1976 Chateauneuf-du-Pape with Cheese
Yats Wine Cellars set out to find a good cheese to pair with an old Rhone Wine from Yats Wine Cellars, a 1976 Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Several fairly ordinary cheeses were paired against a 1976 Chateauneuf-du-Pape brought out from Yats Wine Cellars Clark Philippines. This is the result of the pairing.
The jury is out and here is the verdict of the tasting of the 1976 Chateauneuf-du-Pape against these cheeses:
Asiago (Young): This didn’t work at all, brought on an almost orangey flavor in the cheese, clash.
Camenbert (Danish): The cheese was too dull, played almost no part in the partnership.
Jack: Flavor of wine a bit too intense for the cheese but weight matched well so the overall results was not bad, but not brilliant.
Fontina: Very good match, flavor intensity really match but the synergy came from the cheese ability to tone down the dried tea-leaf flavor of an old Chateauneuf-du-Pape making the wine younger, more fruity and sweeter. The finish was smooth and balanced. This pairing worked!
Raclette: Flavor and weight worked well but the astringency of the wine brought out a strange flavor in the cheese reminiscent of salted dry fish, not totally unacceptable but not for everybody.
Edam: Boring is probably the right word, the pairing didn’t really produced any bad results but these two just didn’t sign together, so just OK.
Gruyere: Good fit, each bringing out sweetness of the other. Even the flaky texture of the Gruyere blends works well to make the old Rhone wine feel smoother and rounder on the palate. There is good synergy in this pairing.
Saint Paulin: This one didn’t work at all, cheese amplified the tea-leaf flavor in the wine making the wine tastes much more faded than it was.
La Sale: It was ok but boring, nothing happened.
The recommended pairing out of the cheese for this pairing were Fontina and Gruyere.
Yats also operates a fine-dining wine restaurant called Yats Restaruant and Wine Bar in Clark Philippines www.YatsRestaurant.com. It is located inside the Mimosa Leisure Estate which also houses a 36-hole championship golf club called Mimosa Golf, as well as a casino. Clark is packed with action, so wine shopping aside, there are other meaningful things to spend your time. Yats Restaurant is certainly an international outfit. The chef is from London and the maitre ‘d is from Holland and they can cook up all sorts of gourmet meals.
To get more information about Clark Wine Center or other establishments mentioned here, email Wine@Yats-International.com. The trip from Shanghai is not exactly short but with hundreds of tourists heading down there with plans to purchase vintage wines to bring home, there’s got to be some magic in that 2-storey wine shop.
Public wine tastings are held from time to time in Clark and sometimes in Manila. Tickets range from p500 to p1500 for these themed events that are professionally run -no wine merchants sponsorship, pushy salesmen or tacky banners to ruin the evening. Each ticket contains a certain number of stubs that you can redeem for a tasting pour of a wine of your choice among those on a line-up. Very often, the lineup contains wines that are quite old and expensive. This makes YATS Wine Tasting events the most cost-effective venue to explore new options and expand our knowledge of wine through first-hand encounters.
Wine Seminars have been conducted in the past and may be offered from time to time. These seminars deal with intermediate to advanced subject matters that are aimed at providing useful and practical knowledge for the wine enthusiasts. Topics are focused and treatment, in depth. Most seminars include a guided tasting session after the lecture.
Wine-paired dinners are organized either at Y A T S Restaurant in Clark or in collaboration with other restaurants and organizers. Unlike wine dinners organized by a wine merchant, the wines in Yats wine dinners are not confined to a narrow range of selections. Yats Wine Shops do not need to “push” a narrow range of products like Chilean or Australian wines for example.
Sister company Y A T S Restaurant and Wine Lounge is one of most wine-sensitive fine-dining establishments in Asia. B Y O (Bring Your Own) Wine evenings occur regularly for wine enthusiasts to enjoy their recent finds over a gourmet meal specially crafted to be wine friendly. The wine list of YATS Restaurant is equally impressive and satisfying to the hard-to-please. Mark-up is small and that makes it the friendliest wine restaurant in Asia.
Clark Wine Center
MA Roxas Ave corner A Bonifacio Ave, Clark Freeport, Pampanga, Philippines 2023
(632) 6375019 0922-870-5173 0917-8268-790
Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Philippines Stock Exchange Center (Tektite)
Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Metro Manila, Philippines
Wine@Yats-International.com
(632) 637-5019 0922-870-5173 0917-8268-790
www.YatsWineCellars.com
