Market in Mayville, NY. They have such a great selection of not only their own cheeses but many of the big hitters too. We’ve made a trip out to this shop a few times along with our annual wine tasting voyage around the lake. Actually the tradition now includes the wine tastings, the visit to the cheese shop, and a group tasting with family.