Wines & cheeses with Liz Wheadon

Our monthly Channel Wines and Cheeses columnist is Liz Wheadon, General Manager of Glengarry Wines. Liz is also a passionate foodie. Weekends are often spent first planning the event and then entertaining friends and family with magnificent food and wine experiences.

Cheese – The Basics

It may seem odd to jump back to the basics after a fair few articles on cheese, but I’ve been prompted to following a very exciting cheese training session conducted by Juliet Harbut in early February for the Didas team. Juliet is a wonderful speaker and an authority (as well as author) on cheese. Juliet is based in the UK, a New Zealander, she was home visiting family and shopping at Didas whilst in town, so we nabbed her for a little training.

Fresh Cheese
The first category of cheese is French cheese – these are very young cheeses that are traditionally preserved, usually in salt or oil. The best example is Feta, a cheese traditionally made from goat and sheep milk, not goat milk, although this is quite common in New Zealand. During the tasting we tried the Australian goat’s cheese from Meredith Dairy, it’s preserved in oil and a perfect example of great fresh cheese, mild, lemony and with no rind.

Soft White cheeses
Then you move to soft white cheeses, these are cheese’s that have been ripened using a soft rind that grows on the cheese. A soft white cheese in excellent condition should taste like creamy mushroom soup with a hint of sherry. The Classic soft white cheeses are off course Brie and Camembert, Juliet was very quick to remind our team that Camembert comes from Camembert in 250 gram rounds made from the milk of short legged cows on the coast. Brie by comparison is made in large wheels from cows with longer legs. New Zealand versions tend to be any shape the cheese maker prefers.

Semi Soft Cheeses
These are cheeses where a little of the moisture has been taken out of the cheese through a little pressing of the curds and then washing the cheeses. These are also often referred to as wash rind cheeses, things like Taleggio and Saint Nectaire.

Hard Cheeses
One of my favourite categories, Hard cheeses are made by pressing the curds to remove all the moisture, then leaving them to age. One of the best New Zealand Hard cheeses is Barry’s Bay Cheddar, an excellent example.

Blue Cheeses
These are softer cheeses that have had a mould introduced that grows into the beautiful blue through the cheese. Blue cheeses have to be softer to allow the blue to be able to move through the cheese. One of the kings of Blue cheeses is the French blue Roqufort, whilst a strong blue, it’s delicious creamy texture makes it an excellent cheese for those starting to enjoy Blue cheese.

Is every glass the same?

In a word, no, the shape of the glass largely affects the way the wine that’s being consumed from the glass tastes.

So how does it work? The shape of the bulb of the glass, the height and the width of the glass, all affect where the wine initially ‘hits’ your palate. It’s all about first impressions, as we taste sweet, salt, bitter, dry in differing parts of our mouth, which ever we taste first affects our overall impression.

For example, when you drink from a glass with a large bulb, you will lower your head, with a narrow rim, you’ll move your head back further than with a wide rim - you can try not to, but it’s likely to spill down your front.

At this stage in the conversation, most are sceptical, I know when I first tasted in Riedel I was sure it was all marketing hype. One Riedel Master class tasting and I’m hooked.

The Riedel family have been producing crystal glasses now for more than two centuries. It was Professor Claus Josef Riedel who made the first glass that recognised the difference that size and shape of the glass would have on the perception of the wine.

There are now a large range of glasses for the different varieties and within the ranges, alternate glasses for wines from the New World and Old World, recognising for example that Pinot Noir from Burgundy and New Zealand, whilst the same grape varieties have different characteristics.
International Praise for these glasses is wide spread including Robert Parker;

“The finest glasses for both technical and hedonistic purposes are those made by Riedel. The effect of these glasses on fine wine is profound. I cannot emphasize enough what a difference they make” (Robert M.Parker, Jr. The Wine Advocate).

Within the ranges, there’s glasses that suit all budgets, from Riedel Ouverture (made with glass in a range of shapes) to Sommelier (hand blown crystal glasses) These are stocked at all Glengarry stores and on line www.glengarry.co.nz