Which whisky goes with cheese?

With old hard cheese a whisky matured in sherry goes well, with blue cheese a peated whisky, and with young or soft cheese a light whisky without heavy cask influence.

A cheese that has aged for ten months or longer has lost moisture and thereby concentrated salt and fat. Such a cheese calls for a whisky with weight, and maturation in a sherry cask provides that weight. A whisky with little cask influence offers too little against that concentration.

Blue cheese is the exception to the age rule. The salt and the mould in the veins are so pronounced that a peated whisky can stand up to it. With young or mild cheese it works the other way round: the cheese is the weaker party there, so the whisky stays light and fresh.

Dutch cheese is classified by ripening time: young is about four weeks old, young matured eight weeks, matured four months, extra matured seven months and old ten months.

That ripening is bound by rules. The product specification of Gouda Holland prescribes at least 28 days of ripening after the first day of production, at a minimum of 12 degrees, on air-dried wooden boards. Ripening in foil is not permitted there. According to the same specification, the age at consumption runs from 28 days to over a year.

Goat cheese, blue cheese and rind cheese fall outside that range. Goat cheese is made from goat's milk, blue cheese ripens with a blue mould in the cheese itself, and rind cheese ripens from the outside in through flora on the rind. For choosing the whisky, with those three it is not the age that counts, but the strength.

Fat and salt in cheese coat the tongue and dampen the alcohol sting, so a whisky next to cheese comes across as rounder than the same whisky with nothing alongside.

The plus number on a cheese refers to fat per quantity of dry matter, not to the absolute fat content. Gouda Holland sits, according to the product dossier, at 48.0 to 52.0 percent fat in dry matter, Hollandse Geitenkaas at 50.0 to 60.0 percent. The higher that number, the more alcohol and cask influence the combination can carry.

Ageing works in the same direction. A cheese that matures for a long time loses moisture, so each kilo contains more fat and more salt. A lean young cheese has hardly any of that cushioning effect, so a heavy whisky overpowers it.

By law whisky must contain at least 40 percent alcohol, and a cask-strength whisky above 55 percent calls for, besides cheese, a few drops of water or a smaller measure.

Alcohol temporarily numbs the tongue. If you pour a cask-strength whisky first, the cheese afterwards tastes flat and the difference with the next whisky can no longer be followed. Water lowers the percentage in the glass and releases aromas.

So put a small jug of water with a pipette or a small spoon next to the glasses, and keep the whiskies at cask strength for the end of the series. Diluting is not a loss: what matters is the balance between the cheese and the glass.

Work from light to heavy: start with the lightest whisky with the youngest cheese and finish with the heaviest whisky with the oldest cheese or the blue cheese.

Four to five whiskies with four to five cheeses is enough for an evening. Pour a small measure per whisky rather than a full one, so that the whole series remains tasteable, and put bread and water on the table to reset the tongue in between.

Take the cheese out of the cooler about an hour before tasting and pour the whisky at room temperature. Cold cheese is hard and gives off less aroma, and whisky from the fridge releases fewer volatile substances.

Whisky with cheese is only for people aged 18 and over. The Alcohol Act prohibits supplying alcohol to anyone who has not been established to be 18 or older.

Verkoop van alcohol onder de 18 jaar is verboden. NIX18. Bij twijfel over de leeftijd vraagt de verkoper een identiteitsbewijs; dat is geen formaliteit, maar een wettelijke plicht.

If anyone at the table is under 18, put an alcohol-free alternative next to the cheese board and keep the glasses separate.