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Wine and cheese gift baskets
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Wine and cheese gift baskets are some of the most flavorful and
complex tasting types of food gifts that you can give. After all,
as all wine connoisseurs know, a good wine has a very complex taste.
And it is even possible to find out where the wine came from and
when it was bottled based on the taste. The same is practically
true.
Therefore, when putting together or buying wine and cheese gift
baskets, you want to be sure that you get wines and cheese that
compliment each other, ones that enhance the flavors of one another.
It can be much too easy to get pair a cheese and a wine that will
compete. Needless to say, when this happens, one of them wins, washing
out the flavor of the second.
A very basic rule to follow when picking out your wine and cheese
gift baskets is this: the creamier the cheese, the more acidic the
wine you need to pair with it. This is because a creamy cheese can
coat the palate, and only an acidic wine can cut through it. It
is not worth wasting a good but low acidic red wine on such a cheese
– you will not get the full enjoyment of the flavor of the
wine.
How acidic a wine is depends entirely on the grapes… what
variety they are and where they are grown. This is because the acids
found in wines are the same as those found in the grapes they are
made from. Therefore, you can expect that two chardonnays, although
both made from the same variety of grape, can have different levels
of acid.
Grapes that are grown cool climates have a lower acidity than those
grown in warmer climates. Similarly, the warmer the climate, the
higher the sugar content.
White wines are generally more acidic than red wines.
Sweet wines are generally more acidic than table wines (this is
because the acid level helps balance out the sweetness).
A basic red table wine has an acidity level of 0.6%
Some good acidic wines for wine and cheese gift baskets are if
you want to give soft cheese (like camembert, gouda, havarti, brie):
- German Rieslings
- red Sancerre
- Vinho Verde
- Muscadet
- Piinot Blanc
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Aligote
Less acidic red wines go well with hard and semi-hard cheeses like
Gruyere, gouda, permigiano, munster, asiago, and hermitage. Try
some of these wines in your wine and cheese gift baskets if you
decide to include the above mentioned cheese:
- Pinot noir
- Cabernet franc
- Cabernet sauvignon
- Merlot
- shiraz
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