Wine, cheese and the ocean

There's nothing better than pairing wine and cheese. Ok, maybe there is. Add a warm baguette to the mix... Wait and the best part is wine, cheese and bread while overlooking the ocean!

 

Yep, sounds like a dream, right? Well, it is but it was a dream come true for me a few weeks ago.

 

For this season's Outer Banks family trip, we decided to take one car and as a result, we decided to not bring much wine. Wait.. what? No wine on a week's vacation? Calm down... it's because we have a fabulous wine shop at the Outer Banks! Now we'd have an excuse to go there early in the week and stock up on wine to drink there and to take home!

 

 

Trio, such a wonderful little find!!

 

Back in the Spring, I placed an order for a case from Kenny, the wonderful owner, and my friend went down and picked it up for me. He wanted an excuse to go to the ocean because he hadn't seen it in years. (Gasp! Years? How could I not take him up on that offer! It was for his own good, anyway) 

 

 Kenny is fabulous and often gets wines that we don't get up here at my happy place and (don't tell Arthur) at cheaper prices, too! I had told him I was coming for a week and would of course stop in. He knows I am an Orin Swift fanatic and the minute I walked in he proceeded to tell me which Orin Swift wines he had in the store. Gotta love him! (Hey, maybe I'll just move to the OBX and work for him.... now there's a fabulous idea!)

 

Dad and I bought a case. I mean it didn't make sense not to because if you buy a case then you get 10% off. Plus we had six days to cover and I threw in a few special ones to take home and save.

 

Now, while I had obviously been here before, the special treat we decided to give ourselves this time was to check out the cheese case. Why hadn't we done this before, you ask? Good damn question!

 

 

My only regret was not taking a photo of the "cheese guy" because he was so entertaining and pretty good lookin' too!  His biggest mistake was to tell me and Mom we could try any of the cheeses in the case! Well, buddy, good thing you're not busy because Mom and I snickered and thought, yeah you're going to regret telling us that..... Lucky there weren't chairs or we'd have been there longer.

 

 

 

I enjoyed all the cheeses we tried but these four were my favorite. Cave Aged Gruyere, Lamb Chopper, Challerhocker (prounced Hall-er-hock-er but like you're going to hock something up when you pronounce the first H. I know it's gross but that's how you say it!) and Brabander (the staff favorite).

 

Dad hasn't been a big cheese fan like Mom and me are but we are quickly convincing him.

It's amazing what wine will make you like and do!

 

Dad and I were pretty pleased with our purchases and couldn't wait to get back to the house and have lunch!

 

 

Back at the house, I prepared, on the finest china in the house, our three cheeses to try along with a baguette and Mom's delicious crab salad.

 



 

 

 

 

Knowing that Dad likes Rieslings and I'll only drink it if there is spicy food or a fantastic cheese available, we bought a Riesling to share. Why? Well, the Brabander cheese actually mentioned on its review that it goes perfectly with Rieslings. Guess what? It does!  I did not care for the wine by itself, but the Brabander wine took the sweetness of the wine away and made it very enjoyable.

 

While we opened the Riesling and I enjoyed it with the cheese, I also decided to open up the Justin Chardonnay that we purchased.

 

 

I knew that in October my happy place was having a Justin winery tasting and this Chardonnay was reasonable so why not try it. It was a beautiful golden color with aromas of buttery toast and green apple. On the palette were the same tastes as aromas except with a more toasted appeal.  It was a very rich Chardonnay and almost too much for my liking. It definitely needed food and the cheese helped. My first reaction to this Chard was it reminded me of scallops sauteed in butter sauce. While I would love that entree, I wasn't fond of the liquid form.

 

 

  Wine, cheese and the ocean.... my own simple "Trio". Nothing more comforting.....

 

 

"I was happy anywhere I could see the ocean.”

― Ai Yazawa