The impact of country and wine culture on ideal pairings of French white wine and cheese

Abstract

Research on ideal food-beverage pairings has recently increased and comprehensive pairing principles have been established. Concurrently, cross-cultural studies in sensory and consumer studies have gained importance. Hence, the main goal of this research is to reveal potential differences between countries (Austria and France) in the ideal pairings of French white wines and cheeses as well as in the sensory evaluations of the resulting wine-cheese pairings. Another objective is to investigate whether wine culture (aficionados vs. non-aficionados) has an impact on the ideal associations of French white wines and cheeses as well as on the words employed in the sensory evaluations of these pairings. Our results confirm that not only the selection of ideal wine-cheese pairings, but also the number and variety of words used in sensory evaluations, depend on country. However, this is not the case with wine culture (aficionados vs non-aficionados). When crossing country and wine culture, differences between both French aficionados and non-aficionados as well as Austrian aficionados and non-aficionados in the selection of ideal wine-cheese pairings and the words employed could be revealed. It follows that wineries organizing wine tastings should account for their customers’ country and its wine culture when choosing accompanying cheese.