Wine and Cheese...Yes Please

After a night of excessive drinking and craziness (and believe me, that is putting it extremely lightly...it's a night I care not to remember for a long time), there’s no better way to get rid of a horrible hangover then to start drinking all over again. And that’s exactly what we did.

After dragging ourselves out of bed, we made our way to the other side of Paris for a wine and cheese lunch at this wine bar and restaurant called O’Chateau.

 

Bonjour wine & cheese.

After getting there 30 minutes early and them asking us to come back, it was finally time to head into the back room for the tasting.

In the room was a rectangular table with empty, soon to be filled, glasses surrounded by bottles of wine and champagne.

Everyone around the table was asked to introduce themselves and the type of wine we like to drink. The three of us were the only Americans there. The others were from Austria, Thailand and Russia (a very cute couple on their honeymoon).

The first was poured. As soon as the three of us took one sip, the shampoo effect started. We all looked at each other and mouthed we were already buzzed.

Our sommelier taught us all about champagne first. Then when it came to the wine, we learned about the look, smell and taste (the best part) techniques.

As we were sitting there buzzed they came in and brought the 5 different cheeses and sliced meats and bread. All we wanted to do was to start eating.

YUM!

DOUBLE YUM!!

TRIPLE YUM!!

The sommelier said we could eat at any time but of course no one had the balls to be the first, until the girl from Russia finally gave in.

The experience was pretty awesome. There is so much to know about champagne and French wines. Turns out there is no such thing as pairing the correct wine with cheese. It’s all a matter of opinion. He had us take a piece of cheese and pair it with two different wines. And then he went around the room asking who liked what pairing better. At the most, two people shared the same opinion. I preferred the second wine which was a 2010 sauvignon blanc with the comte cheese. YUM!

We also learned how to spot a douche bag sommelier who thinks they know everything (I doubt they have any of those in Los Angeles).

The tasting lunch was a lot of fun. Five incredible French cheeses and wines and one champagne. If you’re ever in Paris, I highly suggest doing this. But it may be better if you’re not totally hung over from the night before. 

And again, the night before was crazy beyond belief.