Recommendations
Salad of Stilton, pear and walnut with Fonseca Late Bottled Vintage Port
On the plate: blue cheese with thinly sliced pear and roasted walnuts on salad leaves, drizzled with a mustard dressing. The late bottled vintage answers with sweet, dark fruit and a firm structure, which the saltiness of the cheese can lean on.
From the shelf
The bottle
Fonseca is a port house in the Douro and the late bottled vintage comes from a single harvest year. According to the house's technical sheet, the wine matures for four to six years in large wooden vats and is then bottled without fining and without filtration, so it is ready to drink on release. The wine is 20 percent alcohol and comes in 75 centilitres. The house describes a very deep ruby colour with aromas of dark forest fruits, black cherry and cassis, and recommends decanting it and serving it between 16 and 18 degrees. The Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto describes a late bottled vintage as a ruby from a single year, chosen for its quality and bottled after four to six years in wood.
The combination
Why this works together
Blue cheese is salty and fatty, and those are the two things a sweet red port works well against. In the taste research by Green and colleagues from 2010, sweetness was found to strongly suppress saltiness in a mixture; the result at the table is that the Stilton comes across as creamy rather than sharp. At the same time, the fat of the cheese acts on the tannin: Zanchi and colleagues describe how tannin clings to salivary proteins and so gives the dry feeling, and with cheese fat and leafy greens in the mouth that tannin has less free rein. The pear forms the bridge between plate and glass, because sweet fruit is on both sides, and the mustard dressing brings the acidity that keeps everything awake. The weight is right too: an unfiltered LBV of 20 percent is powerful enough to stand next to a cheese that gives nothing up itself.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 25 minutes
- Type cheese course
What you need
- 150 g Stilton or another firm blue cheese
- 1 to 2 ripe pears
- 100 g walnuts
- 100 g mixed leafy greens
- 5 to 10 g sharp mustard, to taste
- 20 g white wine vinegar
- 40 g sunflower or rapeseed oil
- a generous pinch of salt
How to make it
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and place a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray.
- Spread the walnuts over the baking tray and roast them for eight to ten minutes, until they just smell lightly toasted. Let them cool.
- Put the mustard, salt and vinegar in a small food processor and mix. While continuing to mix, slowly pour in the oil until the dressing emulsifies.
- Cut the pears into very thin slices and mix them in a large bowl with the salad leaves.
- Crumble the Stilton over it. Coarsely chop or break the roasted walnuts and sprinkle them over.
- Fold in the dressing, mix gently and serve immediately.
In the glass
Serving
The house advises decanting this LBV and serving it between 16 and 18 degrees; because the wine was bottled unfiltered, there is sediment in the bottle. Stand it upright for a day and carefully pour it into a decanter about an hour before the meal. Advice on shelf life after opening varies: the house says two months, whereas the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto puts a late bottled vintage at four to five days. Take the middle road by keeping the decanter or bottle cool and dark and finishing it within a week or two.
All about Fonseca Late Bottled Vintage PortBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje
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