Drinks advice

Cheese board with Boompjes Korenwijn

On the board are aged goat’s cheese, farmhouse brie and a blue-veined cheese at room temperature, with wedges of fresh fig lying in a cooled syrup of Earl Grey and crystal sugar. Set against that is a korenwijn with sixty percent triple-distilled malt wine that has spent four years in used bourbon casks.

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A cheese and snack board to taste together
Photo: sarahstierch, CC BY 2.0

From the shelf

The bottle

Boompjes Korenwijn comes from the Onder de Boompjes distillery in Schiedam. It is a korenwijn of 42% ABV in a 70 cl bottle, with 60% triple-distilled malt wine, aged four years on used American bourbon casks and blended with six botanicals: juniper berry, vanilla, lavender, liquorice, coriander seed and angelica root. The designation korenwijn requires at least 51% malt wine in the alcohol component, at least 38% ABV and at most 20 grams of sugar per litre; with 60% malt wine and 42% ABV this bottle is above both thresholds.

Boompjes Korenwijn

The combination

Why this works together

A cheese board like this asks three things of a glass. The aged goat cheese is salty and sharp, the farmhouse brie is rich and creamy, and the blue cheese brings a spicy, almost metallic sharpness; the figs in Earl Grey syrup set fruity sweetness and a bergamot note against that. A young genever does cut through the fat but has nothing to set against the salt. This korenwijn does: with sixty percent malt wine it brings so much grain-sweet roundness that it absorbs the sharpness of the goat cheese and the blue cheese just as the figs do. The vanilla and liquorice from the botanicals and the four years in bourbon casks tie in with the syrup, and the lavender finds the bergamot in the Earl Grey. At 42% ABV there is also more than enough alcohol to clear the brie, something a 35% genever does not manage with that much fat.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 20 minutes, plus 20 minutes cooling
  • Type cheese course

What you need

  • 170 g aged goat's cheese
  • 85 g farmhouse brie
  • 85 g blue cheese
  • 75 ml water
  • 1 Earl Grey tea bag
  • 100 g fine caster sugar
  • 2 fresh figs

How to make it

  1. Take the cheeses out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature.
  2. Bring the water to the boil in a saucepan. Add the tea bag and leave it to steep for 10 minutes over low heat.
  3. Remove the tea bag, add the sugar and stir for 4 to 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup has reduced slightly.
  4. Take the pan off the heat and let the syrup cool for 20 minutes.
  5. Cut the figs into wedges and place them in the cooled syrup, so that they are not completely submerged.
  6. Put the cheeses on a board and the figs with the syrup beside them. Cut small pieces of cheese and drizzle syrup over them.

In the glass

Serving

Pour the Boompjes Korenwijn at room temperature into a tulip glass, filled to the rim. Korenwijn is never served chilled: the malt wine and the four years in a bourbon cask need warmth to open up, and it is exactly that layer that picks up the salt of the cheese. Keep the glass small, because at 42% ABV this bottle is stronger than most genevers on the table.

All about Boompjes KorenwijnBack to Drinks advice from ’t Bockje

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