Le Sommelier Wines - photo credit: cynthia silversidesLe Sommelier Wines - photo credit: cynthia silversides
April is National Grilled Cheese Month, and this April 12th is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day. With restaurants and even food trucks now specializing in gourmet toasted cheese sandwiches, we sure have come a long way from the American cheese on white bread combination popularized in the 1920s! Today we have many flavours to consider, not unlike wine.
A good opportunity to sample both cheese and wine is at the Good Food & Drink Festival in Toronto from April 5th through the 7th. On the schedule are wine seminars, a Gourmet Grilled Cheese Contest, and the "Wine & Cheese Experience" presentation by the Dairy Farmers of Canada. You can find lots of recipe ideas on their "all you need is cheese" website.
When matching wine with grilled cheese, whites work well because they generally do not have overpowering tannins, weight, or flavour that could be overwhelming. An oaked Chardonnay is an excellent choice which will match up well with the butteriness and toastiness of the sandwich. If you are going to try a red, look for a lighter, fruitier variety with lower alcohol and tannin, like a Gamay Noir.
Thinking about wine, what's been happening in Oakville? Le Sommelier presented at the Oakville Wine Enthusiasts Club (OWEC) meeting in April. Bernard gave a great talk on biodynamic farming as he introduced a wonderful variety of wines from Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, some of them from organic wineries. My favourites that evening were the Ciù Ciù white blend from the Le Marche region of Italy, and Giocoso, a gorgeous Grenache dominated blend from the Languedoc region of France.
So there you have it: Wine, Cheese, and More Wine!
