A great cheese for a great wine is the rule that brings together in the neighboring provinces such notables as Sainte Maure, Valencay, Vendome and the Loire wines—­Vouvray, Saumur and Anjou.  Gruyere mates with Chablis, Camembert with St. Emilion; and any dry red wine, most commonly claret, is a fit drink for the hundreds of other fine French cheeses.

Every country has such happy marriages, an Italian standard being Provolone and Chianti.  Then there is a most unusual pair, French Neufchatel cheese and Swiss Neuchatel wine from just across the border.  Switzerland also has another cheese favorite at home—­Trauben (grape cheese), named from the Neuchatel wine in which it is aged.

One kind of French Neufchatel cheese, Bondon, is also uniquely suited to the company of any good wine because it is made in the exact shape and size of a wine barrel bung.  A similar relation is found in Brinzas (or Brindzas) that are packed in miniature wine barrels, strongly suggesting what should be drunk with such excellent cheeses:  Hungarian Tokay.  Other foreign cheeses go to market wrapped in vine leaves.  The affinity has clearly been laid down in heaven.

Only the English seem to have a fortissimo taste in the go-with wines, according to these matches registered by Andre Simon in The Art of Good Living:

Red Cheshire with Light Tawny Port
White Cheshire with Oloroso Sherry
Blue Leicester with Old Vintage Port
Green Roquefort with New Vintage Port

To these we might add brittle chips of Greek Casere with nips of
Amontillado, for an eloquent appetizer.

The English also pour port into Stilton, and sundry other wines and liquors into Cheddars and such.  This doctoring leads to fraudulent imitation, however, for either port or stout is put into counterfeit Cheshire cheese to make up for the richness it lacks.

While some combinations of cheeses and wines may turn out palatable, we prefer taking ours straight.  When something more fiery is needed we can twirl the flecks of pure gold in a chalice of Eau de Vie de Danzig and nibble on legitimate Danzig cheese unadulterated. Goldwasser, or Eau de Vie, was a favorite liqueur of cheese-loving Franklin Roosevelt, and we can be sure he took the two separately.

Another perfect combination, if you can take it, is imported kuemmel with any caraway-seeded cheese, or cream cheese with a handy saucer of caraway seeds.  In the section of France devoted to gin, the juniper berries that flavor the drink also go into a local cheese, Fromage Fort.  This is further fortified with brandy, white wine and pepper.  One regional tipple with such brutally strong cheese is black coffee laced with gin.

French la Jonchee is another potted thriller with not only coffee and rum mixed in during the making, but orange flower water, too.  Then there is la Petafina, made with brandy and absinthe; Hazebrook with brandy alone; and la Cachat with white wine and brandy.