‘The Art of Pairing’ Brings Carr Winery and The Cheese Shop Together

Highlighting the harmony between handcrafted wines and artisan cheeses, last Sunday’s “The Art of Pairing” event collaboration between The Cheese Shop and host venue Carr Winery was a delightful symphony of flavors and fun. 

Led by winemaker Ryan Carr and cheesemonger Kathryn Graham, two longtime friends who, remarkably, had never before done an event of this kind together, it was a full house. Hopefully this will be the first of many events like this, as we had a terrific time tasting the pairings this duo (aided by their trusty spouses/business partners) came up with.

After a welcoming sip of Chardonnay, our first pairing was the 2025 Carr Sauvignon Blanc from the Los Olivos District and Tomme Per Diou, goat’s milk cheese from France. “Tomme is actually a word that we give to cheeses,” explained Graham. “You find them mostly in southern France, as well in southeastern France, and northern Italy. They’re typically smaller format cheeses that are kind of semi-aged.” The rich butteriness of that cheese paired exceptionally well with the sauvignon blanc.

“This is kind of the thing that makes wine so special,” said Carr, instructing us to “take a sip of the wine first to get an idea as to what was going on with that wine, and then you’re going to take a sip, bite the cheese, and take a sip of that wine.” 

Next up was the 2024 Carr Grenache Rosé (from the Kaerskov Vineyard in Los Olivos) paired with Robiola Bosnia, which comes from Piedmont in northern Italy. It’s what they call a “two-milk” Graham explained, a mixture of sheep and cow milk. “A lot of people confuse that with a double cream. That’s entirely different. So you have the creaming milks — cow, goat, and sheep — and you can mix all three together, or in this case, two. … You can add cream to the milk, and that’s how we get double cream and triple creams. So most whole-milk cheeses are at about 45, 55 percent butterfat content, depending on the animal and the breed of the animal.”

A 2023 Carr pinot noir from the Sta. Rita Hills was up next. “Sta. Rita Hills is a very special place,” said Carr.  “It’s in the west end of Santa Barbara County, so it’s a really unique climate and also a unique soil site in the sense that you can actually take a scoopful of Sta. Rita Hills and a scoopful of champagne, and they are literally the same soil type. It’s a pretty special spot.” That wine, delicious on its own, was paired with Brie de Meaux, a French brie made with cow’s milk.

In addition to that day’s specific pairings, Graham had two overarching messages about wine and cheese to impart. First, the oft-heard “what grows together goes together” a commonly held adage for both wine and food pairings of many types. And then, “the milder the cheese, then the lighter the wine you want to go with. … White wines, rosés, champagnes, or sparkling wines — they are much easier to pair with a broader range of cheese.”

That said, the red wine and cheese pairings all worked well. In addition to the pinot, we also had a 2021 Carr syrah, from Lyons Vineyard in Los Olivos, paired with a raw cow’s milk cheese from the Netherlands called Wilde Weide, which is a farmer’s cheese. Farmer’s cheese, Graham explained, “means that the maker is getting the milk from his own animals and then using that milk to make cheese. So there are fewer and fewer of what we call farmstead cheeses throughout the world, because having a dairy and taking care of your animals, and then also making cheese on top of that is a ton of work. So, farmstead cheeses are actually very special.”

The final pairing of the event was the 2022 Carr cabernet franc, from Rossi Vineyard in Happy Canyon, paired with a 1605 Manchego, made from raw sheep’s milk in Spain. Carr explained that this wine, which has bright tannins and opens with notes of blueberry, followed by raspberries and dark chocolate, originates from Bordeaux, France, which means it captures the classic flavors of the cabernet franc grapes. “All the wines that we produce here, and everybody produces in California, all originated from other parts of the world. So, whether it was France, Italy, Germany, all those cuttings came here in some manner and were propagated here in a nursery condition, and then were brought out in the field and grown in the field,” Carr said. “There is only one grape that they consider potentially a native California grape, which is the Zinfandel Mission Grape, one of the oldest grapes.”  

The pairing event was held in Carr Winery’s barrel room, a historic 1940s Quonset Hut featuring aging wine barrels, a handcrafted barrel-top bar, and a lovely, inviting space. Carr also gave us a peek at the new outdoor event space they are developing in the lot behind the barrel room. Stay tuned for more information on that soon. 

See carrwinery.com and cheeseshopsb.com for more information.