Sake & Cheese – a Surprisingly Good Cheese Tasting Experience

We introduced yet another innovative cheese tasting combination earlier this week at a special tasting event in Haarlem. The venue was hosted at Restaurant Stempels, where Reypenaer Cheese got together with Vinites BV, one of the top importers of wines & spirits in the Netherlands and a group of circa 50 culinary professionals for a unique tasting event of Cheese & Sake. After a delicious glass of sparkling sake – Hou Hou Shu ‘Marumoto’, the tasting session got underway. The tastemasters were Ron Pieters of Reypenaer and Simon Hofstra of Vinites.

Cheese and Sake Tasting Experience - an unusual workshop

Reypenaer Cheese & Sake Tasting Workshop:
We began with our Chèvre Affiné goats cheese coupled with ‘Daishichi’ Kimoto Umeshu, an apricot infused sweet & sophisticated sake wine, not entirely dissimilar to a good desert wine. This proved a very pleasant combination!

We then tasted Wyngaard Affineur 6 month’s matured cheese with a stronger ‘Kobe’ Fukuju Mikagego Sake. This was followed by Reypenaer One Year Old Gouda with Kagatobi Junmai Ginjo ‘Fukumitsuya’ – which has a very refined flavour. Next, we tasted Honshu Ichi Muroka Junmai ‘Umeda’ (16.8%) with the 2½ year Reypenaer XO reserve. This is a sake with hints of herbs which went very well with the strong flavour of the Reypenaer XO.

We began with our Chèvre Affiné goats cheese coupled with ‘Daishichi’ Kimoto Umeshu, an apricot infused sake

Last up, Hanahato Kijoshu ‘Enoki’, an 8 years matured Sake that is made on a little island off the coast of Hiroshima (well known for its sake). This we tasted with our 2 Years Aged Gouda Reypenaer VSOP as well as with the older Gouda Reypenaer XO.  This was really superb -  the cool sake with hints of caramel wonderfully offset the creamy crystals in both of these fine aged Goudas.

We tasted Hanahato Kijoshu ‘Enoki’, an 8 years matured Sake with our 2 Years Aged Gouda Reypenaer VSOP

Overall, the group concluded that this was this was indeed an interesting and refreshing taste experience.  The cheeses went very well with the differing types of Sake. The Sake was chilled giving a different tasting experience to the more common pairing of cheeses with ports or with red wine served at room temperature.

Overall, the group concluded the Cheese & Sake Tasting Workshop was indeed a taste experience.

Curious? Join our Cheese & Sake Tasting Workshops!
From October 1st 2011, you can join a Cheese & Sake Tasting Workshop at the Reypenaer Proeflokaal in Amsterdam and at our Ancient Cheese Warehouse in Woerden.
Price: Only €17.50 per person.
Email Us Now to reserve your place…

Keep on tasting!

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