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Fourme d’Ambert and walnut bread with Fonseca Crusted Port 2015

On the board lies a wedge of Fourme d’Ambert next to thick slices of walnut bread still warm from the oven. Opposite it, the port is a crusted, whose tannin is absorbed by the cheese fat and which speaks the same language as the walnut in the bread.

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From the shelf

The bottle

Fonseca is a port house in Vila Nova de Gaia with vineyards in the Douro. Crusted is a style that has almost disappeared from the Douro: a blend of full-bodied wines from different years, at Fonseca the years 2009 to 2014, which matures for four years in large wooden vats and is then bottled unfiltered. This bottle was bottled in 2015 and then spent three years in the cellar before it went on sale; according to the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto those three years in bottle are the minimum requirement, and in that time the wine forms the sediment from which the style takes its name. The bottle is 20 percent alcohol and comes in 75 centilitres. The house serves it at 16 to 18 degrees and advises decanting it.

Fonseca Crusted Port 2015

The combination

Why this works together

A crusted is bottled unfiltered, and that means everything the wine picked up in tannin and colouring is still in it. Tannin binds to proline-rich proteins in saliva and makes them clump together, so the saliva no longer lubricates and the mouth feels dry; Zanchi and colleagues have described that mechanism. Fourme d’Ambert is a blue cow's cheese with a lot of fat and a mild, almost creamy vein, and that fat takes that tannin away before it reaches the tongue. At the same time the cheese is salty, and the residual sugar of the port dampens that salt, just as sucrose in the research of Green and colleagues sharply lowered the perception of salt. The walnut in the bread lays the third layer: four years in large wooden cuves give the port a nutty, woody tone, and a freshly baked walnut bread brings exactly that aroma.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 1 hour and 25 minutes
  • Type cheese course

What you need

  • 300 g Fourme d’Ambert
  • 400 g wholemeal bread flour
  • 250 g white bread flour
  • 2 tablespoons light soft brown sugar
  • 100 g walnuts, roughly chopped and briefly toasted
  • 1.5 teaspoon salt
  • 1 sachet instant yeast
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 450 ml warm water

How to make it

  1. In a large bowl, mix the wholemeal bread flour, the white bread flour, the walnuts, the light brown sugar and the salt.
  2. Sprinkle the yeast evenly over it and add the olive oil and the warm water; for that, mix one part boiling water with two parts cold water.
  3. Mix by hand until a rough dough forms.
  4. Knead the dough for 10 minutes on a floured work surface until smooth and elastic.
  5. Shape it into an oval on a greased baking tray, cut diagonal lines in it, cover with cling film and leave it in a warm place to rise until it has doubled in volume, about 30 to 40 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 220 degrees, or 200 degrees fan.
  6. Remove the foil, turn the oven back to 200 degrees, or 180 degrees fan, and bake the bread for 35 minutes until golden brown.
  7. Let the bread cool on a rack until lukewarm. Take the cheese out of the fridge half an hour before serving and serve it with the bread on a board.

In the glass

Serving

Serve this crusted as the house advises, at 16 to 18 degrees. Stand the bottle upright for half a day so the sediment settles to the bottom, then pour it in a calm, steady stream into a decanter, until you see the cloudy last sip coming into the neck; leave that in the bottle. Use a tulip-shaped glass and fill it no more than a third. An opened bottle of crusted keeps well for four to five days, according to the institute.

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