FEBRUARY 2022 CHEESE CLUB

 
 

 WINE CLUB | CHEESE CLUB

ALL CLUB MEMBERS GET TO ENJOY THESE 3 CHEESES:

Basiron Za'atar Gouda | The Netherlands

Pasteurized cow's milk
Holland is known to be an experimental country when it comes to their cheese, and this young, herbaceous gouda is no exception. With its softer, creamy paste and Middle-Eastern flair, it’s both beautiful and savory.
From this month’s wine club lineup, this cheese pairs well with: 2019 Joseph Olivier Mavit

Curiosity | Olympia, Washington, USA

Pasteurized goat and cow's milk
Lost Peacock Creamery is an artisan, farmstead creamery that makes goat cheese from a small herd of ruminants who know their names and get treated like royalty (they source the cow's milk from a neighboring farm with equally spoiled cows). Happy animals means better milk, so it all translates into their cheese. They’ve recently branched out from the fresher styles of cheese that they’ve been making for the last handful of years, and this St. Pauline style is one of the first batches to go out to the good people of Washington! It’s a Trappist-style washed rind, which makes for an aromatic, yeasty, sweet, and complex bite. 
Try it with: 2019 De Stefani Naturalmente Pinot Grigio Bianco

Piave | Veneto, Italy

Pasteurized cow's milk
Speaking of northeast Italy, this Venetian cheese has a dense paste with a firmer structure, almost like a grana-style without the granularity. It’s pineapple-y, citric, nutty, and a total crowd-pleaser (a safe bet for a cheese board).
Try it with: 2020 Meinklang Burgenland White

6-CHEESE MEMBERS ALSO GET TO ENJOY THESE 3:

Cornish Yarg | Cornwall, England

Raw cow’s milk
This stunning Brit is similar to Caerphilly in its bitter green note, thanks to the stinging nettles that lovingly encase it. The paste is buttermilky, herbal, and rich.
Try it with: 2019 Fattoria San Lorenzo Vigneto di Gino Rosso Piceno

Belper Knolle | Belp, Switzerland

Raw cow’s milk
This little Swiss weirdo is laden with garlic in its interior and coated with black pepper and Himalayan pink salt. It’s a big, fat flavor blast in a tiny package. You can make small shavings and eat it with something contrasting, like a pear or some juicy grapes, or you can cook with it. Shave it onto a salad, or make some Cacio e Pepe.
Try it with: 2019 De Stefani Naturalmente Pinot Grigio Bianco

Aarewasser | Emmental, Switzerland

Raw cow’s milk
Last up, we bring you this complex alpine-style cheese. It’s known as a washed rind, which means it’s bathed in a brine and sometimes entails an alcoholic component, like marc, brandy, beer, or wine. In this case, however, Aarewasser is washed in a saline brine with spring water from the river Aare. It’s breathy, lovely, and a little bit stinky (we’d call it a medium on the flavor intensity chart).
Try it with: Cleto Chiarli Brut de Noir Rosé

 
 

AND SOME TIPS TO KEEP YOUR CHEESE HAPPY AT HOME

  • Protect your cheese from drying out by keeping it in your fridge in a lidded container (like tupperware), a plastic baggie, or the crisper drawer.

  • After opening, always use fresh plastic wrap for any cheese you’re not planning to eat within a day, unless it’s being kept in a container (which we recommend).

  • In general, we suggest eating your cheese within a week or so of purchasing. Some cheeses will last longer, but, you know, why wait!

  • Keep bloomy rinds and blues separated when possible. The molds are quite zealous and will grow on any cheese they can latch onto, so just keep them in separate containers and you’ll be fine.

  • A word about mold: If it’s growing on your semi-firm or firm cheeses, just cut it off and eat it! This white and blue mold is just fine — these cheeses lack the water to host the nasty molds. But if mold is growing on your fresh mozzarella, feta, cream cheese, or fresh chèvre, throw it out.  The amount of water in these cheeses provides a great environment for the nasty stuff. If you start to see mold, you can be sure that the filaments are already running throughout the cheese :(

  • For the best flavors, take your cheese out of the fridge for an hour or so before serving. When cheeses are too cold, all their delicious flavors, aromas, and textures get shy. Serve at room temperature to enjoy to the fullest.

This month’s cheese was carefully curated by Seattle’s Resident Cheese Lady, Rachael Lucas, ACS CCP, CCSE. Rachael is a cheese buyer for the Ballinger Thriftway in Shoreline, a fromage writer for tastewashingtontravel.com, and she’s on the Board of Directors for WASCA (Washington State Cheesemaker’s Association).