Editor’s Note: Asiago and the Accomplice (Whine & Cheese Cozy Mystery Series) by Judy Volhart is now available. Click here to order your copy.

What do wine and cheese have in common? They both end up in my belly. Okay, maybe that’s not funny, but it’s certainly true!

via Judy Volhart

Welcome, readers, to my first wine and cheese pick. This research is tough work, I tell you. I scoured the stores with some wines in mind and couldn’t find them, though I know I’d seen them before. I was really looking for some Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush, but alas, I finally settled on a red South African wine, Frisky Zebras (mentioned in book 2) and paired it with a cheese that I was certain I would not like.

Balderson extra old white cheddar is made in Winchester, Ontario, not too far from the nation’s capital city of Ottawa. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not very adventurous when it comes to tasting things. I blame this on my European upbringing and having to eat strange things as a child. I don’t normally like strong flavors. So it was with great trepidation that I prodded a hunk of this cheese with one finger. If a finger could look disgusted, mine did.

When it didn’t prod me back, I tentatively grasped it between two fingers and lifted it to my nose. Three quick sniffs, then a fourth. A look of surprise. It wasn’t repugnant. But I am meek.

via Judy Volhart

I took a fortifying sip of the Frisky Zebra, still trying to muster the courage to taste the cheese. A nice surprise, as the wine circled my tongue, bathing my taste buds. I had expected it to be far more robust. Instead, it was almost light, but yet with a slight kick. The label describes it as having “sensations of blackberries, black currents and peppercorns with whispers of vanilla and melted dark chocolate in a lingering finish”.

Okay, I didn’t get any of that, but that’s because I’m not an expert. My mouth simply resonated a “Yum, more please”. I took a few more sips, sniffed it as though I knew what I was doing, and smacked my lips a few times. I was now ready to face the cheese again.

I took a bite no bigger than the size of raison, expecting to spit it right back out. It crumbled and then melted against my tongue and my eyes widened in surprise. No gag reflex was activated, no bitterness against the back of my tongue, and I’ll be damned, I liked it!

The wine and cheese paired extremely well together and I highly recommend both. I’m not sure if other brands of extra old cheddar taste similar, but I know I’ll be buying Balderson’s again. And the Frisky Zebra? An excellent choice as well.

Cheers, my friends.

Stephen wasn’t quite sure what to say, so he didn’t. I feared he might pluck his goatee right off his face, he was fidgeting so much! Finally, he wisely decided that this would be a good time for a bottle of wine. He rummaged through my boxes and laughed when he found a bottle of white called Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush.

Despite its name, it’s actually an excellent bottle of Sauvignon Blanc with hints of gooseberry from New Zealand. I liked that they supposedly made a donation to the SPCA and I was reasonably sure it wouldn’t be legal to actually make it with pee.

Exhausted by another hard day peppered with the stress, the youthful, citrusy wine zinged right to my brain and I no longer cared about the lack of furniture, lack of sleep and bouncing pompoms in the woods. Bring me more pee.

—Excerpt from Asiago and The Accomplice (Whine & Cheese Cozy Mystery Series) by Judy Volhart. Click here to order your copy.