Lyon Wine Tasting and Cheese Pairing with a French Sommelier

What do you think about ...

• Understand the basics of wine... what is a vintage, a grape variety, a Champagne Blanc de Blancs, a tannic wine, a yellow wine or a sweet wine?
• Discover surprising wine and cheese pairings (a sweet wine from the Sauternes AOC married with Roquefort, have you ever tried it?)
• Ask all your questions to an expert in a relaxed atmosphere to finally demystify the world of wine

Discover French wines with cheeses pairings?

First part of the tasting  - A contrasted pairing

It is sometimes necessary to dare to associate products that would seem not to go together to finally realise that they do! Cheese is a product with a rather pronounced taste, while champagne is much more refined. A perfect example is the Chaource and Champagne pairing. The bubbles of the Champagne will erase the fatty side of this cheese, a contrast agreement.

Second part of the tasting - A terroir pairing

The Chavignol goat cheese reveals a relatively dry texture. The intensity and length of its aromatic persistence will require a white wine with a sharp acidity. Once again, the connivance between the region where the cheese and the wine are produced is obvious. The pasture is nourished by the same terroir as the surrounding white wine. The agreement with the white wine of the same region, carried by a sharp acidity is ideal. The village of Chavignol produces both Crottin and Sancerre Blanc.

Third part of the tasting - Discovery of French red wines

Three red wines will be proposed for tasting so that you can compare the wines at the same time to identify real differences in the proposed aromas. The three wines will be from the same grape variety but from different regions, with an old vintage (more than 20 years) and one of these wines will have a defect (always interesting to taste the defect of a wine). Delicatessen from Lyon will accompany the red wines.

Fourth part of the tasting - The perfect cheese and wine pairing

Let's start with a sweet wine and a blue cheese. The pairing between one and the other can be absolutely remarkable. Roquefort cheese, for example, is distinguished by its creamy and crumbly texture. Oscillating between sweetness and saltiness, this cheese will require wines that are as charismatic as they are sweet. Indeed, sugar will oppose its sweetness to the salty character of Roquefort. 

Conclusion with Comté, the favorite cheese of the Frenchmeets its favorite wine in the Jura where it originates. When this one meets the yellow wine, the proposed agreement becomes immense, great, almost without equal. This intense and complex cheese, with a great smoky persistence, will claim an equally intense and smoky company. Above all, the appearance of tyrosine crystals during long maturing offers this fabulous salty sensation. The wine will have to oppose its strength, its smoked and even peaty flavors in order to follow the cheese's wake. The persistence of the wine will thus join that of the cheese for a remarkable agreement. A Vieux Comté and a yellow wine offer a duo like no other, out of the ordinary.

With a qualified sommelier 

• Hugo JEANGUYOT - Certification as Wine Expert (WSET3)
• McGill University and emlyon bs graduate
• Winner of international blind tasting competitions
• 400 wines tastings organized within the last year
• 60 wines trip organized in all of France's Wine Regions
• 40 wines courses given to French Students
• Network of more than 150 winemakers in the region