MAY 2024 CHEESE CLUB
WINE CLUB | CHEESE CLUB
ALL CLUB MEMBERS GET TO ENJOY THESE 3 CHEESES:
Fresh Goat Cheese with Shelburne Farms Maple Syrup | Wisconsin, USA
Pasteurized goat cheese
This fresh cheese hails from Wisconsin, while the maple syrup comes from a small, sustainable farm in Shelburne Vermont. This is phenomenal maple syrup that’s not cloying and has a salinity to it, which adds complexity to the cheese without masking the bright, zingy nuance of the cheese.
From this month’s wine club lineup, this cheese pairs well with: NV Bodegas Navarrsotillo, Gaupasa Skin Contact
Red Leicester | Somerset, England
Raw cow’s milk
Next up we have a true British cheddar-esque cheese. This brightly hued beauty comes from Leicestershire, which is in a different region. It’s produced just like a cheddar, however, so you’ll get the same toothsome sort of cheese if you’re a fan of its more popular cousin. Younger than a typical clothbound cheddar, this cheese has a good chew and nutty, foresty, earthy tones, and a gentle tang. This is a bona fide table cheese, and it loves a good table wine.
Try it with: 2023 Bellula Rosé
Mt. Velán Reserva | Mt. Velán, Switzerland
Raw cow’s milk
This artisan Swissy comes elevated pasture in the alpine mountains. This one-year aged thing of comestible beauty is produced using Brown Swiss cow’s milk — rich and fatty. Note the intermingling of creaminess and crystalline crunch! This is a robust mountain cheese with a vast flavor profile and a lingering finish.
Try it with: Viña Zorzal Garnacha
6-CHEESE MEMBERS ALSO GET TO ENJOY THESE 3:
Carre Roussot | Vosges Mountains, Eastern France
Pasteurized cow’s milk
This soft, pillowy, meaty washed rind cheese has an orange hue that comes from annatto, which is a dye produced from the seeds of the Achiote plant—it’s foodsafe and odourless. Besides its classic use as a table cheese, it chums up to warm potatoes, and it also melts nicely in mushroom tarts or inside petit choux pastries. You’ll note clean (not poopy or farmy) aromatics, which is due to the animals grazing on mountainside pasture where they devour herbs, flowers, wild grasses, alliums, and whatever else is delicious.
Try it with: Joseph Cattin Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé
Massipou | Midi-Pyrenees, Southwest France
Pasteurized ewe’s milk
This natural-rinded, French Basque tomme is sweet, floral, grassy, nutty, and sometimes a little wooly. This cheese even pleases persnickety palates. When one thinks about a taste of place, rustic mountain tommes such as Massipou ought to come to mind because Basque culture and their cheesemaking practices have been in existence for thousands of years. They have learned to optimize their natural surroundings, which come through in their food and drink.
Try it with: 2022 Torii Mor Pinot Blanc
Meredith Dairy Persian Style Feta | X
Pasteurized sheep and goat’s milk
This fresh cheese is marinated in oil (Persian style) with herbs and black pepper. This is a fatty, unctuous, salty mouthful of deliciousness from Australia of all places! Cheese like this is more shelf-stable due to the submersion in oil. Note how the fat in the cheese coats the palate, and how herbal and salty the lingering finish is! No kidding, this cheese pairs well with almost everything!
Try it with: 2022 Zorzal Terroir Unico
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).