Vegan wine and cheese pairings & a giveaway!

By Giselle Wedemire

I love wine, and I'm always up for trying out a new vegan cheese. But I never gave much thought to pairing the two because to me, wine pairing always seemed like one of those things that only rich, snooty WASPs do when planning their dinner menus after inviting similarly fancy friends with names like Carlton and Ivanna over for a dinner party. 

That's not how I roll.

A glass of malbec while curled up on the couch watching British game shows? Now that's more my speed. However, I like setting ridiculous, self-imposed challenges for myself, so I figured why not learn how to pair vegan cheeses with wine?

Now, I knew next to nothing about pairing wines with foods before embarking on this adventure. But after arming myself with a copy of Adam Centamore's book Tasting Wine & Cheese, I learnt that these pairings aren't as hard as the snooty pants of the world would have you believe. As Centamore says in the book's intro, "Pairing food and drink is, at the same time, amazingly easy and unbelievably hard. It's easy because we do it all the time, whether we are conscious of it or not... At its most basic, pairing is bringing two or more ingredients together in a way that creates an impression that is grander than the ingredients alone."

So there you have it! While his entire book is dedicated to pairing wines with dairy-based cheeses, I relayed his findings into usable information on how wines can be paired with some of the best vegan cheeses on the market today. (Note: I am by no means a sommelier or a fromagier; I'm just a woman with a blog and a few too many bottles of wine at home, so give me a break if I make a pairing you don't agree with.)

Ready? Let's cut the cheese and play matchmaker with some booze!*


Basic Roots raw cashew nut cheeses

• Basic Roots Pink Peppercorn raw cashew nut cheese** is smooth, mellow, and slightly smoky with bursts of flavour from the chunks of peppercorn. It's understated, but not shy, and the smoky, peppery flavour and intensity builds with every bite.
  
  Best wine to pair it with: pinot grigio. Based on Centamore's advice, a good pinot grigio works best with fresh goat cheeses, which seemed like the perfect dairy counterpart for this vegan cheese. Because pinot grigio is a bit sharp, this pairing makes for a nice, mellow combination where no one flavour is fighting for your attention. It's just harmonious and chill.
  
  
• Basic Roots Herb de Provence raw cashew nut cheese** is soft, creamy, and aromatic. It is literally a herb-filled delight that's fresh, light, and refreshing.
  
  Best wine to pair it with: pinot grigio. Again, the sharpness of the wine made for a nice and mellow combination that's harmonious, and the acidity of the wine lets the cheese's herbs sing.
  
  
• Basic Roots Smokey Chipotle raw cashew nut cheese** is a bright and flavourful cheese that's smoky, smooth, creamy, and decadent. Even though it's got chipotle in it, it's delicately spiced and would work for even the most pepper-phobic cheese lovers out there.
  
  Best wines to pair it with: rosé and merlot. I found that the rosé's fruity notes complemented the smokiness and full-bodied flavour of this cheese, and helped to make it a complete experience. And with the merlot, I found that the wine's strong and bold fruity flavours really intensified the cheese's chipotle flavour, and helped the wine and cheese to harmonize with one another and elevate both to a sublime level of awesomeness.

Chao Cheese slices

• Chao Creamy Original cheese slices were on sale at the health food store near my house, so I grabbed it on a whim and put it to the (taste) test. It's got an aged and bold flavour to it that's not too strong, and it reminds me of the Edam cheese I grew up with in the Caribbean. It tasted like nostalgia.
  
  Best wine to pair it with: merlot. Though I couldn't find any mention of Edam cheese in Centamore's book, I felt comfortable with my growing wine pairing knowledge and decided that merlot and Chao cheese provide a good balance for one another, in the sense that the cheese helped sand off rough edges of the wine and make it less in your face.

Glowfood Creamery artisan vegan cheeses

• Glowfood Creamery Piri Piri artisan vegan cheese is very reminiscent of the sharp cheddar cheese balls I used to snack on with my mom while watching re-runs of Becker at night. The spices are delicate and they add an interesting element to an already stellar cheese. The cheese itself is the closest I've ever come to finding a perfect vegan replacement of a traditional sharp cheddar.
  
  Best wines to pair it with: merlot, malbec, and cabernet shiraz.
  I found that merlots and malbecs mellowed the piri piri spices and the cheese helped to bring out the the fruity notes of the wines. And I found that the opposite was true for the cabernet shiraz; the wine highlighted the piri piri spices and brought them to the forefront, while making the cheese taste somehow even creamier than it actually is.
   
• Glowfood Creamery Bay Leaf & Rosemary artisan vegan cheese is fresh, light, and vibrant. Its creamy richness was indulgent without being cloying, and it reminded me of those Babybel cheeses from back in the day. It's one of the most realistic vegan cheeses I've tried in my life so far.
  
  Best wines to pair it with: merlot and shiraz. This cheese helped cut through the acidity of the red wines I paired it with. The cheese seemed to make merlot seem fruitier (which was refreshing because merlot can be a bit intense sometimes), and the shiraz helped make the cheese taste creamier, which in turn helped highlight its rosemary flavour.

There's a whole lot more vegan cheese out there to try pairing with wine while watching various episodes of ridiculous British game shows. But to get you started on your cheese-sampling journey, the lovely folks at Basic Roots want to hook you up with a gift basket packed with yummy raw, vegan, and gluten-free goodies (including their fantastic cashew cheeses). 

Enter below for your chance to win an awesome gift basket valued at $100! (Sorry, this competition is open only to residents of Calgary, AB).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

* All of these cheeses were paired with Jackson Triggs wines, since it is a Barnivore-certified vegan wine. However, late into this experiment, a JT rep informed me that their wines actually contain animal byproducts from time to time, depending on the vintage. Sad beans!
** These cheeses were provided by Basic Roots free of charge.