Adam Balic

OK, I have purchased my Cheese. A non-Pasteurised Scottish blue (green really,) sheeps milk cheese, "Lanark Blue". Salty, rich flavour, but not as much mould as seen in Roquefort. Most of the other cheeses I saw as potentials (triple creams, washed rinds, several styles of goat cheese etc) were not quite ripe. In addition, the authorities in the UK did their very best to shut down production of this cheese, the fact that the owners won the right to remain in production is a great thing for small food producers in the UK and I think that should be surpported. For those that would like to compare notes with me I suggest getting Roquefort if Lanack blue is not possible. Some information on the cheese. Lanark Blue This site suggests a strong red, I am going to go for a rich desert wine. Maybe a fortified Muscat or a Olorosso? Possibly even some of the naturally higher alcohol desert wines? Any thoughts.

I recently bought a bottle of Cynar because I liked the label! I didn't quite hate it, but I think a slice of lemon would improve the taste. It is oddly refreshing, but mostly odd tasting. I still like the label. I once stole some Cynar from a bar to prove to some people that I ws drinking with in another pub that there was a liqueur made from Artichokes. Bit bitter for my taste.

"Laid back. With my mind on my money and my money on my mind!" Ginger Ale and Grapefruit juice. It's like homemade Fresca. My family hated Fresca. More for me! I love Grapefruit flavored sodas as well. I wish Pellegrino made one like they do Limonata and Aranciata. Um, they do. It is very good.

Maybe, but tourists with great taste.

I would be happy to do the egullet cheese abd wine thing. How about I make a selection for my friday shing-ding and you chaps/chapettes can compare? I like older Olorosso due to the rancio flavours, Lastau's almenecista fits the bill nicely, but I would wait and see what cheeses are availible first.

The Greenock Creek as an excellent old vine Barossa red and the Georgia's Paddock is world class. The only issue I would have with these two wines is the age. Five years of ages is drinking them very young.

indiagirl - G&T = Gin and [indian] Tonic [water]. Ever heard of it? It is a really good drink . I trudged around most of the Pakistani/Indian food shops in Edinburgh, until I found another store which sold these citrus. When I finally found another store I asked the owner what they were called he said "Limon". So it equally could be a strange lemon, which makes more sense given the source of the fruit and the hugh variation in lemon/citron shapes etc (anybody seen Bimbi's painting of the Medici lemon/citron collection?).

I'm sure that beachfan is correct, as I have stated something very similar to their view. What I could have said is cheese and wine don't go well together and anybody that doesn't think so just doesn't 'get' cheese, let alone wine. I think that my taste buds must be similar to Craigs as many wines end up tasting bitter when consumed with red wine. Exceptions for me tend to be with thin slices of harder cheeses like Parmesan, Manchego and Cheddar. Interesting how this has highlighted the difficulty in getting a concensus in these wine+cheese events. Should make for some interesting combinations on Friday. What I am seeing here is that to choose a combination that will appeal to as many people as possible it would have to rule out many cheese choices. Many blue and white moulded cheese are out, as the make some red wines taste bitter for some people. Maybe paired with a sweeter wine it would work? Camembert with Vouvray? Salty Blue sheeps milk cheese with old Olorosso? What about a crowd pleasing triple cream (St. Andre is standard level no?) with Moscato di Asti? No sophisticated enough? I'm quite interested in the idea of pairing Munster with an Alsacian Pinot gris, but I'm not sure if this would work? LivarotMaybe some of that sweet brown cheese from Norway, paired with a fruit wine - nah, that is going to far.

Amazingly Wilfrid, being 'fashionable' has very little to do with my view of cheese and wine. As I stated in the original post, it is "in my view", and as you have pointed out to Steve in the past, just because millions of people had done somthing for a long time, doesn't mean that this is the correct view for a particular individual. I find that the acid in many cheeses effects my ability to taste wine. Not fashion, my experience.

Adam, Can you tell us more about this? Homemade, brand name, etc.? Found in one shop in Monterosso. Looks like a small production, although it is sold in a (nice) tourist shop. Colour is a bright grass green. In the flavour you can detect the taste of the Cedro/Citron (think of the flavour of the preserved peel), plus the peppery taste of the bitter citrus oils (like you get in some of the better Limoncellos). The last bottle I bought is not as good as the bottles bought previously, not enough acid to cut through the sugar. Will look at brand name tonight.

Actually, "chevre" is French for 'goat', so if one is wearing his pedantic pants today, one might jolly well try to put a both legs in them. You will note that I also posted on a chicken I cooked on the weekend and in doing so failed to mention "free-range, cornfed and giblet free" before the word "chicken", for this I am very sorry. Unless you have an intimate knowledge of both wine and cheese, I fail to see how you will not get a mismatch. Mature Cheddar with mature Claret - wrong Munster with Demi-Sec Champagne - wrong etc etc etc The few exceptions to red wine and cheese, not liking each other as a rule is a rich Parmesan or some of the hard Spanish sheeps milk cheeses. Mostly, I think that the cheese kills the wine. So if you are a cheese buff, you may not notice this as much as if you were a wine buff. Assume I have access to one of the best British cheesemongers, that is good on British/Irish cheese, but a bit slack on French. Italian (except Parmesan) and Spanish don't get a look in.

No, but I wish they were, as Finger-limes sound very interesting. My limes are just like a Key-lime, just stretched out to form a tube.

I like cider very much, but I think that cider would be frowned upon by the wine-police at this shing-ding. Cider with cheddar? Will give this a go. In some parts of Yorkshire they eat fruit cake with Cheddar, so Cheddar, Fruit cake and cider sounds good. BB - I think my wife will kill be if a choose something similar to her, so no ice-wine. Barley wine again would be disqualified by the wine-police.

Various grappi from Italy and Croatia. A variation on Limoncello, made from un-ripe Cedro (Citron), rather then lemons from Cinque Terra. Cassis from Nuit-St-Georges. Pastis from the South of France. Whisky from Islay.

Nope, I live in Scotland (although I am Australian) so these are imported.

Cooked a Persian Chicken dish at a friends home. Chicken de-boned and skin streched out to form a square shape. Meat of chicken moved around to give a continueous layer of meat. One medium onion, finally chopped, sauted until golden then walnuts, dried apricots (Middle-Eastern, not Californian*), dried sour cherries and barberries added sauteing continued until fragrant (1-2 minutes). This mixture spread of chicken meat. Chicken salted and the entire thing is rolled and tied as for a galatine etc. Chicken wrapped in foil and cooked for 50 minutes at 180.C. Chicken taken out of foil, brushed with butter, salted and has a fine dusting of ground black cumin. Put back into a hot oven (225.C) for ten minutes, rotating occcasionally to crispy up the chicken skin. Chicken rested for ten minutes and sliced. I served it with cous cous. If I had time I would have made a pilaw. Was delicious. However, the combination of sour fruit (barberries and cherries) was important to balance the sweet apricots. Without this balance the dish doesn't work I should think. *Middle-Eastern dried apricots (Turkish in my case) are better then Californian. The Turkish friut are dark (not Sulfur used) and have a rich sweet caramel/ Apricot flavour, they also melt during cooking, so are much better for this type of recipe then the Californian dried apricots.

The articles that I have seen suggest that Germanic varietals are doing best in England, not Chardonnay. I wonder how Germanic varietals do in Fizz?

I shall be taking part in a Wine + Cheese best match competition. My personal view is that most cheese wine combinations don't work. My wife (who I am in competion with) stole my idea (Sauternes and a salty blue cheese), so I am trying to come up with another good pairing. So far: - Madeira and stilton or an aged Comte - A Quincy or some other non-NZ Sav. Blanc and a Cherve Any others?

Don't be sorry, as I'm Australian, not English. I beleive their wines compare to Australian wines, in much the same way that their cricket team compares to the Australian team. Having said that, the lack of world class English wine can be attributed to the climate, whereas, there is not excuse for the Cricket team. Below is a link to a recent artical on English wine: English wine

"Tahbilk", "Mitchellton", "St. Huberts" and "Yeringberg". The first has the oldest and largest planting of Marsanne in the world. There are some USA producers as well, but the examples I have tasted seem to have oaked the wines to death.

While shopping in a local Pakistani food store I came across an unusual citrus fruit. It was bright green, like a lime and of a similar circumference to Key lime, however, the fruit was very elongated, almost tubular. Some of the bigger fruit were10-12 cm long. I asked what the fruit were and I was just told "limes". Well limes they may be, but they are not the usual Key or Tahitian limes that I have seen before. On cutting the fruit it looked very similar to a regular round lime, the aroma and flavour were very similar to a regular lime as well, with slightly more of a lemony edge then in a normal lime. They were excellent in a G&T and I will maintain my supplies of them for this reason. Does anybody know anything about them or what they may be used for in more traditional cooking? Are they limes/lemons or anoter citrus entirely?

That too.

Will Rose d'Anjou ever be cool? What about some of the new English wines?

Would love to thankyou, but I can't afford to right at the moment. I will be in London in early May though. If you really loved me, you would buy a deep-freeze and put aside a Bellini for me, although I rarely drink alcohol. edit: But I wish all a smashing time .

Sadly not. The post office has a draconian policy about posting: drugs, firearms, explosives and pudgy 30-somethings, so I am screwed. Plus when ever I paste stamps on myself they just fall off and then I would end up in some shitty lost-post place with loads of middle-aged sweaty mail sorters, but no Bellini still, so no point really. In concerns me that Kikujiro has no deep freeze. A good looking, clean limbed young man like that needs a deep freeze - especially if they have just bought 22 kilos of frozen peach purée. How does he make ice for all those fancy Martini parties he throws? A man needs ice.