Sauternes Is the Question. And Cheese Is the Answer.
This weekend, K&L Hollywood got together for our annual holiday party. And, if anyone has any doubts, let me assure you that K&L knows how to throw a party. It was hosted at République, which just came in at #2 on the LA Times’ annual list of the top 101 restaurants in LA. And, man, it’s well deserved! Plate after plate of beautifully crafted food hit our table, from delicate potato-leek beignets to Thai-inspired kanpachi crudo to melt-in-your-mouth short ribs. The butternut squash agnolotti dish was a standout. The plates kept coming, and we kept eating.
Of course, our owner, Clyde, made sure that we had beautiful drink alongside each plate. We started with one of our fave Direct Import Champagne producers, Egrot—an auspicious start! The wine was so delicate, and, though I knew I had to pace myself, the servers were very efficient and my glass was never empty. Once we sat down, we opened the spectacular 2016 Pavillon Blanc from Château Margaux. It was crisp with great palate weight and notes of lemon curd, grapefruit pith, and an herbal complexity. One of my favorites of the night was a 2000 Meyney from magnum, and this had remarkable depth while drinking much younger than its 19 years. It was all dark fruits like black cherry and blackberry with a vibrant texture and savory, rosemary underpinnings. We had magnums of Inglenook from 1972 and Groth from 1988, still full of life and classic California character. Spirits Buyer David Othenin-Girard brought a bottle of Weller and made us all believers.
But the highlight for me was the penultimate course: a cheese and Sauternes pairing. When I mentioned to Clyde that I wanted to write about Sauternes, he, in the generous spirit that is Clyde, said “Let’s open them up at the holiday party!” And thus we did. He selected a variety of vintages, and I selected a variety of cheeses, with help from Gelson’s cheesemonger.
Sauternes is a special drink, indeed. It’s a wine that relies on rot (botrytis hits the vines and concentrates the flavors in the grapes) and a wine that relies on risk. In some years, the botrytis does not hit until very late in the season, and if a proprietor decides to risk it and wait, he/she may lose the whole crop. It’s a tightrope walk that’s worth it to many because, if it works, the product is divine.
Sauternes tastes like springtime sunshine when it is young, and like summer afternoons on a hammock when it is aged. It is pure daylight, and it is amazing—and way under appreciated in America. If you pair it with the right foods—especially the right cheeses—the heavens open up and shine down upon you. What’s more, the cheese-course-Sauternes pairing just encourages living a better life in general: one in which your meal can last for four or five hours, with good company and amazing flavors percolating on your palate. One that I am all for.
But it’s also a wine that is often overlooked. Americans tend to serve the cheese course as an appetizer, so we’re not generally drinking sweet wines at that point in the meal. Plus, somehow we’ve established a cultural zeitgeist against sweet wines (I think we never fully recovered from the White Zinfandel era). In fact, even my husband, a great, open-minded wine lover, reflexively told me he didn’t much like sweet wine when I mentioned our Sauternes course. Somewhere along the way, he, like much of America, had gotten the message that sweet wine is declassé, when in fact, sweet wine is one of the most luxurious pleasures on the planet. Don’t worry, we changed his mind. Here’s how:
The wines:
2007 Suduiraut This had a nice balance and a full body, with spice notes and a honeyed lemon creaminess. It was lighter in personality than the 2009 Guiraud that we drank alongside it, but that gave it the advantage when pairing it with the more delicate Brillat-Savarin cheese. Perhaps it was a mark of the vintage, of which Decanter says: “An outstanding vintage that combines richness and purity with balance and breed. Exceptional freshness too.” This bottle captured the vintage perfectly.
2009 Guiraud The Guiraud came from an early harvest in an excellent vintage known for its richness. It did not disappoint! Its flavors leaned toward rich caramel and toffee with sumptuous body. I thought this was gangbusters with the Roquefort and Époisses.
2016 Climens, Barsac There is great pleasure in drinking young Sauternes, though that pleasure is different than the richness that comes with age. The 2016 Climens is a perfect example of this: it’s young, flirty, and just bursting with tropical fruit. It was a delight, and a vibrant counterpoint to the Roth’s aged nuttiness.
And the cheeses:
Berthaut Époisses de Bourgogne
This stinky washed-rind wonder from Burgundy is a classic pairing with Sauternes, and the depth of mushroomy umami in the cheese is a great counterpoint for bottles with a bit of richness from age. M. Berthaut is the person who revived interest in Époisses in 1956, and this brand remains the hallmark for this type of cheese. It’s decidedly stinky, and I’ve read that the word Époisses means something along the lines of "completely worth the effort'' or "stinky but incredibly loveable."
Brillat-Savarin Triple Cream Brie
Named for the famous epicurean Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in 1930s Normandy by cheese retailer Henri Androuët, this triple cream is made from pasteurized cow’s milk and now found mainly in Burgundy. There’s a creamy sourness to it that engages the sugars of the Sauternes and has something of the yin-yang effect of a cheesecake.
Roth Grand Cru Surchoix from Wisconsin
This is made in an Alpine style from the good ol’ U.S. of A., similar to a Gruyere. It’s a washed-rind raw cow’s milk cheese, aged in wheels at least 9 months. I wanted to have a harder cheese as a distinction from all the creamy ones, and this fit the bill beautifully with nutty, buttery umami and crunchy crystals.
Societe Bee Roquefort Cheese
Roquefort is another classic Sauternes pairing. This is a sheep’s cheese from Causses in Southwestern France. According to the producer, their grassy diet is to thank for the herbacous flavor and salty tanginess. Infused with rye-bread mold and aged in natural limestone caves for several months, the cheese develops blue veins and an amazing earthiness.
And though our dinner was long and our plates were always full, the cheese course didn’t feel gluttonous. Back when I was an exchange student in Italy, meals were like this—hours’ long affairs with good friends and wine and each course taking its sweet time. I truly love eating like this, and here I’ll stand on my soap box: let’s do more of it. Let’s make it our national credo—to live better, slower, more joyously, and to do it with a glass of Sauternes.
- Kate Soto