Last weekend saw the public tasting for Gold medal winners at the Hunter Valley wine show... yeah I know it was hard work! As you would expect at a Hunter Valley wine show Shiraz and Semillion varieties showed through to win pretty much all of the medals and trophies.
While I love a classic Hunter Semillon with a delicate goats cheese, I have always struggled to find any Australian Shiraz to be the perfect match with cheese. Now before everyone stops reading because you think I have gone mad; a great cheese match is seamless blending with the ability to bring flavours and aromas forward that you haven't perceived before and most importantly no clashes of flavours.
Bold ripe and spicy fruit with tannic mouth feel best describes Australian Shiraz and will make delicate goats cheese taste like the 'Billy' goat has been in the wrong stall and for hard cheese the tannins will just make them excessively tangy.
The development of wine styles like Shiraz Viognier, soften the acid and make the style much more approachable. A sensational medal winner from the Hunter show was the Margan 2007 Shiraz Mourvedre which is beautifully balanced to match, the sheep cheese Ossau Iraty, Alpine Appenzell or a traditional cloth-wrapped cheddar.
