First Time Food & Wine
It’s mid June. Rows of white tents have suddenly appeared in and around Paepke Park and crowds of visitors with passes around their necks can only mean one thing: the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. And this year’s three-day event was sure to be nothing short of a hit. Or so we assumed. After all, we--interns at Aspen Sojourner--had never attended. So when we were offered the chance to go to a wine seminar, we immediately accepted. But which seminar would we attend? As Food & Wine virgins, we weren't sure where to start.
Undecided whether our interest fell more with celeb chefs, like latest Top Chef winner Hosea Rosenberg, who faced off against Stephanie Izard (last season’s winner) in a Quickfire Challenge, or Giada De Laurentiis and her savvy Italian skills, or Bobby Flay, who taught about the art of diner food with a seminar on Burgers, Shakes & Fries, we did some research.
There were some do-gooders in the line-up who addressed the culinary world’s role in raising environmental awareness. Take Peter Jacobson for instance, an organic gardener, advocate for Slow Food, and co-owner of Yountville Seed Company in California, who created a buzz with his seminar, "The Farm-to-Fork Connection: Creating a Sustainable World at your Table." And others who have simply hit it big as of late, like Steve Ells, the chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle. In the end, we were quickly sold: The Cheese Course was our pick. Need we say more? Sign us up!
As wine-o-wannabe magazine interns fairly new to the Food & Wine scene, we walked into a Paepke Park tent for the 2:00 wine seminar, wide-eyed and hungry. Regardless of the many hours left of light still in the day, we were unashamedly ready for some good-tasting wine. And what goes best with a nice pour of vino? A delicious cut of cheese. We quickly found there is much to learn about the marriage of wine and cheese, and few know better than experts Brian Duncan and Laura Werlin. Full and happy after 45 minutes of taste-bud bliss, we managed to walk away with these basics on wine-and-cheese pairings:
• Cheese affects wine flavors more than it does vice-versa, which is why, in order to enjoy the wine’s full flavor, you should always sip first.
• If you don’t like the wine or the cheese, you probably won’t like the pairing.
• Remember to pair textures (not just tastes) of wine and cheeses.
• Never pair red wine (and rarely pair white) with fresh fruit—good neutrals for red wine are nuts, olives and dried fruit.
• Creamy/buttery cow’s milk cheeses are best paired with a creamy/buttery wine (surprised?)— don’t pair them with an oaky chardonnay.
• Goat cheese is best paired with a sauvignon blanc.
• A cheese eaten with its rind will usually taste different with wine than the cheese will by itself. Sample the cheese without the rind first.
Our favorite pairing? An Austrian dessert wine and a Grevenbroecker blue cheese. You can head to The Cheese Shop on Hopkins Ave. to pick up these (and more!).
When we left, all five glasses were empty. What can we say? We’re enthusiastic students. We walked out of the tent a little droopy eyed, raved and then decided that despite our fine wine experience, we’re still young. For the time being, we’ll continue to enjoy our weekend tastings of cheap draft beer and shots of whatever flirting can get us for free at the local bar. When we get bored with that (or just more mature, perhaps), we’ll host a fabulous wine and cheese party of our own. Until then, bottoms up!
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