Chavignol goat cheese

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Why it works

Crottin de Chavignol is a small, round goat's-milk cheese named after the hamlet of Chavignol, whose steep vineyards produce some of Sancerre's best-known whites. A young crottin is moist, mild and lactic, with a thin bloomy rind. As it ages it dries, firms and turns nutty, sharper and more savoury, and its rind darkens.

Sauvignon Blanc's acidity does the main work: it cleans the palate after each bite of a creamy, slightly sticky cheese, and its citrus and green notes echo the cheese's freshness rather than fighting it. As the cheese ages and gains salt and depth, a wine with more texture holds its own better than a very light one.

This is why the terres blanches wines of Chavignol, which growers associate with breadth and a slower-unfolding shape, are the natural partners for an older crottin, while a bright caillottes wine suits a fresh one.

At the table

How to serve it

• Fresh crottin: on bread with a few leaves dressed in walnut oil and lemon.
• Warm crottin salad (crottin chaud): halve a semi-firm cheese, set it on toast, grill until it just softens, and serve on frisée with a mustard vinaigrette.
• Aged crottin: on its own at the end of the meal, with walnuts or a slice of country bread. Avoid sweet chutneys, which flatten a dry white.

Also works

Other goat cheeses

The same logic applies to other Loire goat cheeses such as Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, Selles-sur-Cher and Valençay: fresher cheeses with brighter wines, aged or ash-coated cheeses with broader ones.