of food-lovers who have made it one of the How Wine Goes with symbols of “French food” along with bread, in as no other country in the world has adopted this practice. Gilles Fumey A curious proximity

This wine and cheese alliance was not, however, written in stone. In addition, a number of mistakes were made when strong, full-bodied, high-tannin red wines reigned over the pairing. While today, wine-lovers agree that fine, slightly acidic, even sweet wines go magnificently cheese. The idea of the marriage between wine and cheese as Things have spread to more or less cover a geographical, local one has progressively the entire globe: the French, along with the taken over. A little like in the France of old Chinese, the Italians and a few others, are when one went to the neighbouring village in passionate about food. Food in general and in search of a wife or a husband. No one contests particular about a truly curious couple: wine the superiority of the alliance between sweet and cheese, together. But as all countries have liqueur-like wines with strong tasting : their passions that cannot be explained by in the Basque country, Jurançon wins the hand reason, this singularity has often been clas- of ; in Alsace, Gewurztraminer goes sified by invoking the magic of the places, the well with Munster. Nadine Gublin, oenolo- diversity of reliefs and climates, the talent of gist at the Maison Jacques Prieur in Beaune the people in making food that so resembles confirms this trend: “During a meal I get great them. In fact, these passions stem from enjoyment and curiosity from associating cer- national pride, in the countryside, its lands- tain wines with certain cheeses and, naturally, capes, societies and folklore; a sense of pride as I live in the Bourgogne region, I drink local that ends up on the table. On the table, the wines with local cheeses”1. There is much scene that plays out is surprising, that of the pleasure to be found in , between wines cheese plate that slipped into menus in the made from the Chignin-Bergeron variety 19th century. For the marriage to work, the and who are more than just wine/cheese pairing needed gourmets, gastro- friends. Elsewhere, the silky texture of a good nomy lovers and professionals like restaurant Sauternes shares its wealth of taste with the owners to tame tastes that were never meant reigning , the slight bitterness of a to go together, after the long domestication vin jaune from the Savagnin variety loves the of country food. In the end what we see is fruitiness of a Comté fruité and the smooth- food in France, a marriage of country terroirs ness of a Coteau-du-Layon and the fiery tips spread out on bourgeois tables, a multiple, of a Chenin de Vouvray titillate the Sainte- infinite experience, that feeds the national Maure de Touraine. The oenologist Michel narrative, both at home and abroad. And even Rolland agrees: “I am a great defender of the though the wine-cheese stage on the table is wine and cheese combination. Even if some less prevalent than it was in the past, it has wet blankets feel that wine is not the same with become more aesthetic, taken over by an army cheese, the association gives great pleasure. But, master the strength of the cheese taste.” Nevertheless, the regu- larity of these geographical unions is not coincidental. The lecturer and oenologist Denis Dubourdieu, from the Sauternais, agrees with Jacques Lardière on one point: “Sauternes and Roquefort are both the result of mould that in both cases reveal a gastrono- mical encounter, in proximity terms, a sort of confirmation of a wine”. Jacques Lardière adds: “The only explanation for both products is the dilapidation of proteins on a graded scale, and of course, the lactic acid that they have in common”.

So, we are thus on the trail of a high level of symbiosis between two products from the terroir that are comple- he adds with a twinkle, how silly of me, how mentary. There can be no doubt for Philippe could a wet blanket have any idea about how Noir, a producer of vin jaune in Poligny (Jura) to experience pleasure?” which is also the capital of Comté cheese: “I eat Comté every day and I agree that every one For researchers, this geographical proxi- of the wines we grow from Savagnin, Trousseau, mity poses a number of questions. If wines Pinot and Poulsard go very well with Comté”. go well with cheeses produced in a region, Philippe Noir also insists on the fact that the this harmony can help us to understand taste of a wine that varies according to land the genealogy of the taste of certain wines, parcels, years and crop can vary the way it at least those that are in the perimeter of agrees with a fruity Comté made from dif- older cheeses and that have come to define ferent milks due to the seasonal variation of a region. For Joseph Landmann, a producer the pannages. in Stoultzmatt in the Alsace region, “to like Gewurztraminer when one is a Munster-eater, The initial choices is the natural way of things. In particular wines that are five to ten years old that give off a strong In the annals of winegrowing in France, the aroma of maturity2.” But linking the taste of way the first varieties of grape that make up a wine to that of a cheese is of no interest the character of a region were chosen is rarely to Jacques Lardière, the oenologist at Louis known. Who really knows how the Sémillon Jadot in Beaune: “Especially when older people moved into the Bordeaux region? The histo- prefer to drink a marc de Bourgogne so as to rians are silent as to the reasons that pushed the winegrowers of the Béarn and the region Michel Rolland as does the winegrower Nadine around Pau to choose the Gros and the Petit Gublin who “elaborates a wine for itself, accor- Manseng, the Courbu Blanc, the Camaralet de ding to the terroir it comes from.” But history Lasseube and the Lauzet. No more than they is doubtless more complicated than personal can explain the way Gamay has prospered in certainties. Beaujolais, Savoie and the valley, with only pedological and even historical reasons, The question is thus to figure out how the as the Duc de Bourgogne Philippe le Hardi choices that determine the main tastes of wine didn’t like Gamay and banned it from the and cheese are made. For many wines, we Côte d’or in 1395. In Champagne, the varie- think we know the clientele well. The world’s ties were there before the blends happened, best sommelier, Olivier Poussier likes to tell the much to the despair of some winegrowers story of a night in Bordeaux, during a dinner in who miss the process of fermentation in the a chateau with a splendid cru classé, when he bottle that can make the job dangerous due saw the best wine of the night, a 1978 vintage to the number of bottles that explode during from the property served with an unripened the process. In all French regions, the varie- . “The wine was ready, refined, free of tan- ties are, for the most part, plants brought in nins, it was silky and creamy, and expressed a from elsewhere, whose selection was long, finesse above all. And this cru was served with a stealthy, but never by chance. Choices have flowery crust of a cow’s milk . A always been made to optimise botanical capa- catastrophe!” The guests had to figure out for cities, competition and exchange between wine themselves that the crust had to be removed growers, whether trials were shared or not. In as it added a bitterness that didn’t go with the his monumental Histoire de la vigne et du vin finesse of the wine. The protein in the milk of des origines au xixe siècle3, Roger Dion recons- the Brie, reacted with the tannins of the wine tructs some of these choices. and resulted in an acrid taste, one of the most dangerous pitfalls when looking to pair a red As for the other partner in the marriage, cheese, wine and a cheese. “We tend to think that a the history is just as uncertain. Building the tannic red wine will have a deglazing effect that taste of a Pont-l’évêque, a , it works in opposition to the fat in the cheese. a Pélardon or a Banon, doesn’t appear to have But chemically and physically this is not what anything to do with wine. Farming commu- happens. We do get a feeling of contrast in the nities had one worry to begin with: preserving mouth, but it turns very quickly into uncontrol- their fragile milk and improving it for their lable and disagreeable bitterness.” local communities and nearby markets. But is it possible that the creation of these cheeses In Bordeaux, the English were historically and their longevity could have happened if the initiators in terms of taste, a straight, clear there were no wines to go with them? The and nuanced taste, indeed the wines of the poly-culture that characterised France up Gironde were appreciated with cheeses with until the middle of the 20th century created a strong personality like Stilton. “Bordeaux very close links between those who chose the revealed Dutch cheeses that came off the boats, grape varieties, made their wine and those as Denis Dubourdieu reminds us, in particular who raised animals. Today, husbandry and red wines from the left bank cabernet sauvi- winegrowing are completely closed-off as acti- gnon.” A combination well-tested by Michel vities: “I never think that a wine and cheese were Rolland: “If I had to choose one cheese to go created to go together” confirms the oenologist with red wine, it would be an old Gouda”. In the Loire valley, just like in Champagne, wines a geographical swathe of provincial-sounding have easily found local cheeses to match up names that had previously been erased from with for many years. Even though the taste the territorial vocabulary by the departmenta- of wines has changed from a palette where lisation of 1793. The cheeseboard became the acidity was prevalent to a more silky texture, metaphor for the France of lore, brought back French people have all appreciated being able to life on the table, by matching it with local to associate the fat of a Tome with the acidity wines with names that were another form of of a Gamay, the saltiness of an Ossau-Iraty attachment to the land. with the sweetness of a Jurançon or the slightly bitter character of a washed crust of a Munster It was at the table that the French developed with the fruitiness of a Gewurztraminer. the annoying habit of drinking strong or The question is more about how one wine slightly acidic tannic-laden reds, made from can go with an entire cheeseboard. For Gamay grapes as it was the most common Olivier Poussier, “This is impossible. A bottle grape used in production. At the better of Chignin-bergeron de Savoie that is perfect tables and for great matches like Sauternes with a Tomme will not go as well with a fresh and Roquefort, things were a little more goat’s cheese, an Epoisses or a blue cheese!” daring, but this was rare. At the same time, we could wonder if grape varieties such as the Regional expression Marcillac or Savagnin made a place for them- selves because their marriage with Laguiole or Nadine Gublin feels that “over time, we have Comté made their position safe. How do the simply come to increasingly experience the plea- Muscats of Lunel like Pélardon? How does the sure of associating them, and it is only natural Viognier court the , the that regional proximity leads, through habit and Pineau d’Aunis of the Cheverny wine? How repetition, and the way human taste is built, to does a Chardonnay de go with the people enjoying the wines and cheeses from the goaty fragrance of a Pouligny-saint-pierre? same region.” Let us imagine how this habit Let us watch while the Arrufiac and Courbu and repetition in France took place giving among the varieties of the Pacherenc du Vic- rise to the gastronomical passion of marrying Bihl faint in ecstasy before any sheep’s milk wines and cheeses. The cheese board we know cheese from the Pyrenees. it is a 19th century invention. It is true that cheese was originally a rural product that was The 19th century was also a high point for part of peasant eating habits, in particular French wines and cheeses as they took tables in the fields. Of course cheeses were eaten by storm. It was a time when the work of Louis in court when the kings in question such as Pasteur helped manufacturing methods to Henri IV or Louis XIV, had a solid appetite. develop and when markets began to open up. But the wide scale spread of cheese eating A great number of local cheeses appeared in happened in restaurants from the Revolution wine regions at the time. After the Second onwards, during the golden age of French Empire, the countryside was as highly popu- gastronomy. The cheese board took its place – lated as it had ever been. All around, what was and only here – at the table of the bourgeois of to subsequently be seen as the idea of “terroir” the Empire and the Restoration who liked the emerged with a demand for quality, authen- traditions of the Ancien regime. From Poitou ticity and diversity. “The Third Republic took and Anjou, from Dauphiné and Comté, from root in the local” explains Julia Csergo, the Bourgogne to the Basque country, it included historian4. But for many wine-lovers of the time, wines were threatened by acidification Chablis, she feels “some cheeses with an AOC or after only a year. AOP tradition label are bordered by terroirs with The wine producing system was still very strict production and elaboration conditions, like fragmented and it was difficult to get access wines. I am prepared to admit a correlation in to other, non-local wines, the production of production rules of an AOC or an AOP.” This which was beginning to shift toward mecha- makes for a more meaningful alliance between nisation and chemical additives. On the other “Young, fruity Burgundies with fine, silky tan- hand, many cheeses hit their peak in taste nins with a Citeaux, a white from the côte de terms during this period: they travelled more Beaune with an Epoisses or an energetic, saline easily to urban areas and, notably to Paris. Chablis with a Soumaintrain.” Their taste could be strong and long-lasting, their odours floral, iodized, mushroomy, grassy An alliance can at times be the sum of oppo- or fresh, etc., their flavours acidic, sweet, bitter. sites. Wine has the ability to ally a number A shared tasting vocabulary was invented at of foods that were not necessarily meant to the table. Gourmets and food lovers learned be together as is evident from the alliances to practice it as a social game. between French wines and Japanese dishes that can be found in French (or Japanese) In the heart of the terroirs restaurants in Japan and Japanese restau- rants in France. Geographical alliances are “Wine is polymorphous, polychromatic” as often damaged by distance: the Rocamadour Denis Dubourdieu loves to marvel when faced is not shown in its best light by a Cahors with the many tastes and appellations on the that, in turn, goes much better with a Bleu French gastronomical map. This is truly the d’Auvergne. So geography can also be about key to French diversity, maintained in the imagination, opportunity and sensibility. countryside due to distance then brought to Denis Dubourdieu likes to say that he sees the cities that then built France’s regional “two types of pairings with wine: a wine that gastronomy. “In Bordeaux, says Dubourdieu, blends in well with regional gastronomy, but cheese is but a pretext to highlight a wine, and also wine that is universal, as it belongs to all red wine, as there are many whites that go well of humanity”. spontaneously, while it is more difficult for reds.” An idea that would lead us to believe that in Without a doubt, this geography lesson is wine-growing regions, what matters is the far from over as on the map of France, the wine, and making it look and taste good: spicy wine-growing desert that is Normandy and food, cakes, spices, cheeses are all there for the North begs the question: why do they the glory of the wines. At the table but also recommend an alliance between a local cider perhaps in the chai? and and a local brown beer and Maroilles? Does this not present us with an Oenologists deny this vehemently: “I never eat opportunity to examine the subtle regional pai- cheese while I’m working in the chai and espe- rings that France has built between its wines cially never when I am tasting. I don’t want my and its cheeses? This would not shock a fan sense of smell and taste to be interfered with of English Clawson Stilton that goes so well or thrown off scent by strong, outside flavours with port, or a Hungarian fan of kashkaval when they need to provide a precise descrip- that goes so well with a Tokay, and even less tion of a wine” Nadine Gublin points out. so an Italian who loves Gorgonzola and who As a well-known oenologist from Beaune to dreams of the silky touch of a Marsala. Like with all long-lasting relationships, the alliance retains a share of mystery. At a French table, the composition written each time a wine meets a cheese is one of the most creative. Oscar Wilde liked to say that “The French are so proud of their wines that they’ve given some of their towns the names of great vintages”. This witty comment can also apply to cheeses and their regions. These toponymous transfers are also the sign of a high level of intimacy between places and people. To recognise this is to maintain a link that cannot be voided of meaning by any society and that we must foster at all cost. Because culture is the power to live in a place, or at least to make it liveable.

Gilles Fumey Geographer, University Paris-Sorbonne

1. Interview with the author. 2. Id. All of the industry expert quotes come from interviews carried out in 2013. 3. CNRS-Editions, 2011. 4. Histoire de l’alimentation, Fayard, 1996.