Before you create a personalized wine and cheese gift basket for someone, try to know that person's taste preference. Does she or he like dry or sweet wine? Soft or hard, sheep or goat, cheese? This will help narrow down your cheese and wine choices, which can be hundreds or even thousands, depending on where you live. The best and most fun way to put together wine and cheese baskets is to decide on and taste the pairings yourself. The tips below give you some general ideas of where and how to begin. Enjoy!
Winter Wine & Cheese Baskets
Some types of cheese and wine are more popular in the winter than others. In France, for instance, people love to enjoy heavy, cheesy dishes like fondue and raclette when colder weather settles in. Consider making a wine and cheese gift basket with several types of cheese that can be used in a winter dish, such as fondue. Swiss-style cheese, including Gruyere and Emmental, make good choices.
Swiss-style cheese can be accompanied by either red wine (Chianti, Grenache, Pinot Noir, etc.) or white wine (Chardonnay, Riesling, Viognier, etc.). Authors Norm Ray and Barbara Ray have used their personal wine & cheese pairing experiences and research to come up with pairing suggestions for more than 340 types of cheese. Their recommendations can be found in their book, Wine & Cheese Pairing Guide: Your Exciting Search for Wow! Combinations.
Gift Baskets with Dessert Wine & Cheese
If your gift receiver enjoys sweet things, then dream up a gift basket of dessert wine and cheese. Muscat, Porto, Rivesaltes, Maury, to name a few, are some good types of dessert wine. The quality of course, varies from appellation to appellation. Olivier Poussier, who won the title of Best Sommelier in France in 2000, recommends the Rivesaltes 1959 du domaine Vila and Muscat Rio Patras d'Athanase Parparoussis. A strong tasting cheese, such as Comte or Roquefort, usually makes a good pairing with dessert wine.
There are innumerable possibilities when it comes to creating wine and cheese baskets. Take the opportunity of gifting someone and do a wine and cheese pairing and tasting experiment yourself. If your area has cheese shops, try buying your cheese from there as the cheese are usually cut when ordered and thus, tend to be fresher that ones sold at big supermarkets. The cheese mongers can give you information about your selection and may be able to make wine pairing recommendations.
Sources:
“Que boire sur les desserts?” Olivier Poussier.
Ray, Norm & Ray, Barbara. Wine & Cheese Pairing Guide: Your Exciting Search for Wow! Combinations. California: Rayve Productions, 2006.
