Cheese board

Assuming a mixed board: something hard and aged, something soft and bloomy, something blue, and one goat cheese.

A board is several different problems on one plate, and the received answer is the wrong one. Aged cheese is loaded with the savoury compounds that make tannin taste metallic and hollow, so the big red most people reach for is the least suited thing on the table. What works is oxidative depth or sweetness, and acidity underneath both to cut the fat.

Pairs Perfectly

Oloroso Sherry, Jerez, Spain. Pairs Perfectly. Aged in cask without a veil of flor, so it comes out dry, full-bodied and nutty, with walnut, fig and a leathery savour that meets aged cheese on its own ground. It carries no tannin at all, which is the whole trick: nothing is left to clash with, and one bottle covers more of a board than any red can. It is neither rare nor expensive, and it keeps a fortnight once opened.

Pairs Well

Coteaux du Layon, Loire, France. Pairs Well. Sweetness is what resolves blue cheese, where salt and bitterness would otherwise fight the wine, and this Chenin keeps enough acidity to handle the fat as well.

Champagne Rose, France. Pairs Well. High acidity and a fine bead scrub the fat from soft and bloomy cheeses, and the red-fruit weight stands up to a washed rind where a lean white would vanish.

Worth Seeking Out

Mavrodaphne of Patras, Greece. A sweet fortified red aged in wood: raisin, fig and chocolate for about the price of a supermarket claret. It does for a strong blue what Port does, at a fraction of the money.

Avoid

Young tannic red with anything fresh or soft. The tannin reacts with the proteins in the cheese and both turn metallic, which is the single most common mistake made at this end of the meal.

Failing That

A Fino Sherry, Jerez, Spain.

If All Else Fails

Vintage Port, Douro.

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