Great, artisanal cheeses

We have dedicated threads on where to buy cheese, how to serve cheese, cheese storage methods, and tips for making homemade cheese. We also have plenty of threads about a specific cheese someone has discovered. As far as I can tell, there is no macro thread describing the great, artisanal cheeses we enjoy, so that’s what I hope this one will become. With, perhaps, some discussion of beverages to go with them.

I’ll start by describing four cheeses I had last night for New Year’s Eve, all purchased at Pastoral after spending 45 delightful minutes exploring and tasting with a most helpful and generous staff member.

Delice de Borgogne, France
My favorite cheese of the night, and among my favorites of all times. This is a super-rich triple-cream cow’s milk cheese, with a texture like whipped butter and a ripe, crème fraiche kind of taste. The cheese is salty, and lingers on the palate for what seems like forever, or until you take a sip of champagne. Champagne cut right through this terrific cheese and got me ready for the next serving - I thought the match was perfect.

Hillis Peak, Oregon
An aged goat milk cheese that I liked, but it was expensive and my least favorite of the night. A good cheese though, semi-firm and nutty, with what I picked up as especially strong notes of hazelnuts and macadamias. This is produced near the Rogue River, and – in the spirit of “what grows together goes together” - I bet it would indeed be great with the rich and nutty Rogue Dead Guy Ale.

Fleur du Marquis, France
A delicious sheeps’ milk cheese, short-aged in a crust of dried herbs and spices. The Pastoral staff suggested not eating the intense rind, but I enjoyed the quite-bitter offset to the salty, creamy Delice we had just had. The rind is very bitter, and the inside of the cheese provided strong tastes of wet cigarettes, tar, rubber and smoke. This was a complex cheese that I think would go best with leathery red wines that are big-flavored but light-bodied.

Hooligan, Connecticut
Wow. Prepare to smell like stinky, sweaty feet for days after eating this cheese. I loved it yesterday, and I’m still enjoying the scent of my fingers even after several hand washings. I hope Hammond doesn’t think that finger-smellers are as bad as finger-lickers. Classic stinky cheese descriptions definitely apply to this one. If you’ve had an epoisses, the barnyard, wet dog, manure profile will be familiar. The texture of this one, however, is semi-firm rather than oozy-gooey epoisses. I think sweet wine would be best with this. Or dark, malty beer.


I’m just starting to explore the world of great cheese, and I’d love to hear about other people’s discoveries.

(edited to correct spelling in title) (and again to correct same spelling in body. blame new years day hangover)

Kenny, you set the bar high with your vivid descriptions! (So I'll lower it a little bit.)

I've rarely met a cheese that I didn't like. A few that I love, with lesser descriptions because I haven't had any of these recently, so the exact flavors are harder to put into words...

French Muenster: This cheese has nothing in common with the dull orange-rinded bastardized "muenster" that's produced in the US. French muenster is a pungent, stinky soft cheese. (I've had cheesemongers tell me of muenster addicts who were forced to buy separate fridges in which to store this cheese.) But the taste and the smell bear little relationship to one another...great flavors. Before you jump to conclusions based on smell alone, try this fantastic cheese.

Delice De Pommard With Mustard Seeds (name may be off, but I'm guessing this is what it's called based on a Google search): A couple weeks ago, Whole Foods was selling a soft French cheese in a see-through plastic container with a green lid. (It was a very wet cheese, and the containers were wrapped in plastic.) Apparently it is a seasonal cheese, but you should be able to find it in at least November & December. This was a soft, spreadable goats-milk cheese rolled in mustard seed. I bought it based on the reaction of the one of the WFs cheesemongers alone. To say he swooned over the cheese is an understatement. A surprisingly mild but flavorful and absolutely addictive cheese.

Pecorino in Walnut Leaves (Foglie di Noce): A hard sheep's milk cheese. It's pricey (in the $20-30/lb range), but a little goes a long way. Intense nutty-salty flavor. When I have this cheese, I find myself eating even the crumbs because I don't want any to go to waste!

St. Maure de Touraine: My boyfriend has a house in the town next to St. Maure, and he introduced me to this cheese on a trip to France. I've never seen it in the US, but some Chicago-area cheesemongers tell me they have carried it in the past. A goat cheese log, unpasteurized and aged, rolled in ash, with a piece of straw running through the center. (Apparently it's used to turn the cheese as it ages.) I would describe this as the epitome of a great slightly sour-goaty log.

Corsica: Honestly, I'm not sure if I have the right name for this cheese. It's a semi-soft French cheese from Corsica made in rounds with a light orange rind. Each time I take a bite of this cheese, it reminds me of spring--a fresh, herby flavor. (I haven't been to Corsica, but apparently this is typical of most cheeses of the region...lots of aromatic plants for the sheep, cows and goats to graze on.) I've Googled in an effort to figure out if this is the right name, and have drawn a blank. It's not Fleur du Maquis, which is one of the best-known cheese from Corsica, and is literally rolled in herbs. Nor is it Broccui, which is much softer. It could possibly be called La Niolo or Fromage Corse. (Fromage Corse seems most likely since I know this cheese as Corsica.)

Kenny, when I decided to give my kids cheese baskets for Christmas, I went to my copy of Cheese by Max McCalman and David Gibbons and leafed through, picking out all the ones rated 90 or more (on their scale of 100). I took the list to the Willowbrook Whole Foods and found that they had quite a few, and got a selection. The cheese lady was nice enough to re-cut and re-wrap my selections - omitting the price - and they were very well received by each kid and family.

Here's my list:
CHEESE CHOICES
Rated oiver 90 in "Cheese" by Max McCalman & David Gibbons
pub. Clarkson Potter, 2005
TASTE STRENGTH
APPENZELLER 97 5
AZEITAO 92 2
BEAUFORT 93 5
BEENLEIGH BLUE 92 2
BERKSWELL 94 3
CABRALES 92 6
CAERPHILLY 93 3
CANESTRATO PUGLIESE 91 4
CENTOVALLI TICINO 91 3
KEEN'S CHEDDAR 97 5
MONTGOMERY'S CHEDDAR 98 5
READE'S CHEDDAR 92 5
WESTCOMBE CHEDDAR 91 5
DODDINGTON 92 5
DURRUS 91 3
EPOIISSES DE BOURGONGNE 90 3
GRUYERE 97 6
HOCH YBRIG 97 5
KRUMMENSWILER FORSTERKASE 92 4
LAGUIOLE 91 4
LANCASHIRE 92 4
MAJORERO 90 4
MONTENEBRO 95 6
LE MOULIS (cow milk) 95 4
PRATTIGAUER 97 5
ROBIOLA DE ROCCAVERANO 91 1
ROBIOLA A TRE LATTI 90 1
ROGUE RIVER BLUE 93 5
RONCAL 90 3
ROOMANO (Dutch) 96 5
SBRINZ (Swiss) 99 6
QUESO DE LA SERENA 91 3
SERPA 93 3
QUEIJO SIERRA DA ESTRELA 93 3
SPENWOOD 99 3 *
STANSER CHUA FLADA 92 3
STANSER ROTELI 93 3
STANSER SCHAFKASE 93 3
STANSER SCHAF REBOLCHON 90 4
STILTON 95 5
TORTA DEL CASAR 93 3
URNER ALPKASE 90 4
VACHERIN FRIBOURGEOIS 95 4
VACHERIN DU HAUT-DOUBS 90 3
VAL BAGNER 91 4
VALDEON 92 6
VALENCAY 91 1
VERMONT SHEPARD 98 3
WILDMANNLI 94 3
ZAMORANO 90 3

The book also provides descriptions and a varied list of vine pairings for each cheese.

Happy New Year!

Mike

I seem to have lost the formatting when I posted: the first number is the flavor rating and the second is the strength of the taste.

M

Interesting thread and very useful descriptions, KennyZ and chgoeditor, thanks.

unfortunately, the great raw milk cheeses are unavailable in the US due to FDA restriction(unless they are aged at least 60 days)

however, a few of my favorite cheeses in my case at the moment(we just got creamed for New Year's Eve):

Stinking Bishop
Gerome(a French Muenster)
St. Albray
D'Affinois
Morbier
Carr Valley Applewood Smoked cheddar
Cabrales
Humboldt Fog
Gorgonzola Dolce Latte
tallegio
German tilsit
leyden
Carr Valley 2 year
mimolette
Mountain Gorgonzola

it goes w/o saying that I have many, many favorite cheeses that our distributors don't carry

Ewe Bloom, Champaign, IL
This is a new sheeps' milk offering from my favorite Illinois maker of predominantly goat cheeses, Prairie Fruits Farm. It has a brie-like soft texture with a delicate rind, and quite a bit of sharp, acid bite underneath creamy, milky flavors. This was a completely different cheese after I let it ripen on the counter for a few days, after which the sharpness became more intense, and it took on an oozier, more luscious texture, with a much more leather-like flavor profile. Unfortunately, the rind is so delicate that storage for ripening is a challenge - if the rind becomes just a little damaged, the cheese starts to ooze out of the rind, at which point I no longer feel safe leaving it unrefrigerated. At the Green City Market, I gave this note to Wes, the co-proprietor, who was much appreciative, and said that they need to be more careful in transporting this particular cheese delicately, and reminding customers to do the same.

I was in Monroe Wisconsin about a month ago and picked up some Grand Cru Gruyere Surchoix from Roth Kase, which is aged 9 months. I bought about 5 pounds of it. I think it was $7.99/lb, which is an absolute steal. I wish I had bought a lot more. It compares to high end Swiss Gruyere you might buy at Marion Street Cheese Market for about $20/lb.

It's been almost a year since my last encounter - reported upthread - with Delice de Bourgogne, but my love has not faded slightly. Tonight I paired it with a Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, and while I still think champagne is ideal, the cheese was strong enough to hold up to the powerful beer as well. Delice de Bourgogne is one hell of a cheese.