Roquefort pear and endive salad

Roquefort, pear, and endive: the classic French blue cheese salad. Roquefort is one of the most intensely flavoured blues: sharp, salty, and rich with penicillin-mould compounds. The pear adds juicy sweetness and acidity, the endive adds bitter crunch, and the combination of salty-rich blue, sweet fruit, and bitter leaf creates a three-way flavour tension that most wines cannot navigate simultaneously. The salt in Roquefort amplifies tannin harshly; the sweetness of the pear makes dry wines taste thin. The endive bitterness fights oak.