Beer and food: Hard cheese!

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Wine loses to beer in a food matching taste test showdown. John Porter reports.There's often a debate in the scientific community about whether all...

Wine loses to beer in a food matching taste test showdown. John Porter reports.

There's often a debate in the scientific community about whether all progress is desirable - just because you can do something, doesn't automatically mean you should. Such dilemmas normally focus on clearly dodgy ideas such as developing larger nuclear bombs and more virulent strains of anthrax. However, a couple of scientists at the University of California might have been well advised to consult their moral compasses before publishing their research into wine and cheese at the start of this year.

The boffins in question - who may have been white-coated, but given their location could equally well have been sporting tie-dyed lab gear - came to the conclusion that, scientifically, wine with cheese just isn't a good idea.

Professor Hildegarde Heymann and researcher Bernice Madrigal-Galan asked trained wine tasters, who are presumably much posher than the average guinea pig, to try eight different cheeses, followed by different varieties of wine.

Cheese was found to make it much harder to distinguish the different flavour elements of wines - all that "berry and oak, vanilla and unwashed socks" stuff so beloved of oenophiles.

One theory is that fat from the cheese coats the mouth, deadening the taster's perception of the flavours. The wine tasters' ability to tell the difference between expensive vintages and standard supermarket plonk was severely impaired by the cheese, threatening them with professional ruin and public contempt.

So far, so good, you might think. The only people likely to be upset by the findings of this research are snobby wine buffs and the French. Not much there for the average publican or pub punter to get too upset about.

When you stop to think about it, though, there are more worrying ramifications. What about PTA meetings? Without wine and cheese, the entire support structure for the nation's schools could topple. And what would you buy at Christmas for those difficult uncles if port-and-stilton gift boxes disappeared?

The release of the research sparked debate around the world, but probably none more interesting than that between Ben Bartlett, chef and catering development manager of The Union Pub Company, and founder member of The Publican's beer and food matching panel, and Sally Easton, Master of Wine, consultant, and writer.

Ben and Sally were on one of those essential fact-finding missions which occupy so much of chefs and wine masters' valuable time when the research was first publicised. In the true spirit of healthy debate, over dinner Ben backed the California findings, and went on to argue that beer was a much better companion to cheese, while Sally insisted that it was nothing but bunkum to consider serving anything other than a glass of vino with the cheeseboard.

So, on a grey Monday morning in February, a group of around 30 chefs, publicans, restaurateurs and assorted industry watchers gathered at Allium, the Pimlico restaurant of top chef Anton Edelmann. Under the auspices of the Food Development Association, Ben and Sally were given the chance to prove their case.

After an hour-long demonstration of cooking with cheese by Anton, the main event saw guests presented with a platter of six cheeses selected by Richard Grenfell-Hill from cheese specialist Jeroboam. The two contenders had selected a beer or wine respectively to go with each cheese. Votes were cast as to which was the best match in each case.

Anton himself found the event fascinating. Although Austrian by birth, he won his spurs at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Belgium. "I prefer the straightforward beers I grew up with - just grain, water and yeast," he said. "The Belgians are too keen on adding other ingredients."

On both sides there was a mixture of textbook and off-the-wall matches in each case. Ben's classic pairing of Marston's Pedigree with a mature cheddar won the highest vote of any single match, while Sally's match of fruity South African red De Toren Fusion paired with soft French sheep's milk cheese, Abbaye de Bellocq, was undoubtedly her biggest success of the day.

The tension went right up to the wire, with the contest standing at three-two to beer as the final matching was announced. Speculation on which expert might fare best in a penalty shoot-out came to nothing as Ben pulled out all the stops by serving the excellent Banks's Barley Gold Ale with a strong roquefort blue cheese.

With beer winning four-two, Ben pronounced himself relieved. "I knew I was on solid ground," he said. "The flavours in beer and cheese are both from a field. Barley is a grass and gives the flavour components.

"In the mouth, wine glides over the cheese, but beer because of the carbonisation cleanses away the salt and fat, and so it resets the palate.

"Having said that, some of the wines Sally chose were excellent. When I tasted the South African red with the Abbaye de Bellocq I thought I was in trouble."

The event was clearly a great deal of fun for all concerned, but also useful. Among the jurors were Sam and Nigel Wydemus, owners and licensees of the Coastguard pub in St Mary's, Kent. The pub stocks more than 60 beers, while chef Sam is an aficionado of authentic cheeses.

"It's very interesting if you can make the time to attend events like this," said Nigel. "It can give you plenty of ideas."

Sam, who makes regular trips to the French cheese markets, said she is considering an England vs France cheese matching contest at the pub.

And it doesn't end there. A new challenger is waiting in the wings, with a line-up of the best British ciders ready to contend with beer for the cheese matching crown. Watch this space.

Beer v wine: the results

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