It’s not often that I even consider repeating a wine and cheese pairing but there’s a first time for everything! During our 2019 trip to Costa Rica, we found a wine that we had been keeping our eye out for quite some time, https://wineandcheesefriday.com/stemmari-nero-davola-and-monterrey-cheese/. The Stemmari brand, from Siciliy, had been featured on #wininghourchat multiple times but I had never found their brand until that trip. Then this year I was back in the same liquor store and saw bottles of Stemmari Nero d’Avola on the shelf. Why not choose a new cheese to pair with this wine that we really enjoyed? It was settled, we’d be repeating a wine on #WineAndCheeseFriday!
We’ve been drinking Cono Sur wines, since we first found them in Ecuador in 2016. After trying a few bottles then, we became fans. Then I found out about the #conosurwinetalk chat on Twitter, . It was there that I first heard about Ocio. People from around the world would come together for that chat so many of the different labels by the brand would be mentioned. I remember hearing about the upper level wine during one of those first chats and thinking, “Wow, that sounds like some nice Pinot Noir! How can I get my hands on a bottle?”
We love the farmer’s market here in Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica. They call it the Feria and it’s the size of a soccer stadium, so there’s no surprise that we visit every week. One week while we were picking up our salad supplies and giant collection of vegetables, we walked past a table with mini bottles of wine. Since they were small, we could get a couple and not commit to a standard sized bottle of wine. Ok I’m in!
Well I promised you a cheese adventure so here goes!
We left Longmont, CO with our cheese in hand on the morning of September 30. We’d be riding the Amtrak train all day (11 hours) heading to Grand Junction, CO so we put our camembert into a lunch bag with some ice. We had already declared it ready to eat but our last few days were a bit hectic so we didn’t get around to eating it.
When I was choosing which classes to sign up for at The Art of Cheese, the one with bloomy rinds kept jumping out at me. This was a topic discussed at the Cheese Bootcamp but it was in the beginning of the course and I only attended the end. But, at the end of the bootcamp, Kate asked me if I’d like to take a wheel of camembert to age at home. Always being up for a challenge, I said yes.
When we arrived in Costa Rica, we spent our first week at the beach in Puerto Viejo. The thing about the beach in Costa Rica, or anywhere, is that it’s hot! A little tricky for me to enjoy a nice glass of wine when I’m sweating so I usually seek other options. A great alternative was the box of Sangria that we found with such a fun label. Then as we continued to look in the grocery store, we came across a new brand of Costa Rican cheese. It was settled, we could still do some wine and cheese in more of a tropical way!
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❤️🍷&🧀
