Montreal Highlights Festival Review: The Perfect Wine and Cheese at the Micro Festival of Quebec Cheeses

It's days like this that remind me why I love this city. I can walk through an underground shopping mall and find 40 Quebec cheese producers snuggling up with a shocking array of Portuguese wines. Really there weren't that many wines, maybe 40, but what was there was of such high quality that Montreal and is truly spoiled right now.

All the cheese is overwhelming, so here's some help: walk into Complexe Desjardins and circle your way around the cheese counters. The offerings run the gamut from soft, unripened goats milk to organic semi-firm thermised (heated to a certain temperature but can officially be called unpasteurized. It falls somewhere between raw and pasteurized, but is unfriendly to lactose-intolerant people, making the title "unpasteurized" a little deceiving to those who expect it to mean 'raw'). Of course, there were bries and blues all averaging about $5 or $6 a block, but the real thing to do here is to have a little cheese and then direct your attention to the wines. For $5 you get 3 coupons which can be traded for 3 wine samples. Fortunately most of the producers are more than generous and will give you several samples from their collection with just one coupon. This is depending on type, of course. They will not give you several red wine samples and a few ports unless you're incredibly charming. My charm topped out at a business card to interview a chef at the Restaurant Nuances and 2 glasses of red from Esporao. That's quite enough charm for one day. You sample from one winery, go have a bite of cheese to clear the palette, sample from another, repeat palette-cleansing, and then try a final producer's offerings. By then you'll know what wine you liked and you can buy your favourite cheese to take home. The beauty of Quebec is that you get one wine glass when you purchase your sample coupons, and this wine glass can trek with you all around the Complexe. You could make it to the metro and the security would be none the wiser. In fact they certainly didn't seem to care where anyone trekked. You're not supposed to take wine outside of the wine sampling area (which had a coat rack for those intending to stay awhile!) but your empty glass has full access to the cheese sampling area. So traipsing back and forth is encouraged.

To make this review a bit more fun, here's what I propose: My favourite wines, paired with my favourite cheeses (though I'm sure you'll try all the cheeses if you make it there yourself). With the wines it's hard to know where to start and what's worth your valuable coupons. If there's no cheese that pairs well, I'll recommend a recipe or food pairing idea.

Jose Maria Da Fonseca

Definitely try these wines. Their white, an Albis 2008 (A very reasonable $12) is mostly Moscatel with a bit of the Portuguese varietal, Arinto. It's light and fruity. Not sweet, you could have it on its own as an aperitif, but you may find it deceptively water-like after the intense fruit smell. In fact the smell is a little more satisfying, though the wine is lovely. To keep your post-sniffing disappointment at bay I think it would go nicely with Fromagerie L'Ancetre's Emmental, a slightly sweet but mild cheese.

Jose Maria Da Fonseca also offers a Moscatel ($15, fortified, like a light port) that lands somewhere between an iced cider, a honeywine and a glass of melted butter. It's not overloaded with sugar, and makes for a very good digestif on its own. I had a grand chat with the representative about soaking dried fruit in it. He had just had a discussion with two women about using it in baking and I laughed because that was also my first thought. It would be a great replacement for rum or amaretto. Even cointreau. Bananas flambé or Disaronno-Soaked Apricot Loaf. It you want to keep the alcohol and the pungency of the wine either keep a small glass to sip on the side while eating the loaf, or use it as a glaze without cooking off the alcohol. Or just drink the apricot-soaking liquid when you are too impatient make the actual loaf. The producer also recommended trying it over baked brie.

Then there was Verlente, Sempa Duoro whose Amantis (A white wine at $27) was much more acidic than I had expected. Both it and the estate's Dona Maria would go well with an unripened goat cheese or maybe even the camembert-like offering from Fromagerie Pied-de-Vent. I wouldn't want to drink them on their own, but it would certainly be an acquired taste.

Two other very nice cheeses were from Fromagerie La Station. Both raw, they were very similar, just the older brother had 5 months or so on his younger sister. There was a distinct taste of orange in the rind, that was confirmed by the producer. Being light, neither would go particularly well with the very dry reds from Esporao. The Monte Velho (the less prestigious and less expensive at $13.24 a bottle) would be wonderful in a braised meat dish or coq au vin. Using a mixture of trincadeira (think similar to madeira or a cooking wine) aragines and catelao, the wine would be a happily-accepted gift for a dinner party or more than respectable for a meal at home. To step up a level, though, the Esporao Reserva at $24 is almost too strong to drink on its own and begs for red meat. The price jump is completely justified in this 'grand vin', and this wine should definitely be tried. Very smooth, dry, and exceptional.

A few hours spent over a selection of incredible wines and cheeses, talking with people who care as much about them as I do...heaven. 3pm wine and cheese. If you live in Montreal you can have this experience any day for the next week. Enjoy!