Wine and Cheese Pairing: 2 - wines with cheeses

In my previous post, I discussed a fascinating paper by Galmarinin and her colleagues, where French study participants tried four different wines with and without cheese.* In that post, I noted that the participants preferred the sweet white wine (Pacherenc) over the drier white wine (Sancerre); the two white wines over the Pinot Noir (Bourgogne); and all of these wines over the wine with the highest level of alcohol and of tannins and therefore astringency, Madiran (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Tannat).

In this post, we will look at the effects of the cheeses consumed before sips of the wine. The researchers used four cheeses, as shown in the following table:

Note: all the cheese contained between 73 and 75% fat.

This diagram shows the effect of the four cheeses on wine liking:

As you can see, none of the cheeses had any effect on liking of the Pacherenc, still the preferred wine overall. These cheeses had only a slight effect on Sancerre liking. Where we see a difference is with the Bourgogne and the Madiran. With respect to the Bourgogne, the cheeses eliminate the slight decrease in liking from sip 1 to sip 3. With the Madiran, the decrease in liking with successive sips in the absence of cheese is notable, but when the cheeses are consumed between sips there is actually an increase in liking. Overall, Madiran still wasn’t liked as much as the other wines, but the difference among them was minimized.

What is the cheese doing? 

The first graph below shows the results on astringency when the cheeses are consumed. I didn’t include Pacherenc in this graph because it is not astringent, even when sipped alone. 

As you can see, cheese decreases the astringency of each of the other wines. Sancerre has relatively little astringency, so the decreases are minor and the effect of the cheeses on Sancerre liking is minor as well. As astringency in the absence of cheese rises, the effect of the cheeses is more dramatic. In the case of Bourgogne wine, cheese brings the perceived astringency down to levels comparable to those of Sancerre without cheese; in the case of the Madiran it brings the levels to slightly below those of Bourgogne without cheese. These results parallel the results for those of liking, suggesting that that 1) astringency is aversive for this group of tasters; and 2) that these cheeses have an effect on astringency. 

How do cheese affect astringency? 

In two linked ways: first, the fat in cheese turns off TRPV1, the hot receptor and one of the two receptors necessary for astringency to be perceived; second, by turning off TRPV1, TRPA1 (the cold receptor) can be activated. TRPA1 is also activated by the pungency in the cheese, further turning off TRPV1. The net effect is a decrease in astringency, so dislike of the wines is decreased.

What about the relative increase liking that we see with the Madiran when coupled with cheese?

The graph below shows what happens with three significant characteristics of the Madiran:

As you can see, with the cheeses' sourness—another aversive characteristic—decreases, while the perception of the wine’s red fruits increases. In other words the cheeses allowed the pleasant flavors hidden in the wine to come forward. Note that Roquefort is least effective at decreasing astringency and sourness and also least effective in increasing red fruit perception.

Incidentally, the red fruit flavors are perceived with the help of another receptor, TRPV3, a warm receptor. TRPV3 is also inhibited by activation of TRPV1. If TRPV1 is inactivated, then the red fruit chemicals that activate TRPV3 have a chance to be perceived. 

My take-homes from this paper are: 

• First, it important to consider the effects of wines and foods over time, such as in successive sips—these authors are among the first to take a serious look at this all important feature of our normal consumption, and to develop a method for recording and identifying the changes people perceive as they work their way through a meal.
• Second, as my friend Tim Hanni** points out, “Big Reds,” such as the Madiran used in this study, are generally not as much liked as the less astringent wines—this observation makes me think that liking a “Big Red” is as much a macho thing of reveling in the aversive, as it is about diminished sensitivity to the effects of TRPV1 activation—something like eating super hot chili peppers to show off. We must remember, however, that the pain induced by activation of TRPV1 by chili peppers declines the more you eat them. It may then be true that the more Big Reds you drink, the more inured and eventually insensitive you are to their astringency.
• Finally, these data strongly suggest that the biology of TRPV1, TRPA1, and TRPV3 as I have outlined in previous posts holds true.

So if you are stuck with a wine that you don't like because of its astringency, by all means ask for some cheese to go with it!

* Mara V. Galmarini, Anne-Laure Loiseau, Michel Visalli, and Pascal Schlich. Use of Multi-Intake Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) to Evaluate the Influence of Cheese on Wine Perception. Journal of Food Science Vol. 81, Nr. 10, 2016. doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.13500.

** http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=columns_article&content=84604&columns_id=24&ctitle=Big%2C%20Dry%20Reds%3A%20Just%20a%20Fad%3F