A Little Wine, A Little Cheese...

Sometimes you have a day when you want a little wine at brunch.  Well, sometimes you want a little at breakfast, but let's assume this is a wine at brunch sort of day.  I love the idea of wine and cheese for brunch with a little fruit.

     Collins Family Orchards was a new addition to the market last year.  They bring the best plums I have ever eaten.  It's not quite plum season yet, but I am salivating just thinking about them.  Lots of stone fruits and apples from this farm have passed through our family fruit bowl over the past two years!  The peaches are so prefect right now, I had to hide one from my husband so I'd have one left for the shoot today!

      Wine is relatively new to the market, too.  I've kind of developed a thing for Lopez Island Vineyards.  In fact, I may have a bit of a hoarding issue going on...  Their Siegerrebe is one of my very favorite white wines.  I may or may not have an obscene number of bottles in my kitchen.  Whether you are imagining them empty or not reflects your opinion of me... :) 

This is Siegerrebe.  It is lovely.  It's a lightly sweet, subtly bubbly wine which is great with dinner, but light enough for a cheese tasting, too.  The bottle I opened for this shoot is even organic, though I don't think all their wines are.

     Golden Glen Creamery used to be where we got all our milk until they quit selling milk last year and moved on to butter and cheeses.  I was very disappointed until I tasted the cheese!  They have gotten even better this year.  The grownups in the CotC house love the River Cheddar and the boys really like the milder curds.

     Today, I made myself a mini cheese tasting and matched the Siegerrebe from Lopez Island with River Cheddar and Very Old Gouda from Golden Glen, and a selection of stone fruits from Collins: bing cherries, peaches, and nectacots.  It was a divine way to start the day.  If you've never made a cheese tray, it is best to serve cheeses at room temp to get the full flavor of each. The River Cheddar is creamy and sharp, a little crumbly, and melts seductively on the tongue.  The Very Old Gouda leaves your run of the mill grocery store Gouda in the dust.  It's creamy, pungent, and so far from the bland, plastic stuff in the grocery store, it's hard to imagine they are in the same family. I served myself the wine at room temp, but it is wonderful cold, too, the way you're supposed to serve white.

     Considering I've never done a cheese plate before, I love the flavor combinations, and that's not just the wine talking.  I want to do it again sometime!  What kinds of wine and cheese combinations do you like?  Do you serve fruit with it or crackers?