In our eyes, no cheese board is complete without a tipple on the side. Red wine, port, champagne - sometimes it can be difficult knowing where to start when pairing the perfect tipple to your artisan cheese board. This Autumn, we've teamed up with Fiona Beckett, award-winning food & wine writer & one of the world-leading experts on food & drink matching. She's put together her perfect pairings for our artisanal cheese boxes, ideal for a lazy Sunday afternoon or perhaps a decadent date night, or even a celebratory spread. There's something for everyone in these pairings - now over to Fiona...
There are so many great British cheeses to put out on our cheese boards nowadays. Whilst there is so much choice in terms of some fantastic cheeses, we now need to open our eyes to the opportunity to partner them with a wider range of drinks that goes a bit further than the standard! Red wine may be the automatic choice for many, but just think how many brilliant home-grown drinks we have on our shores. So, for each cheese box there is a wine and a non-wine choice, perfect for everyone that you will have round your table this season. Why don't you try both with your next Pipers Farm Cheese Board?
The Big Cheese board
The sheer variety and generosity of the Big Cheese Board Box calls for drinks that everyone will enjoy, starting with a hearty red.
Wine
Gran Cerdo 2019 13.5%
There’s a bit of a back story to this lip-smacking Spanish red. The winemaker was so resentful that the banks wouldn't lend him the money to start up his business so he called it ‘big pig’. Anyway he’s had the last laugh, because he’s produced an absolutely stonking wine that everyone I’ve poured it for loves. To me it tastes like a young rioja - and rioja is one of the red wines that goes best with cheese. Nuff said.
Not Wine
Pilton In Touch cider 5.4%
Think you know cider? Think again! This is a full-bodied, naturally sweet-keeved cider, fermented on pinot noir skins - which gives it a touch of delicious red fruitiness and the ability to stand up to the strongest of cheeses. Keeving is a traditional technique which arrests the fermentation leaving more sweetness and appley richness in the cider. It’s a really fun bottle that will get people talking too - utterly delicious with this cheese box.
The Cheese Feast Box
A treat for yourself or the perfect gift for your weekend host. Take along a couple of these bottles too and you'll be invited back, again and again!
Wine
Le Vent des Jours Un Jour ou Lot 46 Malbec 13%
Like malbec? We all do these days but here’s a cracking bottle from its original home in south-west France. It’s just lovely and smooth, perfect for cheese but would be great with a steak too, obviously. If you want to channel your inner Frenchman you could always add some delicious Saucisson Sec from Westcombe to the cheeseboard.
Not Wine
Wilding Cider Ditcheat Hill Single Orchard selection 4.2%
A beautifully pure medium-dry cider made just outside Bristol from unsprayed, unfertilised, traditional orchards. How can you resist an apple called Ashton Brown Jersey? Certainly not me. Cheese loves cider and this is a cider that everyone will love.
Cheese for Two
The advantage of this cheeseboard for only the two of you, is that you don’t have to follow convention and can drink what you like! Whether that’s homemade apple juice, a cup of tea or perhaps a glass of white wine . . . yes, you can drink white wine with cheese!
Wine
Barouillet Bergecrac Sec 2020 13%
This plump, rounded, deliciously hazy white comes from Bergerac just outside the Bordeaux region. It has a lot in common with Bordeaux whites, being a blend of sauvignon and semillon but is made in a natural style which adds a seductive softness that is particularly delicious with these milder cheeses - like crunching an apple you’ve just picked off the tree.
Not wine
Kingston Black apple aperitif 18%
From one of my longtime favourite distilleries - the West Country’s Somerset Cider Brandy Co, this wickedly good apple drink (think liquid tarte tatin) calls itself an aperitif but I prefer it after dinner, well chilled from the fridge or served over ice. One for those ‘it’s 10 pm and I feel a little bit peckish’ moments. With just a nibble or two of cheese...
Treat your loved ones to a selection of delicious cheese boxes this Christmas from Pipers Farm, there is a box to suit everyone!
