Back-to-school it-pairing: champagne and cheese

The Canard-Duchêne House delivers its vision of an original and greedy pairing. A partnership between the Androuët cheese dairies and Cuvée V 2012.

A new culinary cult, the cheese-champagne pairing is not, however, a discovery.

In the collective memory, cheese pairing has always been associated with red wines, even though white wine and champagne in particular reveal memorable flavours in the mouth.

So what about a vintage champagne?

Our vintage V 2012 has been chosen to meet this gustatory challenge.

A MEETING
BETWEEN ENTHUSIASTS

From a cheese point of view, it was essential that the products be up to the challenge, coming from producers recognised for their know-how and respect for animals. To achieve these tailor-made agreements, the Maison Androuët proved to be the ideal partner for this culinary collaboration. The meeting between these two enthusiasts, the Master Cheesemaker of Androuët and Laurent Fédou, the Cellar Master, was surprising, disruptive and ultimately simple. The language and the appetite for the good were the same, while the flavours kept on responding to each other: sometimes the cheese exalts the V 2012 vintage, sometimes the wine pays tribute to the culinary wealth of our French terroirs.

In the very wide choice of cheeses from the Maison Androuët, five were the perfect match, with, in order of tasting, Brillat-Savarin, Brie de Melun, Lochoix sheep’s milk cheese, Tignes blue cheese and Mont Vully.

THE FIRST PAIRING
LE BRILLAT SABARIN

Named by Henri Androuët, Brillat-Savarin is a triple cream cheese. It is the pleasure cheese, the refuge cheese par excellence, like a “Proust’s madeleine”.

On the palate, notes of fresh tender butter accompany the V 2012 vintage and coat it, without the taste of either one ever taking over.

THE SECOND PAIRING
THE BRIE DE MELUN

Suzerain produces a soft Brie with a flowery rind, giving more concentrated notes of mushroom, undergrowth and cellar aromas.

In association with the V 2012 vintage, the slightly acidic cream and the very fine salinity brought by the rind provoke a great length in the mouth with a slightly herbaceous finish.

THE THIRD PAIRING
JEANNE GALINET'S LOCHOIS SHEEP MILK CHEESE

20 days of maturing were necessary to elaborate this ewe’s milk cheese, rather round in the mouth. Its slightly buttery side brings a lot of finesse to the tasting.

One cannot speak of an explosion of flavours, but on the contrary of a sensation of something very controlled, which matches perfectly with the vintage V 2012. This cheese serves the champagne perfectly.

THE FOURTH PAIRING
MONT VULLY

Named after a volcano located at 800 m altitude in Switzerland, with a limestone soil planted with pinots in the canton of Fribourg, no wine production in the region.

It is a pressed cheese, made from raw milk, rubbed with Pinot marc, with an extremely thin rind; on the palate it reveals a rather remarkable “grape must” side as well as notes of hazelnut and nuts.

With its very aromatic side, it gives the cheese/champagne association a great finesse.

THE FIFTH PAIRING
THE MARBLED CHEESE FROM TIGNES

A change of texture: here is a very rare cheese, made from goat’s milk and produced in Savoie. It is a crushed curd tomme (like cantal), quite young.

This change of texture brings a lot to the tasting of the V2012 vintage: it allows to “wash the mouth”, to make the taster salivate and allows him to start a new tasting.