How To Pair Your Next Cheese Board With Bourbon

When you think of alcoholic drinks to pair with some fine cheeses, your immediate thoughts might first turn to which wines you should choose. And while wine is a completely valid and beloved choice to pair alongside your next cheese board, you can also expand your pairing choices to spirits of a higher strength. Specifically, pairing cheese and bourbon can prove to be a very complementary partnership, should you choose the right cheeses and bourbon of course. Just like anything, you need to make sure you pick certain cheeses and certain bourbons that play well together, so how should you go about this?

When it comes to bourbon, you've got to remember that it's going to bring a lot more "heat" than wine or many other standard drinks. Even the weakest bourbon is going to be 40% ABV (alcohol by volume), so you're going to need to pick cheeses that can hold their own against the strong spirit. The usual advice might be that intense cheeses are to be avoided when constructing a charcuterie board, but when it comes to pairing cheese and bourbon, the opposite advice turns out to be true.

Sure, it's helpful to narrow down your cheese choices to ones that fit into the "strong" category, but there's obviously more character to differentiate one cheese from another, even among the stronger varieties. As such, you've got plenty of choice when choosing your cheeses, so what's the best option? Common wisdom might have you think that you should only choose one cheese to highlight on your board, but luckily for those of you who hate making decisions, you don't need to pick just one in this case. Since you're going to be consistent in choosing cheeses with lots of character, you can make distinctions both in texture and in what specific flavors are on offer.

You can break your cheese choices into several distinct categories: soft, aged/hard, sharp, and a cheeky blue cheese if you're feeling up to it. For the first, focus on brie's soft texture or that of another kind of soft cheese. The texture alone is praiseworthy, but the fat content in it will blend effortlessly with your bourbon to create a delicate dance on your palette. As far as harder aged cheeses go, a smoky gouda is a surefire choice, with salty cheeses like pecorino also deserving a mention. Aged cheddars fit seamlessly with sweet and fruity bourbons, but are great all-rounders regardless of your whiskey. And finally, blue cheese, which has many unexpected uses, is more than strong enough to stand up to bourbon, and might just be the unexpected favorite alongside your sips.

Don't let all your concentration be used on cheese — your bourbon needs some attention too. Just like how not all strong cheeses are the same, the same can be said for bourbon. And while bourbon is highly regulated and must be made from at least 51% corn, there's still plenty of room for variation. Thankfully, though, you can break down your bourbons into categories, just like your cheeses.

For bourbons to pair alongside your chosen cheeses, you once again want bottles that have lots of character and flavor compared to the average bourbon. Barrel proof bourbons, wheated bourbons, bottles with a high rye content, and selections that have some extra age on them are all solid choices for exactly this reason. Barrel proof bourbons are typically of a higher proof than regular bourbons, bringing more heat but also more depth of flavor. Wheated bourbons, meanwhile, are different from regular bourbons in that they're usually softer, sweet, and somewhat nutty in flavor — these notes being exceptional complements for your cheeses. 

On the other side of that spectrum are high-rye bourbons, whose rye content gives you a "spicy" option full of complex flavors. And as for aged bourbons, the longer a bourbon ages in charred oak barrels, the more nuanced and manifold your flavor notes are going to be, making them great options. Ideally you can grab a bottle of each, but don't worry if not — you should have a fun time pairing your bourbon and cheese either way.