Do you like to try new wines?
The Your Sommelier Discover French Wine box sends you three delicious bottles of wine straight from France. You also get information cards and food pairings.
Previous boxes have focused on a specific region each month. This month they’ve gone a little off-piste and put together a Wine and Cheese Pairing box instead.
There are three bottles, two red and one white. Each bottle has the usual individual information card.
The overview card this time tells you all about pairing wine and cheese.
There’s guidance on how to serve your cheese, especially as regards temperature. Anyone who’s eaten Brie straight from the fridge will know how important this is!
You also have a great ‘cheat sheet’ on which type of cheese to serve with which wine, and even which cheeses will go with almost any wine. Very useful indeed.
I should interject now that I wasn’t able to do detailed cheese and wine pairings myself. The box arrived with perfect timing just before the start of half term, so as well as being delicious, the wine served a therapeutic purpose!
The white wine was Anjou Blanc Domaine de la Trielle.
Can I just say now that this was utterly marvelous. The smell was fragrant and fruity, and it tasted incredible. Fresh, but with a wonderful richness.
I tried a glass of this with some Brie we had in the fridge, and it did go beautifully. Even my husband, who is not a great fan of white, thought this was fabulous. This wine had so much depth of flavour that it had no trouble standing up to the spaghetti bolognese I cooked for supper that night!
(Sorry the picture’s a bit crap though, it really doesn’t do it justice.)
The first red I tried was Chinon 2016 Château du Petit Thouas. It was a moderately light red wine with lots of red fruit both in the aroma and in the flavour.
I realise it doesn’t look that light against the sunset, but this was the first time I got a sip of wine before the sun went down! As you can see by the white wine picture above, my LED kitchen lights do not make for pretty photography.
The recommended cheese for this wine was hard cheese such as Comté or mild Cheddar. My husband adores Comté, and we often have it in the fridge, but of course this was not one of those times! I’m not a fan of mild cheddar as I prefer the stuff that takes the roof of your mouth off, but I can imagine the Comté would be delicious with this.
I particularly enjoyed the absence of heavy tannins in this wine. There was none of that slightly dry back of the throat feeling, just smooth and delicious and extremely easy to drink!
The second red was Beaujolais ‘Rochebonne’ 2017 Trénel. This was another delightfully fruity wine, and again, not heavy.
It could be served chilled slightly, and my first glass was a little cold, though that was more to do with the central heating having not yet kicked in.
There wasn’t a specific cheese recommended with this particular wine, so I chose to sip it in the bath. Wine in the bath is one of my favourite treats, and this wine was absolutely perfect.
It was also a wonderful accompaniment to The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. If you haven’t watched it yet, do. It will scare the crap out of you. I can also recommend any of these three wines to go with it.
I always enjoy the Your Sommelier wines, but I have to say that this is one of the best selections I’ve yet had.
The wine and cheese pairing idea is just wonderful. I do feel slightly irritated with myself at not having the time and organization to buy cheese especially for each bottle.
Winter is sneaking up on us, and red wine is my go-to cold weather drink. I adore fruity wine, especially red, and both the reds in this box were my idea of wine perfection.
As for the white, wow. Just fantastic, one of the best I’ve ever had. Even though I usually prefer white when it’s warm out, the flavours and body of this wine makes it perfect for any time of year!
This would be a great jumping-off point for a wine and cheese party with friends.
And for the more romantic choice, I would take these wines away on holiday with my husband. We both love wine and cheese, so we could buy all the right cheeses, and spend a few evenings eating and drinking in peace and quiet!
A great treat for half term, a huge thank you to Your Sommelier, and à votre santé!
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Thanks for reading! Pin this review, and you can see what was in other Your Sommelier boxes here.
Receive 3 bottles of the finest French wine each month handpicked by our expert Sommeliers with our wine subscription box. Choose our Discovery Box for an introduction or the Expert Box for connoisseurs.
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