6 Best Trader Joe's Wine And Cheese Pairings
Like peanut butter and jelly or meat and potatoes, wine and cheese match perfectly. The natural freshness in wine and its fruity flavor profile will cut through the creaminess of the cheese, revealing the dairy-based product's richness and full flavor. Meanwhile, the buttery characteristics of the cheese balance the wine's acidity, delivering a smooth, pleasant mouthfeel. One of our favorite places to find the ideal combo of wine and cheese is Trader Joe's or, as we affectionately call it, TJ's.
We love Trader Joe's ability to bring us something we never knew we needed. Once we taste it, we can't live without it, particularly with the wedges and wheels in the cheese section. TJ's offers many high-quality, affordable options produced and sold under its brand name. Like all Trader Joe's branded products, the production of Trader Joe's cheese occurs without artificial flavoring, preservatives, MSG, or coloring, creating products with ingredient labels you can understand. Its dairy products come from animals not treated with rBST, the bovine growth hormone to increase milk production in cows remains legal in the U.S. (via the United States Food and Drug Administration). Just one more reason to love the store we're already obsessed with.
However, finding the perfect wine and cheese match can be confusing with the extensive selection of options available. We are here to guide you on how to pair wine and cheese with the six best options at Trader Joe's today.
La Burgondie Crémant de Bourgogne with Trader Joe's triple creme brie
The combination of nutty, brioche-filled sparkling wine with indulgent, creamy brie cheese is a match made in heaven. The Cheese Conoisueur defines brie as a soft-ripened cow's milk cheese containing at least 45% butterfat with an edible bloomy rind. Trader Joe's takes decadence to the extreme with the triple creme brie. The cheese site adds the triple creme brie requires a minimum of 75% butterfat, creating a velvety smooth texture and buttery, umami-rich flavor.
The classic pairing to help cut through the fattiness of the cheese is a méthode traditionnelle sparkling wine, like Champagne. Thankfully, Trader Joe's has delicious options costing less than the typical price of luxury sparkling wine. We suggest La Burgondie Crémant de Bourgogne Réserve Brut made in Burgundy, just south of Champagne, to pair with the gooey brie.
Wine Folly explains the crémant is produced as they do in Champagne, with the second fermentation to create the bubbles occurring in the bottle. Fruit from the region can ripen more than in Champagne due to its warmer temperatures throughout the growing season, giving a rich, round palate to the wine, which complements the creamy cheese. The sparkler blends pinot noir, chardonnay, gamay, and aligoté, aging for a minimum of 12 months in the bottle. The year of aging imparts toasty yeastiness that melds with zesty, refreshing citrus and orchard fruit flavors, all for under $11 a bottle.
Espiral Vinho Verde with Trader Joe's Feta
Espiral Vinho Verde (or green wine) is a crisp, refreshing, highly affordable white wine blend from northwest Portugal with zesty acidity, costing around $5. The wines of Vinho Verde blend native varieties like alvarino and loureiro. Wine Folly shares that Vinho Verde is naturally low in alcohol (Espiral has 9%) and traditionally slightly carbonated, creating fizzy effervescence.
The region lies only miles from the Atlantic Ocean, with sea breezes blowing salty air through the lush green vineyards daily. The resulting wine has slightly briny, mineral-rich characteristics with fruit cocktail-like flavors of grapes, pears, and tart green apples. The palate is zingy with mouth-watering acidity. The wine is best enjoyed in its youth when its freshness is high and served very cold.
Pair it with tangy cheese like feta to enhance the fruit-forward freshness and subtle saltiness. The first taste of Trader Joe's block of feta begins with sharp, salty flavors. As you continue to enjoy, creamy, buttery flavors emerge, softening the saltiness and balancing the zesty wine.
Traditionally a key ingredient in the Mediterranean diet, feta is one of the lowest-calorie cheeses available. Trader Joe's feta has 70 calories per ounce, with five grams of protein (via fatsecret). The feta has a tangy flavor and crumbly texture. It is perfect for crumbling into salads, topping grilled vegetables, or mixing into a whipped feta dip —dishes all delicious paired with the Espiral wine.
Révélation Pinot Noir with Trader Joe's Cranberry Chevre Goat Cheese
Trader Joe's cranberry chevre was the first fruity, tangy goat cheese offering (which now includes blueberry vanilla chevre and seasonal apricot cherry goat cheese). The mix of cranberries and goat cheese has likely remained the favorite because the fruit and cheese combination is in balance.
The slightly pungent, creamy goat cheese receives a coating of sweet and tart-dried cranberries, creating a harmonious bite of sweet, salty, savory, bitter joy. Adding umami to complete the taste profile, we pair red wine with fruit-forward flavors and earthy herbaceous qualities, like pinot noir.
Badet Clement & Cie Révélation pinot noir is a table wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon region near the Mediterranean in the south of France. The wine opens with aromatic floral notes of violets and lilac, with sweet spice, dried herbs, and vanilla. The flavor profile melds sour cherries, wild berries, and pomegranate with toasted nutmeg and vanilla. The wine isn't overly complex but has easy-drinking approachability, especially for the $8 price at TJ's.
With a fruit-forward character and smooth palate, the wine cuts through the bitter-sweet cranberries and tangy goat cheese to reveal a harmonious combo. Adding Trader Joe's trail mix crackers could turn it into one of the best snacks for the holidays.
Famille Perrin Côtes du Rhône with Tête de Moine Rosettes Semisoft Cheese
Trader Joe's seasonal Tête de Moine Rosettes are cow's milk cheese flowers crafted from an 800-year-old recipe in the Swiss mountain region of Jura with AOP status, or Appellation d'Origine Protegèe ("protected designation of origin"). According to Tête de Moine, the first mention of the cheese occurred in 1192 when the monks from the abbey of Bellelay documented its use to pay the annual rents. The semi-soft, raw-milk cheese uses only milk from grass-fed cows, aging 75 days on spruce boards.
The traditional way to enjoy the cheese is by shaving it directly off the wheel, forming delicate rosette-like shapes. As the cheese is thinly shaved, its contact with the air intensifies its herbaceous aromas. To pair with the full-flavored cheese, we suggest a fruity, spicy Côtes du Rhône.
Famille Perrin Côtes du Rhône Réserve layers red berries, freshly cracked pepper, and balsamic, along with an earthiness influenced by the herbaceous wild thyme and sagebrush growing alongside vineyards throughout the region. These flavors are perfect with the funky, aromatic cheese.
The best way to eat the cheese is on its own, popping each delicate rosette in your mouth with no need for crackers or accompaniments. With an affordable glass of wine, like the selection from Famille Perrin, it is one of the most straightforward Trader Joe's budget meals we've had.
La Sonriente Garnacha with Trader Joe's Iberico
There is an old saying regarding how best to pair anything from wines with foods to proteins and vegetables that goes something like, "if it grows together, it goes together." The wines and cheese of Spain expertly define this principle.
Spain's Iberico cheese is similar to the country's most famous cheese, Manchego. According to Castello, only sheep's milk is allowed for the production of Manchego DOP cheese. Iberico cheese combines buttery sheep's milk with acidic goat's milk and creamy cow's milk. When blended and aged, the resulting cheese has an unctuous flavor, a sharp tanginess, and umami-rich saltiness. Trader Joe's Iberico is aged for four months, giving a nice weight and texture to the savory cheese. Since cheese loses its moisture when it ages, the results are dense and highly flavorful.
La Sonriente garnacha is the ideal wine to balance the piquant cheese. Garnacha is a native variety to Spain's Aragon region, thriving in the Calatayud Protected Denominación de Origen (DOP), where grapes have grown since the 2nd century B.C. With a slightly earthy, dried leaves, forest-floor flavor melding with black cherries and plum, and a very dry palate, the wine will enhance the nutty, herbaceous qualities of the Spanish cheese.
Chateau Haut-Sorillon Bordeaux Superieur with Trader Joe's Unexpected Cheddar
Aged cheddar and Bordeaux blends go hand in hand. Trader Joe's miraculously delivers an aged-like flavor without extensive aging in its Unexpected Cheddar Cheese. The young cheese combines a creamy, semi-hard texture with the aged characteristic, including salty crystals typically found in an aged hard cheese like Parmesan or Gouda.
Wisconsin Cheese defines the salty crystals inside the cheese as amino acids called tyrosine that comes together as cheese ages to form crunchy crystals. TJ's notes its Wisconsin-based cheese makers came from the mountains of Italy's Veneto region, learning how to craft aged, hard cheeses. They brought their knowledge to America, creating a unique and delicious soft cheddar that mixes in the qualities of hard cheese, which is one of the best cheeses at Trader Joe's. Complementing the young and old style, a medium-bodied red Bordeaux with structured tannin and fresh acidity is perfect.
Chateau Haut-Sorillon Bordeaux Superieur is an easy-to-enjoy blend. With notes of red berries, dried herbs, tobacco, and a subtle hint of spice, the dry, fruity wine tames the sharp cheese, creating a balanced old-world flavor. The bottle notes indicate the wine is made on the Right Bank near St. Emillion. The Bordeaux Superieur classification has increased restrictions in production compared to traditional Bordeaux AOC wines, including increased ripeness required in the fruit, lower yields, and higher density planning. Even with these quality requirements, Bordeaux Superieur wines are affordable, often costing under $10 a bottle, as with Chateau Haut-Sorillon.