Wine, Cheese, and Friends

My best friend in the whole world is visiting from California and we had to get together for wine and cheese. He is even more of a wine and cheese aficionado that me, and brought some amazing things for us to enjoy together.

He brought a chilled Peju blend that looks like a rose, but is actually a blend of red and white wine. This was one of his favorite casual drinking wines and I loved it as well.

Its soft and very drinkable with still some intrigue. It's one of those wines you drink and are like "wow this is really good..." and get back to your conversation. Its not something you have to ponder and think about, which I liked.

To go with the wine we had an interesting cheese plate. He brought an 18 month aged gouda and a Moliterno sheep cheese with truffles.

The gouda was SO GOOD. Seriously it's one of my new favorite cheeses. It was aged for just the right amount of time where it was potent with crunchy spots yet soft and smooth overall. It was just... perfect. The sheep cheese was a little more complex. It was a cheese with truffle bits chopped in, but also it was infused in truffle oil. It was REALLY good at first, but the more I ate, the more overwhelming it tasted. It really was quite delicious, but I would stick to small amounts of this one.

Since we were trying cheeses, I wanted to get his opinion about that crazy coffee and lavender cheese I bought.

The consensus was that this cheese is weird. Its interesting in that it has crazy flavors and perhaps the middle part is ok, but overall its just... weird. The coffee dusting leaves a strange taste in your mouth, and we didn't taste the lavender at all this time. It was kind of a bust.

Just for fun I had him try a piece of that Fiscalini Cheddar I hated... he spit it out and called it an abomination in the name of cheese.

While we were eating and drinking we got on the subject of (what else?) wines. While talking about the vouvrays I was recommended to try, he told me they are the same thing as chenin blancs! All of a sudden we wanted to try one, so I got out the Pine Ridge chenin blanc/viognier from my birthday dinner!

Mmmm it was smooth and creamy and as delicious as before. I didn't take notes of any particular flavors or details but Im sure I will be buying it again. We all agreed it was great.

It was a big night full of lots of wine, cheese, and catching up, simply amazing! :)