My July shipment from
The Cheese Shop, Carmel
Beaufort d'Alpage, A.O.C. raw cow's milk.
Firm with hints of butter with a nice green grass kick.
Silver Mountain Cheddar by Patt and Bill Boersma, Visalia, CA. Raw cow's milk.
Sharp buy surprisnigly savory. Brown butter.
The label says, "Vegetarians take note: Silver Mountain is made with microbial enzymes". Does that mean vegetarians can eat this or is it a warning?
Ewephoria
(I love the name). Dutch sheeep's milk Gouda.
A typically-crunch Gouda with a wow-factor of mild ripe fruits. This would be wonderful grated on a salad or light pasta.
---------------------------------------------------------
A thank-you gift from the gang I did a wine tasting for last weekend.
And they bought the cheese from The
The GrapeVine in Willow Glen (who, as a conicidence unknown to this group, had me do a winetasting for their emplpyees almost a year earlier). They have just recently opened a shop in Campbell called Good Tastes. Call and talk to Cara or Ruth: a couple of wild and crazy gals who know wine and cheese.
Right now I'm sitting here sampling these cheeses and drinking a bottle of 2003 Ampelos Pinot Noir, Fiddlestix Vyd, Sta. Rita Hills (late lunch). It's a tough life
.
Humboldt Fog by Cypress Grove, goat's milk from Northern California (I should have opened a bottle of Sea Smoke with this).
Creamy (almost too creamy for my taste) and really fun to look at and eat. A bit of ash runs in a line down the middle (like frosting in a cake). That and the bloomy rind add the tangy flavors to the cream.
Serena by Three Sisters Farmstead, goat cheese from Sonoma County.
Aged cow's mild that has a pretty dry texture and peculiar nutty flavors. I didn't like the first or second bite but persistance paid off as it has grown on me. Needs to be paired with something sweet.
Vella Dry Jack, artisanal cow's milk (US).
WOW. Like Linda Lovelace said, "I like it hard!" I've never tasted a Jack cheese like this! A cocoa powder/spice mixture is the rind and is fantastic with the tartness of the cheese. This is on my list to buy more.
Maytag Blue, artisanal cheese (one of the first produced in the US; 1941).
What can I say? The Maytag family long associated with quality cheese, ale (Anchor Steam) and until about six months ago (when they went broke and sold out) a full line-up of kitchen appliances. The well-known creamy texture shows off the white pepper and citrus flavors. This borders on my too-creamy scale but is absolutely when slathered (I love that word) over a fresh-ripped piece of sweet French bread. Because of its creaminess this is one of the few cheeses I will eat with a cracker or bread (I prefer eating my cheese "neat"). A long-time favorite (like I used to get a huge wheel of the stuff as a gift from Maytag at Christmas).
Redwood Hill Goat "Bucheret", Sonoma County.
This is a dry, creamy cheese (like it would be wonderful crumbled on a salad with apples or pears) that is as chewy as can be (like biting/chewing a mouthful of nuts). It is packed at the farm in a little 5" puck. That size assures that you get a nice piece of bloomy rind in each bite. I've just cut a little wedge out of this "puck" because I want to put it aside for a week or so. I understand the rind gets harder and the cheese becomes more pungent.
FYI, this Ampelos Fiddlestix has wonderful both dark and red fruits but the funk from Fiddlestix Vyd, although in this wine it is muted more than usual, is still there on the finish. I'm just not a fan of that Fiddlestix funk. It tastes like it is an Oregon Pinot.