by Molly McNulty

Nathalie et Anna à la dégustation de vin. Photo de Molly McNulty.

Nathalie & Anna at the wine-tasting. Photo by Molly McNulty.

Wine is an important part of the French culture. Thankfully, along with wine, comes cheese and bread. The perfect trio if you ask me. Our class was invited to attend a wine tasting at the Number 5 Wine Bar located at 5, Rue de la bourse, just a few blocks away from Esquirol. Everyone was on his or her best behavior, mostly because the President of the Board of Trustees at Dickinson was also attending. We were given four different wines each paired with a specific cheese from the same region as the wine. The purpose of the cheese is to enhance the taste of the wine. You are meant to have a bight of the cheese first and then the wine so that you can taste the contrast between the two. The intensity of tastes and smells is meant to progress throughout the tasting to ensure each sip is recognized. It was right around the third glass of wine when some of my peers started to get a little more cautious about the cheese. As I said before, it was getting stronger and for lack of a better word, “stinkier”. The third glass of wine was paired with two types of the cheese. The first was fresh Brie and the second was the same Brie but two months older. The server explained that after salting the cheese, it is sprayed with penicillin and left in the maturing room, which allows the mould to develop, and which gives the cheese its bloomy rind. Normally, the mould develops for a few weeks; however the Brie that we tasted had spent 6 months in the maturing room, so it was quite strong! This was a completely new idea to all of us. I’m sure some of us have had this type of Brie before but none of us knew it had mould growing on it. That being said, I have to say I was very proud of our class because everyone gave it a try! There were mixed reviews but we can all now say that we are officially French, at least that’s what the Board of Trustees French host told us (so I’m going with it!). This experience was one I couldn’t imagine having before I came to Toulouse. Of course, I knew I would be having mountains of cheese and wine but I never imagined experiencing such extraordinary tastes and trying new things around thirteen other people, now friends, who were experiencing the same feelings as me. It is a scary thing deciding to go to a foreign country but when you have a group of people who are going through the same experiences as you are it makes it that much better and memorable. Trying new things is what this trip is all about and I can say with confidence that we won’t forget this night.