Cheese and wine, a match made in heaven? I had the pleasure of speaking about cheesemaking at the Hurstville Wine Club monthly meeting recently. Damian, Rhonda, Jeff and the team made me feel very welcome and it was great chatting to people who enjoyed tasting different wines and learning something new.
I covered the process of cheesemaking and then talked about wine and cheese pairing. I recommend a common sense approach which would be used not only with wine but with any food being matched to cheese. The stronger the cheese flavour, the more robust must be the matching wine (see the table at the end of this article).
I also demonstrated how to make ricotta (see my recipe here) and a sample of warm, freshly made cheese was sampled by the attendees. It took just 20 minutes to make the cheese from start to finish, and I was fortunate to have help from the audience to stir the curd and spoon it into a basket.
Ricotta cheese making demonstration
Wine and Cheese Pairings
| Types of Cheese | Examples | Wine Pairing |
| Fresh Cheese and Soft Cheese | Cottage cheese, Cream cheese, Ricotta, Mozzarella, Halloumi, Fetta
Brie and Camembert |
Crisp whites,
Sparkling wines, Dry rose and Light reds |
| Semi Hard Cheese
Hard Cheese (young) |
Edam, Havarti
Parmesan, Cheddar, Gouda |
Fruity reds,
Medium whites and vintage sparkling wines |
| Hard Aged Cheese | Aged Cheddar, Cheshire | Full bodied whites and tannic reds, also
Sweeter fortified wines |
| Blue Cheese | Danish, Roquefort, Stilton | Robust wines with sweetness to balance the bold flavours, eg Muscat |
Text and photos copyright: Sophia Poulos
foodsophy 
Hi Sophie,
looks delicious! Where did you get the colander, which makes such a nice patterned ricotta?
Thank you!!
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Hi Vicky, the ricotta basket was purchased from the supermarket. It is Sistema brand and has a container with a draining basket inside. They are also used for keeping pickles or beetroot. Cheers, Sophia
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