Oooh La La! Champagne and Cheese!

Just in time for New Year’s Eve, we’re stocked with cheeses that are begging to be paired with a bottle of Champagne. Champagne goes beautifully with buttery food, and here are three cheeses that fit that bill. Our three French cheeses below are both delightful and decadent. The buttery cheese lingers on your palate and the effervescence of the Champagne cuts through the creaminess, leaving you with a delicious, well-balanced taste. Enjoy these rich, creamy cheeses perfect for New Year’s Eve.

Join us on Saturday for our tasting of three cheeses that will make you party like it’s 1789. These gorgeous French cheeses are made for pairing with Champagne. Happy New Year!

Langres

If ever there were a cheese designed to be paired with Champagne, this is it. Pronounced Lawn-gruh, Langres is a delightful, small-format cheese with a deep dimple, perfect to hold Champagne. Check this out. Pour a little champagne into the dimple and let it soak in. Add more. Wait a minute and voila! Langres can be spooned out and spread onto a baguette or crackers.

Langres is colored with annatto (a natural food coloring) and then washed in Marc de Champagne, a by-product of the Champagne-making process. Washing the cheese in Champagne allows bacteria to form and break down the cheese into a luscious creamy treat with deep, complex flavor.

Origin: France (Champagne region)
Producer: Fromagerie Germain
Milk: Pasteurized cow
Rennet type: Traditional
Rind: Washed
Age: 5+ weeks
Look: Orange-ish rind
Feel: Semi-soft with a firm, crumbly texture
Smell: Aromatic
Taste: Salty, mild, complex
Tastes good with: Baguette, crostini, crackers
Pairs well with: Champagne, Burgundy

Le Secret de Lys

Le Secret de Lys is a soft triple crème cheese that is easy to spread. All cheese tastes best at room temperature, but it is absolutely essential that you wait 40 minutes or so for a triple crème to warm up if you want to enjoy it at peak flavor. Its cake-like texture becomes gooey, and this decadent, indulgent cheese can then be smeared onto crackers, baguettes, or bagels.

It ripens in a terracotta dish, which protects the fragile cheese. You can also heat it in its dish for a delightful end to your meal. Have plenty of crackers or baguette slices on hand!

Origin: France (France-Comte region)
Producer: Fromagerie Jean Perrin
Milk: Pasteurized cow
Rennet type: Traditional
Rind: Washed
Age: 6 weeks
Look: Soft and creamy, in a terracotta dish
Feel: Very soft, fluffy
Smell: Earthy, mushroomy
Taste: Creamy, with a buttery finish, slight citrus tang
Tastes good with: Crackers, crostini, baguette
Pairs well with: Champagne

Triplerousse d’Argental

A rich cheese with at least 72% fat, Triplerousse d’Argental is a soft cheese enriched with extra cream. Its rind is orange-ish, a result of being rubbed with annatto, and has a touch of white down. The taste is best described as resembling clotted cream.

Origin: France (Lyonnais region)
Milk: Pasteurized cow
Rennet type: Traditional
Rind: Bloomy
Age: Less than 6 weeks
Look: Thin, orange rind
Feel: Supple, melty
Smell: Creamy
Taste: Like thick clotted cream, salty
Tastes good with: Crackers, fresh fruit
Pairs well with: Champagne

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