Grappa and fresh goat cheese just don't mix!
I was dining at new hotspot during a visit to New York (its close enough to my homebase for a quick weekend junket) and saw, with horror, that the only cheese offered on the menu was a fresh chevre...paired with grappa. It wasn't merely a menu suggestion, it was a dessert item.
Let's break it down:
1) Fresh goat cheese is acidic, floral and herbaceous at best, creamy but not fatty.
2) Grappa is a clear spirit made from grape pumace (skin and seeds) extremely high in alcohol (80-90%), floral at best, a 'clean' finish, and for the uninitiated, rather harsh. It is acidic.
Fresh goat cheese naturally partners with Sauvignon Blanc, which is more fruity than floral, dry but not harsh, and slightly oh so slightly sweet. It would provide a counterpoint to the fresh cheese.
Grappa does not.
Grappa needs a cheese that will tame it. Grappa needs something fatty, mouth coating, mushroomy.
The Italians have the right idea with Bross. This is no cheese for the faint-of-heart -- precisely the kind of match you would expect for grappa.
So skip the grappa and the goat cheese. If there isn't anything else on the menu, take yourself down to the nearest shop, buy yourself the stinkiest and most pungent washed rind cheese you can find, uncork the grappa, and enjoy it at home. Unless you feel like making Bross.