Vin et Dessert de Fromage

Hello, wine and food friends.  Mary and I are visiting my family in Georgia for the holiday weekend.  We are enjoying the hospitality of my sister and her husband, Kaye and Glenn, in their home.  Kaye enjoys dessert-style wines, so I proposed a wine and cheese dessert experience.

I happened to have a bottle of Chateau de Fesles Bonnezeaux 1997 in my inventory left over from a June event at our home called White Wines of the Loire Valley. Here's the label.

Bonnezeaux is a village in the Loire Valley in northwestern France.  You can see where it is in the map below, marked with the red teardrop arrow, with Paris to the northeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

Only Chenin Blanc is grown in Bonnezeaux.  It is produced in a dessert style because of topography and humidity conditions that promote the development of a fungus called Botrytis cinerea.  Sometimes called "noble rot," Botrytis infects and dehydrates the grapes, leaving a high concentration of grape sugar behind.  When harvested and crushed, the juice is like a luscious sweet nectar.  The acidity is still present, though, so the wine remains fresh and balanced, not overly sweet and cloying.  Here's a photo of grapes infected by Botrytis.  Who would think these grapes are still good for making wine?



Sweet wines are just perfect for pairing with a variety of cheeses.  Relative to our experience in Jackson, the selection of cheeses in Chattanooga, Tennessee, near my Georgia hometown, is quite good.  Kaye and Glenn had no problem finding some very nice cheeses, ranging from mild to strong.  They included a lovely Comté from the Jura region of France, a triple cream Brie from, appropriately enough, the Brie region of France, Epoisses from the Burgundy area, and a delicious Point Reyes blue cheese from California.  Here are the cheeses arranged for our enjoyment.  The Epoisses is the one that is so stinky and runny, but tastes great.

The cheeses are delicious on their own, but the luscious sweetness of the Bonnezeaux creates a flavor transformation that explodes on the palate, really heightening the enjoyment of both the cheese and the wine.  Glenn liked the Comté most.  Kaye really liked both the Comté and the Point Reyes.  Mary liked the Brie and Point Reyes the most.  I most enjoyed the Epoisses and Point Reyes.  The saltiness of the blue cheese contrasted wonderfully with the sweetness of the Bonnezeaux

The weather has cooled a bit, so we took the wine and cheese onto the screened-in porch.  It was pleasant, not too humid, and not windy.  We enjoyed the aromas, flavors, company, and conversation.

Here are my notes on the Chateau de Fesles Bonnezeaux 1997: This is a wonderful Chenin Blanc in a dessert style. The color was amber, dark, like a maple syrup. The aromas were complex with grapefruit citrus, apricot, honey, flowers. The palate was smooth and full-bodied with nice balancing acidity, great honeyed, dried fruit, apricot, and crème brulée or brown sugar flavor characteristics. Balanced, complex, long finishing, very nice. 13.0% alcohol.  We paid $66 for this wine at Briarwood Wines and Spirits in Jackson.  If you can't find a Bonnezeaux, a Sauternes would be just as great.

This was an altogether delightful Cèpage et Cuisine experience at Kaye's and Glenn's home. 

That's it for today's post.  We hope you enjoyed it.  Until next time,

Cheers!