Vino de Coyol and Para Derretir Cheese

The wine this week is a complete wild card. We were driving down the road, near Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and saw a roadside stand with a sign for wine. Well we had to stop here but really didn’t know what we’d find. There was a little kid that ran over to the car and said we could get 1000 for 3000. We eventually figured out that the 3000 was the price, converts to about $6 US. We gladly paid and were handed a previously used soda bottle with a white cloudy liquid. When I asked which fruit is used for this wine, the boy pointed over at a palm tree in the distance.

The cheese comes from our local market in San Isidro at a store called Quesos de Oriente. This was a great trip because the guy started giving us samples to try and in the end we probably tried about 5 different cheeses. There were a few mild cheeses but this one was more bold, so we were excited to see how it would pair with wine. We did end up choosing 2 different cheeses, the second one will be featured in our next WineAndCheeseFriday. If you are wondering “para Derretir” means “to melt.” And the guy told us, if you go to the store on a different day, the cheese to melt, will be a different kind. How cool!

After purchasing the wine, we had to Google it to find out if there was any information about this mysterious liquid. We did find a link to another blog, http://www.twoweeksincostarica.com/vino-de-coyol-costa-ricas-moonshine,
where we happily had a preview of our upcoming tasting experience.  We decided to share this tasting with a friend from the US that just happened to be visiting CR while we were here. The tasting notes today will have all 3 of our opinions.

So onto the wine tasting…As we opened the soda bottle, the liquid began to fizz out, we certainly weren’t expecting that! The description of the aromas began to fly; coconut, poop, slightly citrus, garden, sweaty oily person, the beach, lavender, hair salon, perm solution! You have probably figured out that we almost put it down and ran screaming but had to see what it tasted like. The flavors were unpredictable too; heart of palm, monster energy drink, Yeast!, fried dough, coconut, hint of fruit. I really didn’t like the flavor or the finish, but what an experience! The fizzing aspect of it was probably the best part.

The cheese smelled funky but we chose it because it was bold. The flavor was mild up front with a hint of tanginess on the aftertaste. There was a spongy texture but we liked that. Then the flavor started to evolve a bit and there was a hint of sweetness that reminded me of sugar cookies and Neil of wafer cookies. Chris didn’t like the cheese at all!

As we paired the Vino de coyol and para Derretir cheese, I was reminded of the fizz but the flavors of the wine and cheese seemed the same to me. For Neil, the wine got sweeter and he felt the cheese lost its sweetness but the flavor of the milk came out more. We had pretty much lost Chris by this point although he did keep drinking the wine, hoping for it to get better.