What Don’t You Drink with Aged Cheddar?

Pairing wine with cheese, as I have come to learn, means many different things to different people. What exactly defines a perfect pairing? Ask twenty people, you will most likely get twenty different answers. While I wouldn’t consider myself expert, I did gain quite a bit of experience during my tenure as a winery chef and cheesemonger in California wine country.  For me, a perfect match is when one complements the other without dominating it, creating almost a third taste sensation, which is the harmony between the two. 

 

A 25-year Aged Cheddar

Needless to say, I was very excited and intrigued by the thought of pairing the  Old Quebec Vintage Cheddar 25 Year Cheddar with a suitable wine. While the company produces a line of Cheddars that are widely available in a range of 3-10 years of age, this seasoned beauty was very much a limited edition; so much so that it was not offered for sale, but rather doled out in tasting portions on a first come first serve basis at a fundraising event held at the company’s Lancaster PA aging and distribution facility.

As for exactly how and why they aged this cheese for twenty-five years, Sales Director Aaron Deppen explains, “Some people might think that we just take a cheese and stick it in a corner to see what happens in fifteen years, but nothing could be farther from the truth. We have a very exacting process that begins after two years of aging. Only those cheeses that are showing the ability for improvement by further aging are selected to move on. So the 2 becomes the 3, the best of the 3 year cheeses eventually become the 5, the 5 the 7, the 7 the 10, and so on.”  There’s nothing wrong with Cheddars with less age. In fact, the Old Quebec Reserve 7 year Cheddar that won a gold medal in the World Cheese Awards in 2024.

 

What Does 25 Year Aged Cheese Taste Like?

As for the “why”? Well, for starters the cheese is truly magnificent; unlike anything I’ve ever had before. The first thing that stands out is how remarkably creamy it is for its age. Crumbly but still quite moist, any firmness comes in the form of larger than usual calcium and tyrosine crystals. The taste is a combination of aged Parmigiano, aged gouda, and even a hint of a blue cheese sharpness, all wrapped up in classic aged Cheddar. Very complex with a very long finish, it gets your attention immediately. Absolutely memorable. Not your everyday aged Cheddar by any means.

And so with those flavor and textural notes in mind, I assembled a quartet of wines with various attributes to see what would form the best partner to this glorious wedge. Here are the results for each beverage.

 

Wine Pairings

• Pinot Grigio

• Bordeaux

• Zinfandel

• Sauternes

Kris Pinot Grigio 2023

White wine more or less “goes” with most cheeses in the sense that you will never see a clash of flavors or tannins. The acidity wipes the palate clean. While it wasn’t bad, the simple light bodied juice was instantly overpowered by the cheese.

Chateau Les Tuileries Bordeaux 2023 

Although it has become fashionable to disparage merlots since the movie “Sideways” I find them to be excellent cheese wines due to the lower tannins. My thought was that this 90/10 percent merlot cabernet sauvignon blend would have just enough muscle to stand up to deep complex flavors of the cheese, which indeed flattered the wine, allowing the fruit flavors of the wine to shine. But overall the Cheddar was too formidable a partner for a wine this light in body.

Cline Zinfandel Contra Costa County 2021

During my Napa Valley mongering days we found California zins to be a great pairing with a wide range of Cheddars, especially the English Farmhouse variety. Ripe and juicy it seemed like a no-brainer, but also proved to be a bit underpowered for the job.

Chateau La Tour Blanche Sauternes 2016

Employing the logic of “sweet wines can handle a big blue, so a cheddar should be a piece of cake” I forged ahead with a Sauternes. All I can say here is that maybe a piece of cake would have fared better. While there was some harmony, the cheese still emerged the victor. Not even the syrupy dessert wine could address the palate dominating quality of this aged superstar.

Don’t get me wrong; these are all solid wines and this is a truly great cheese, so the overall experience was still quite enjoyable in each case. Believe me, anyone reading this would have been more than happy to join me on this tasting journey. The truth is that this cheese is so remarkable that you could have it with a glass of Dr. Pepper and still enjoy it. You can’t kill great.  It’s just that the magic, that elusive harmonious interaction that dances on the palate,  was not achieved.

 

Better with Beer

• Porter

• Stout

So which wine was the winner? Well…. turns out that it’s the wine they call beer.

While a few pilsners, a skunky IPA,  and even a smoked beer were all fun and solid pairings, the Zywiec Baltic Porter proved to be the perfect match for the sharp, full flavored notes and dense texture of this cheese. While I grant you that it may seem a random choice, I have used this dark Polish underdog countless times in both an ingredient as well as the beverage for long-cooked beef stews such as carbonnade. My thinking was that something that could stand up to the bold flavors of simmering hunks of browned beef and long cooked onions would be the ideal partner for this heavyweight cheese. The grain based earthy and hoppy flavor notes fared much better in this case than those fruit driven tones found in wine and the bubbles didn’t exactly hurt either. I could see myself reveling in this combination on a brisk evening by the fire with some sturdy bread, joined by smoky cured hams and sausages. 

Curious as to whether another ultra-aged cheese would produce these same results, I reached out to Master Cheesemaker Tony Hook  of Hooks Cheese, who was kind enough to share a slab of their 20 Year Cheddar for this piece. Tony and his wife Julie, both award winning cheesemakers,  have created a cheese empire in their hometown of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. They produce a range of Cheddars from two to fifteen years, as well as other cheese types from locally sourced cow, goat and sheep milk. Their 20 Year Cheddar caused quite a splash when released a few years back, and with good reason. Much like the Old Quebec, it remains creamy, with a bit of an earthy character to it. The salt is still in great balance, and the flavor is big and round, hinting of super aged Italian cheeses. Read more about Hook’s.

 

As was the case with its Canadian counterpoint it walked all over the wines, but was perfect with the Bourbon County Backyard Stout from Goose Island Brewing Company. With a price tag closer to an entry-level appellation Burgundy wine, this delightful brew is spiked blueberry, boysenberry, and marionberry flavors, reflective of its Midwestern provenance. The sturdy mouth-filling texture and sweetish flavor accents of the beer played nicely against the intensity of the cheese, and the bubbles cleansed the palate nicely, setting up each future bite for success.

Suffice it to say that my new motto is If It’s Super Aged, Go With Beer. My thanks to Aaron Deppen and Tony Hook for the generosity of their cheeses for this piece.