Which wine goes with cheese?

White wine goes with more kinds of cheese because the bitterness and tannin of red wine start to clash with the salt and fat of cheese.

In a 2018 study in the journal Beverages, test subjects rated wine and cheese combinations with a method that follows flavour over time. Bitterness and sourness in red wine emerged as the properties that were liked least. White wine came out as more widely applicable.

With young, mild cheese, a fresh dry white wine or a light red wine without heavy tannin works well.

Young cheese is mild in taste and soft in structure, so a wine that comes down too heavily on it pushes it away. A dry white wine with fresh acidity keeps the cheese upright. If you choose red, serve it slightly cooler than room temperature, because coolness makes the tannin less harsh.

With aged and salty cheese you need wine with firm acidity, because acidity cuts through fat and salt.

The longer a cheese matures, the more salt and fat there is per bite and the stronger the flavour becomes. A white wine with clear acidity keeps up with that. If you do choose red, take one with supple tannins, because hard tannins come across even harder next to salt.

Blue cheese calls for sweet wine, because residual sugar smooths the salt and sharpness of the blue mould.

You see that combination in several countries: port with English blue cheese, sauternes with roquefort. The rule behind it is always the same. Salt and sugar partly cancel each other out, so the cheese comes across as milder and the wine feels less sweet.

Goat cheese calls for a dry white wine with plenty of acidity, so that the wine can stand up to the fresh, chalky taste of the cheese.

Fresh goat cheese already has a high acidity itself. A wine with little acidity comes across as limp next to it. With a matured goat cheese with a rind, the wine may have a bit more body, but the acidity remains the key.

Choose one wine per board by taking the heaviest cheese as the measure, or divide the cheeses into two groups, each with its own wine.

A board with young cheese, aged cheese, goat's cheese and blue cheese really calls for four wines. If you want just one, choose a dry white wine with fresh acidity, as it came out as the most versatile in the 2018 study. Serve the blue cheese separately with a small glass of sweet wine beside it.