My favourite Ultimate pairing 2024

Possibly my best ever Ultimate pairing….

This will be our fourth Ultimate, and every year we work even harder to try and top the previous year, which always seems to have been a step up from the year before.

We taste an awful lot of wines, and cheeses, and it can become quite overwhelming for the palate, even for cheese obsessives like us! This also tends to create a slight bias towards earlier pairings in terms of favouritism.

But what we are always hoping for, is that hidden amongst all the combinations, no matter how weary and fatigued we are, is a group of pairings that grabs our attention and makes us smile. 

Every year, these are the pairings we present to you, and this year my favourite pairing had us all gesticulating, laughing and hopping about like crazy…what’s more, it came right at the end of the tasting!

It was pairing number 7, the Truffleperle and Campo di Marzo Primitivo.

Firstly, truffle isn’t for everyone, but as far as truffle cheese goes, this is the best out there. It is balanced, subtle and fragrant rather than bitter, overpowering and synthetic. But importantly, the base cheese is world-class. The truffle (fresh black truffles from Italy) is not there to cover any shortcomings in the cheese. At cheesegeek HQ, even some of our non-truffle lovers have been converted by this cheese.

Then we have the Primitivo, berry forward, light tannins but a hint of tar bringing body and robustness, enough to hold its own.

When the two were paired, it was fireworks. Garlic porcini, earthy, doughy bruschetta, rich and rustic. The cheese rounded out some of the acidity in the wine, and the wine in turn seemed to lean on the earthiness of the truffles but used its berry fruitiness to cut through and balance some of the rich creaminess in the cheese.

It was layered. It was complex. And it created new flavour, improving both the cheese, and the wine, from already very high bases. It also just tasted absolutely brilliant.

Certainly my highlight of this year’s pairings, and quite probably my favourite ever Ultimate pairing. I really cannot wait for you to try it this Christmas.