Cheese from Farm to Table

On Friday evening Alex, Cass and I were back at The Cheese School of San Francisco for yet another class (#26 for me). Since we have taken so many classes there over the last two and a half years, we have become a bit more selective with our selections. However, we did not want to miss Friday’s class since it was being taught by Wil Edwards, one of CSSF’s instructors who has taught some of our favorite classes in the past:

~ Pecorino Perfection,
~ Alpine Cheese & Alsatian Wine, and
~ Cheese & Charcuterie.

Friday’s class was titled “Cheese from Farm to Table” and was described in the class schedule as follows:

“The magic of artisan cheese is that it's a living food, and never more so than when the complete story of a hand-crafted cheese, from farm to table, is revealed and explained. In this class, Wil Edwards presents a slideshow of some of the fascinating cheese makers he has encountered in Europe and America, brings their stories to life, and recounts the fascinating journey that brings the precious fruit of their labor – literally as we taste them – to our table.”

Alex, Cass and I arrived at the School on Friday just after 6:00 and were
greeted by Wil and Sara Vivenzio, the School’s Director, who poured us glasses
of Thomas Fogarty Riesling to enjoy while we waited for the class to begin. The
class got started about 6:30 and we all took our seats. Sara introduced Wil and
away we went.

Wil is a very engaging and entertaining guy who has worked in various positions at cheese producers, such as Harley Farms in Pescadero, and at cheese agers, such as Luigi Guffanti in Arona on the shores of Lago Maggiore in Piemonte, and most recently as Editor-at-Large of CULTURE magazine. He is also an excellent photographer and a number of his photos are on display on the walls of the School.

Although we had ten cheeses to sample on Friday night, the thrust of Wil’s presentation focused more on the individual stories behind those cheeses and, in particular, on the individuals involved with their production. For the first time since I have been attending classes there, the presentation area was set up with a slide projector, and over the course of the eveing Wil went through about 150 slides he had taken.

The following were the cheeses for the evening in the order presented:

~ “Fresh Chèvre” from Harley Farms in Pescadero, CA (goat);
~ “Crescenza” from Bellwether Farms in Valley Ford (near Petaluma), CA (cow);
~ “Green Hill” from Sweet Grass Dairy in Thomasville, GA (cow);
~ “Piedmont” from Everona Dairy in Rapidan, VA (sheep);
~ Parmigiano-Reggiano primarily from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy (cow);
~ “Pleasant Ridge Reserve” from Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville, WI (cow);
~ “Devil’s Gulch” from Cowgirl Creamery in Pt. Reyes Station, CA (cow);
~ “Red Hawk”, also from Cowgirl Creamery (cow);
~ Gorgonzola (the younger “Dolce” vs the aged “Piccante”) primarily from the Lombardia region of Italy (cow); and
~ “Original Blue” from Pt. Reyes Farmstead in Pt. Reyes Station (cow).

The cheeses were accompanied with three wines from Thomas Fogarty Winery:

~ 2008 Skyline Riesling (Monterey County);
~ 2008 Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir (Santa Cruz Mountains); and
~ 2001 Frank’s Vineyard – Vintage Port (Amador County).

Our favorite (top 3 for each of us) cheeses of the evening were:

~ “Fresh Chèvre”/Harley Farms – Cass #1; Alex #2
~ “Green Hill”/Sweet Grass Dairy – Cass #2, Alex #2, Mike #1
~ Parmigiano-Reggiano – Mike #2
~ “Pleasant Ridge Reserve”/Uplands Cheese – Cass #3, Alex #1, Mike #3

Here are photos of some of the producers of the American cheeses who Wil introduced to us during our class:

We were not able to identify the specific producers of the two Italian cheeses – the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the Gorgonzola – since each is produced by several individual producers within the qualifying territories. Those are two of the limited number of traditional Italian cheeses which are regulated under the "Denominazione di Origine Protetta” (DOP) classification (aka “Protected Designation of Origin" (PDO) status under EU regulations), and each has its own “consortium” which regulates its production and promotes the cheese:

~ Parmigiano-Reggiano Consortium
~ Gorgonzola Consortium

I would particularly recommend a visit to the Parmigiano-Reggiano Consortium site since it has some excellent videos demonstrating the cheese’s production (including the “fire branding” of the rind with the Consortium’s mark).

When Nancy and I visited Italy in 2006 we toured Caseificio Castelnovese, one of the cooperatives producing Parmigiano-Reggiano just outside of Modena. It was an awesome site to enter their aging area and see aisle upon aisle of approximately 80-pound wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano stacked from floor to ceiling - and, of course, that is just one of many such producers.

One thing I learned at our class on Friday is that each wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano is marked with a unique identification number assigned to the producer (the “matricola” -- e.g. 2973 for Castelnovese).

So if your cheese monger has an entire wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano, you should be able to determine who produced it and where it came from. Here is a page on the Consortium’s website with identification numbers for at least those producers which have websites.

In addition to highlighting the human stories behind the cheeses, Wil also pointed out European roots for several of the American cheeses we sampled - for example, Bellwether Farms’ “Crescenza.”

That cheese has an Italian heritage as indicated by the following passages from Bellwether’s website and a San Francisco Chronicle “Cheese Corner” article by Janet Fletcher, another of our CSSF favorites:

From the Bellwether Farms Site: The recipe for our Crescenza was learned
on a trip to Northern Italy in the spring of 1996. One of our customers, Carlo Middione, recommended we try this cheese. We were introduced to a small cheese maker a little west of Milan who processed about 100 gallons of milk at a time and made a variety of cheeses from each batch. Her creamery was a two person operation located on her family’s dairy. The dairy was large and sold most of its milk to some large customer but she ran the small creamery and cheese shop herself. We spent the day with her and were able to help her make her cheeses. After returning to the US, I began working on the Crescenza. It took about 6 months before I was able to adjust the recipe to account for the higher butterfat and solids of the Jersey cow’s milk we were using. The secret of this cheese is balancing the acid development with moisture level in the correct he cheese to have it ripen properly.

From the Janet Fletcher Article: Bellwether cheesemaker Liam Callahan went to Italy's northern Lombardy region to learn the techniques of making Crescenza, also known there as Stracchino. He uses the same culture and roughly the same method and, according to his mother Cindy, who started the dairy, the results are comparable. Some Italian chefs have told Cindy that they like her Crescenza better, an astonishing admission given Italy's chauvinism in culinary matters. The Callahans use pasteurized Sonoma County Jersey cow milk, which is higher in protein, fat and beta carotene than the milk from most other dairy breeds. In these qualities it resembles the milk from the tired (stracca) cows that have
traipsed up and down Lombardy's mountains in search of pasture. Contrary to what you might think, the extra effort causes cows to give extra-rich milk.

There was some discussion at class of the origin of the name “Crescenza,” although no one seemed to know the answer. From further research it appears it is a derivation of either (a) the Italian verb “crescere” – to grow, or (b) the Latin “carsenza” – another name for focaccia bread – in either case it is an apparent reference to the fact that the cheese apparently expands in size as it ages.

Wil also highlighted the differences that milk makes in the cheese. For example, although both Cowgirl Creamery cheeses are made from cow’s milk, their new “Devil’s Gulch” cheese is made from the milk of Jersey cows from the John Taverna dairy in Sonoma, while their traditional “Red Hawk” is made from the milk of Holstein cows from Straus Creamery in Marin.

As noted earlier, in addition to his other activities Wil is Editor-at-Large of
CULTURE magazine and, at the end of the evening, he showed us a sample of some
of his photos of cheese rinds (including one of the very colorful red pepper covered “Devil’s Gulch” we enjoyed during the class) that both are featured in the latest issue of CULTURE (Spring 2010 – Vol. 2, Issue 2), and will be on display in the near future at Barn Diva in Healdsburg.

It was a most enjoyable class!

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An Evening with Some Queens of the Cheese World

On Saturday evening, still a bit full from our Calabrian cooking class the night before, Alex, Cass and I made our way back to the Cheese School of San Francisco for a tasting program held in conjunction with the 8th Annual Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference. The Conference was being hosted by Sheana Davis of The Epicurean Connection, with whom we have taken a number of classes at the Cheese School. In addition, Sheana is the producer of Délice de la Vallée, a wonderful blend of cow and goat milk.

We arrived just before the 6:00PM starting time which was wise since the room filled up quickly.

After grabbing some glasses of wine – Highway 12 blends were being poured, together with some beers – and saying hello to Sheana and the Cheese School gang, we got in line and began to make our way through the gauntlet of temptations.

There was quite a lineup of producers and importers represented at the tables lined up around the room, including:

~ Carr Valley (Wisconsin)
~ Cypress Grove Chevre (Arcata, CA)
~ Délice de la Vallée (Petaluma, CA)
~ Daphne Zepos (New York -- importer of Comté from the Jura Mountains in France)
~ Harley Farms (Pescadero, CA)
~ Landaff Creamery (Vermont – aged at the Cellars at Jasper Hill)
~ Roth Käse (Wisconsin)
~ Upland’s Cheese (Wisconsin)
~ Von Trapp Farmstead (Vermont – aged at Jasper Hill Cellars)
~ Widmer’s Cheese Cellars (Wisconsin)
~ Zingerman’s Creamery (Michigan)

Alex, Cass and I were most excited to have the chance to meet Dee Harley of Harley Farms and Daphne Zepos since we love Harley Farms and their Monet cheese, and the Comté that Daphne imports is probably our #1 favorite cheese – especially when served with a glass of Rivesaltes Ambré from Domaine Fontanel, a fabulous combination introduced to us by Janet Fletcher at a class at the Cheese School a couple of years ago.

Here are the cheeses we enjoyed (apologies to Sheana, but somehow I did not get a picture of the Délice de la Vallée station). Of the aged cheeses my favorite remains Daphne's Comté, although the Carr Valley selections were also particularly good.










l drought coming up over the next few weeks – we will not be back until our “Springtime Cheeses, Loire Valley Wines” class on April 23.

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The Perfect Couple – Cheese & Charcuterie

I do not think I have been more excited about a class at the Cheese School of San Francisco than I was for our class last Monday entitled “Cheese & Charcuterie”. First, while I love cheese, I really love charcuterie (although I am partial to the term “salumi”), and in all classes I have been to at the Cheese School (this being #24), this was the first time that “tasty salted pork parts” (to borrow Boccalone’s tag line) was going to be featured. Second, Wil Edwards, one of our favorite instructors, was teaching the class. Finally, Diane and Terry, Cass’ parents, were in town and were joining Alex, Cass and me for the class.

The class was described in the Cheese School’s program as follows:

“Cheese and charcuterie are really about solving the same problem: how to
preserve the flavors and nutritional value of two precious foods, fresh milk and raw meat, that would otherwise have a very short shelf life? Wil Edwards will lead this class in exploring how cheese makers and charcuterie artisans each go about their craft, the explosive and concentrated flavors that can result from the preservation process, and the links between the two – from farm to table.”

Part of my anticipation regarding the class related to speculation about which charcuterie we would be sampling at the class. As reflected in part by the logos at the start of the post, we are incredibly fortunate here in the Bay Area to have a number of establishments producing charcuterie and I have tried many of them including Boccalone (established by Chris Cosentino and Mark Pastore of Incanto), the Fatted Calf (run by the husband and wife team of Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller), and Fra’Mani (established by Paul Bertolli when he left Oliveto). I like them all and have my particular favorite products from each of them, including Fra’Mani’s salame rosa and salame gentile, Boccalone’s mortadella and lardo, and the fabulous freshly-roasted porchetta we had enjoyed just a few days earlier on our visit to the Fatted Calf’s store in the Oxbow Market in Napa.

I arrived at the School a bit late and the pre-tasting festivities were already well underway. After greeting Diane, Terry, Alex and Cass and grabbing a glass of Prosecco, I looked around and was overjoyed to see that not only Wil Edwards was in attendance, but also Taylor and Toponia from the Fatted Calf who were hard at work slicing and laying out a fantastic array of their products. It was clear that this would be an evening to remember.

We were soon asked to take our seats and the class got started. What a spectacle awaited us! Not only was there the customary spectrum of cheeses that we had become accustomed to from prior classes (nine in all), but Taylor and Toponia had gone above and beyond the call with an offering of six of the Fatted Calf’s products.

On the cheese front Wil and the Cheese School staff had selected the following for the evening:

1. “Marinated Fetta” from Yarra Valley Dairy – Victoria, Australia – Cow

2. “Humbug Mountain” from River’s Edge Chèvre – Logsden, Oregon – Goat

3. Brillat-Savarin – Burgundy, France – Cow

4. “La Tur” from Caseificio dell'Alta Langa - Piemonte, Italy – Cow, sheep and goat

5. Abbaye de Belloc – Pyrénées, France – Sheep

6. Roncal – Navarre, Spain – Sheep

7. “Bandage Wrapped Cheddar” from Fiscalini Farms – Modesto, California – Cow

8. Brescianella Stagionata – Lombardia, Italy – Cow

9. Grevenbroecker – Flanders, Belgium – Cow

Those were accompanied by the following from the Fatted Calf (descriptions care of the Fatted Calf website), a great mix of Italian, French and Spanish traditions:

1. Bresaola - traditional Italian air-dried beef made with Marin Sun Farm’s grass-fed beef, organic garlic, red wine, spices, sea salt and curing salt.

2. Pâté de Volaille - a robust pâté of game hen, squab, pastured chicken, pork and duck with walnuts and sherry, made from organic pastured chicken, Liberty duck, Wolfe Ranch squab, organic game hen, organic cream, breadcrumbs, walnuts, organic herbs, sherry, sea salt, curing salt and spices.

3. Mortadella - fine textured cooked salami garnished with pistachios, made with pasture raised pork, pistachios, organic garlic, spices, organic evaporated cane juice, dry milk powder, sea salt and curing salt.

4. Saucisson Sec - aromatic French style salame, made with pasture raised pork, spices, brandy, sea salt and curing salt.

5. Finocchiona - spicy salame with whole and ground fennel seed, made with pasture raised pork, organic garlic, spices, sea salt and curing salt.

6. Spanish Style Chorizo – earthy, crumbly, paprika laden dry sausage, made with naturally raised pork, organic garlic, spices, sea salt and curing salt.

The following three wines were poured during the evening:

~ Prosecco di Valdobbiadene from Bellussi Spumanti

~ “Lini910” Lambrusco Rosso from Lini Oreste e Figli

~ “Obispo Gascón Palo Cortado” Sherry from Antonio Barbadillo

Finally, as if we needed anything else, a range of accompaniments rounded out the feast, including Acme bread, fruit, a sugar plum and walnut log from Pastilla Nash, preserved walnuts from Harvest Song and some great fruit pastes.

It was a fun evening. Wil’s approach – with input from Taylor and Toponia along the way (especially regarding the proper pronunciation of Bresaola (bre-SAOH-la)) – was to have us match cheese with charcuterie, a break from past classes where we were focused on cheese and wine pairings. That was a bit beyond me, but it was an interesting experiment and the combination of three fermented products – wine, cheese and charcuterie – was certainly something anyone would enjoy, and enjoyment is always Wil’s focus, which is why we like his classes so much.

At least for Alex, Cass and me, our individual top cheeses of the evening were:

Alex: 1. Brillat-Savarin; 2. Abbaye de Belloc; 3. La Tur

Cass: 1. La Tur; 2. Humbug Mountain; 3. Marinated Fetta

Mike: 1. Abbaye de Belloc; 2. Marinated Fetta; 3. Brillat-Savarin

We did not do a full rating of the charcuterie, but my favorites were: 1. Bresaola (really good); 2. Pâté de Volaille; and 3. Chorizo.

While Fra’Mani does not have a dedicated retail outlet in the Bay Area, both Boccalone in the Ferry Building and Fatted Calf in Napa do and they are well worth visiting and getting to know. Some of my favorite moments on trips to Italy have been when hanging out in salumeria (shops specializing in charcuterie), macelleria (butcher shops) and norcineria (butcher shops specializing in pork products – the name deriving from the town of Norcia in Umbria where pork is king). The following are just a few such shrines – Bruno e Franco Salumeria in Bologna, Dario Cecchini's Macelleria in Panzano in Toscana (where in fact Taylor and Toponia worked for a bit), and the Fratelli Ansuini’s Norchineria in Norcia.

I have to say I am not sure about the extent to which “charcuterie” and “salume” may overlap. In Italy, salumi (the term on which the name of the salumeria establishment is based) is a broad term which includes a variety of cured or otherwise preserved meat (primarily pork) products. Many of those products are classified as salami, a product made from chopped or ground pork and spices, which is encased (for example in an intestine) and then typically cured. However, salumi also includes whole muscles or other cuts of meat which are salted and preserved, including prosciutto, guanciale, lardo and, on the beef front, bresaola. Hence all salami are salumi, but not all salumi are salami. To further complicate matters we have the singular and plural issue:

~ one salame, two salami
~ one salume, two salumi

Of course the French go quite a bit farther than the Italians when it comes to pâté, so perhaps charcuterie is a broader term than salumi. All I know is that it eats good and we are lucky to be able to get it here in the Bay Area.

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If the Shoe Fits – “Connoisseur’s Cheese” Class

Could it really have been THREE MONTHS since our last class (our 23rd) at the Cheese School of San Francisco? When the schedule came out at the end of April for the Spring/Summer series of classes we had somehow failed to act.

When we realized a few weeks ago that we had let things slip, Alex, Cass and I looked over the schedule. Although there were understandably a number of classes that we had already taken, Sara Vincenzo who runs the Cheese School always does a good job of adding some new classes each term and we noted one entitled “Connoisseur’s Cheese” coming up in late July taught by Judy Creighton from whom we had taken two enjoyable classes in the past. Per the course description:

“As a true connoisseur, you know and love cheeses of all kinds. But maybe your taste buds have been lulled into sleepy complacency. For those who have the basics covered, this advanced class offers a tasting experience of what is truly extraordinary and rare in fine cheese with a discussion of how they get that way. These cheeses will take your senses to new heights with big bold flavors that are not for the faint of heart as well as delicate treasures that aren't easy to find in peak condition. Take your cheese love affair to the next level by diving into this distinctive connoisseur’s sampling from the finest cheese makers around the globe.”

Happily when we called the Cheese School there was still space available so we signed up. As the date approached it turned out Cass was going to have to be out of town that evening. However, we were able to fill Cass’ spot with our good friend Antonio.

Upon our arrival at the Cheese School the evening of the class we met Sara who was there for the pre-class reception, as well as Abby Ward, one of the School's Assistant Directors, and Karen Tran, a newcomer to the Cheese School staff. The gang was pouring the Keller Estate Chardonnay that was one of the wines for the class and while we waited for the class to start we had an enjoyable chat with the staff and also re-introduced ourselves to Judy Creighton.

Judy mentioned that she is living in Murphys (aka “The Queen of the Sierras”) in Calaveras County in the Sierra foothills, and encouraged us to come up to sample some of the wines offered by the Calaveras Winegrape Alliance [“20 wineries, 3 traffic lights“]. I came across a blog entry from Luscious Lushes which makes a trip there sound quite tempting, but I digress...

As the class description had indicated, the selection of cheeses for the evening was geographically wide-ranging (3 US, 3 Italy, 2 France, 1 England and 1 Australia) and of quite diverse types. The following were the ten cheeses we sampled:

1. “Yaquina Bay Pavé” from River’s Edge Chèvre [Three Ring Farm] – Logsden, Oregon - Goat

2. “Fior di Langa” from Caseificio dell'Alta Langa – Piemonte, Italy – Cow, goat & sheep

3. Sheep milk cheese from Sally Jackson – Oroville, Washington – Sheep

4. “Sunlight” from Haystack Mountain – Longmont, Colorado – Goat

5. “Caciotta di Bufala” [producer unknown] – Campania, Italy – Water buffalo

6. “Timanoix” from the Cistercian Abbey Notre Dame de Timadeuc and affineur (cheese ager) Pascal Beillevaire - Bréhan (Brittany), France – Cow

7. “Ogleshield” from Jamie Montgomery and Wayne Mitchell – Somerset, England – Cow

8. “Lagrein [Weinkäse]" [producer is a cooperative] – Alto Adige, Italy – Cow

9. “Signature Blue” from Tasmanian Heritage [National Foods] – Tasmania, Australia – Cow

10. “Bleu de Sassenage [Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage],” another aged by Pascal Beillevaire – Rhône-Alpes, France - Cow

They were paired with the following wines:

~ Chardonnay, “Oro de Plata” (2006) from Keller Estate in Sonoma, and

~ Südtiroler Lagrein, a red wine from Weingut Niklas [Niklaserhof] in Kaltern in the Alto Adige area of Italy.

We also enjoyed the standard wonderful range of accompaniments, bread, fresh and dried fruit, honey and some great pear jam from Blue Chair Fruit.

Our Favorites. At the end of the evening Judy asked us to rank our top three favorite cheeses and then took a poll. My top three were #1 Signature Blue, #2 Lagrein, and #3 Fior di Langa (although at least 4 others could have made it into my personal top 3), and that turned out to be the class consensus. Antonio went with the three Italian entries. It was one of the best overall selections of cheeses we have had a the Cheese School.

Japanese Beer and Australian Cheese. In researching the cheeses after the class I learned that National Foods, the Australian company that owns the Tasmanian Heritage brand under which Signature Blue is produced, is itself owned by Japan’s Kirin Brewing. Ah the joys of globalization (although if they continue to produce cheeses like that, I for one am not complaining).

Lagrein. Nancy and I are hoping for another trip to Italy in the near future, this time to the northeast, including the Trentino-Alto Adige region. I was very happy to find I really enjoyed both the Lagrein Weinkäse cheese (“weinkäse” means wine cheese in German, which is spoken as much as if not more than Italian in that northern area of the country) and the Lagrein wine. As the name suggests, the cheese is in fact soaked in Lagrein wine as part of the production process which gives the rind a deep red color. Hopefully the next time we try them together will be in Alto Adige!

As the above picture of Abby, Antonio, Karen and Alex suggests, we all had a good time at the class. Happily we have signed up for another class at the Cheese School for early August so we will not have so long to wait this time for our next visit.

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The Italian Connection – Cheese PLUS Dessert Wines!

I love most things Italian, so in January when we saw the listing “La Dolce Vita: Italian Cheese & Dessert Wine” on the schedule for current term at The Cheese School of San Francisco, signing up was a no-brainer. As described in the schedule:

“The French may say a meal is not complete without a bit of cheese to cap it off, but the Italians certainly also know a thing or two about finishing with formaggio. Suffice it to say that the grandest cheese of them all, aged
Parmigiano-Reggiano, shows off some of its finest attributes at the end of a meal, as does a creamy Robiola. Paired with Italian dessert wines…such
sweet indulgence!”

If we needed any further motivation, one of the instructors was going to be Lynne Devereux, who had lead two earlier classes we had enjoyed at the Cheese School, and who also helped to organize the recent 3rd Annual California Artisan Cheese Festival we attended last month in Petaluma....

The class description indicated that a fellow named Andy Lax would be co-presenting the class with Lynne. We had not met Andy before and he was not shown on the Cheese School’s Faculty Bios page. Always nice to have a bit of mystery going into a class.

Alex was going to join Cass and me for the class, but after the gastronomical excesses encountered at the Giants’ Opening Day at AT&T Park, decided that a full course of cheese and wine that evening might be pushing it a bit. Hence, it was left to Cass and me to enjoy the class by ourselves.

When we arrived at the Cheese School we greeted Lynne and had a chance to meet Andy. We learned that Andy is with Fresca Italia, the Bay Area-based importer of a very impressive range of Italian cheeses and other food products founded by Michele Lanza in 2001. If you have ever had Italian cheeses in the Bay Area – especially those that are somewhat less common or that come from smaller producers - the chances are very good that they were imported by Fresca Italia. For example, Andy told us that Fresca Italia supplies many of the excellent cheeses we have enjoyed at Perbacco in San Francisco. Thank you Fresca Italia!

Lynne and Andy

After a brief introduction, we started sampling the following nine cheeses that had been selected for the evening:

1. Piave Vecchio – Veneto - Cow
2. Robiola Bucaneve (Caseificio Reale) – Piemonte – Cow/Sheep/Goat
3. Camilla (Caseificio Reale) – Piemonte - Goat
4. Robiola Delle Langhe Due Latti (Guffanti) – Piemonte- Cow/Sheep
5. Montasio DOP – Friuli-Venezia Giulia - Cow
6. Canestrato (Pecorino) di Filiano – Basilicata - Sheep
7. Blu del Moncenisio – Piemonte - Cow
8. Parmigiano-Reggiano (Agriform) – Emilia-Romagna - Cow
9. Parmigiano-Reggiano (Vacche Rosse) – Emilia-Romagna – Cow

For our wines we enjoyed:

~ Drusian – Prosecco – Veneto
~ 2007 Elio Perrone – Bigaro – Piemonte
~ 2005 Beltrame – Verduzzo Friulano - Friuli-Venezia Giulia
~ 2001 Fattoria di Piazzano – Vin Santo – Toscana
~ Marcarini – Chinato – Piemonte

All of the wines had been obtained at Ceri Smith’s Biondivino, a small but very well-stocked Italian wine specialty store on Green Street in San Francisco, just off of Polk. The Biagro from Elio Perrone was a wine I had not had before. It is a sparkling wine made with a combination of Moscato and Brachetto grapes and had a wonderful strawberry flavor that went well with the lighter cheeses. It was also my first time to try the Chinato – a Piemontese aromatic wine seasoned with herbs. It reminded me a bit of an Italian amaro, for example Averna which I like a lot, but as Andy said, may not be for everyone.

Our Favorite Cheeeses: Lynne and Andy had us sample each wine with two or three of the cheeses. By comparison to some of the other classes we have taken at the Cheese School, it was handled in a more relaxed fashion, which was fine with me. Although both Cass and I liked most of the cheeses, we each tried to pick three we most enjoyed (apart from the Parmigiano’s which are hard to beat – more about those below). For Cass the top three were the Robiola Bucaneve (named after the white Snowdrop flower called "bucaneve" in Italian), the Camilla and the Canestrato di Filiano. I had the same choices with the exception that I picked the Piave instead of the Robiola Bucaneve.

Caseificio Reale: Both the Robiola Bucaneve and the Camila are produced by Caseificio Reale, a relatively new cheese maker in the Cuneo region of Piemonte. We have had other cheeses made by them and have always liked them. It is worth keeping an eye out for their products, several of which are imported by Fresca Italian. For example, here are two or Janet Fletcher’s reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle for Caseificio Reale’s Toma Reale and Plin di Capra.

Pecorino di Filiano/ Pietra del Sale: The Canestrato di Filiano was the only cheese of the evening from the southern part of Italy and the only one that was pure sheep milk (my favorite). Andy told us that this cheese was one of Italy’s “DOP” cheeses (Denominazione di Origine Protetta = Protected Denomination of Origin (PDO)) and that the official name was “Pecorino di Filiano”. “Pecorino” indicates it is a sheep milk cheese (“pecora” = sheep) and Filiano is a town in the Province of Potenza in the Region of Basilicata, a sparsely-populated and often overlooked region wedged between Puglia, Campania and Calabria on the instep of the Italian boot. The area is sometimes also referred to by its original name, “Lucania.”

The term “canestrato” (“in a basket”) refers to the fact that the cheese curds are drained in a basket during the production which imparts a characteristic pattern to the rind. Andy explained that the producer of the cheese we had at our class is named Giovanni Samela who has a farm and restaurant named Pietra del Sale near Avigliano in Basilicata, about 10 miles south of Filiano. Although the DOP regulations allow the use of milk from several breeds of sheep, Andy said Giovanni is seeking to obtain a new classification for the Pecorino di Filiano he produces using just from the milk of the Gentile di Puglia breed of sheep which is native to that region.

Parmigiano-Reggiano/ Le Vacche Rosse: Finally, the Parmigiano-Reggiano, of which we had not one but two samples! The first was a “normal” Parmigiano produced by a large Veneto-based company named Agriform which produces both Parmigiano as well as several other well-known regional Italian cheeses (including Grana Padano).

The Agriform Parmigiano was good, but it could not match the second Parmigiano, described in our handout as “Red Cow,” which was fantastic. Andy explained that prior to the World War II almost all Parmigiano had been produced using milk from a breed of cow called the Reggiana, which, due to its distinctive red coat, is also called “Vacche Rosse” – the red cows. After the war, Friesian cows which produced more milk were introduced to Emilia-Romagna and began to replace the Reggiana, even though the quality of the Parmigiano produced using their milk, which has a lower butterfat content, was arguably of lesser quality. This trend continued until the 1980’s, at which point the Reggiana breed started to make a comeback led by a few producers committed to more traditional standards. Those producers included a company named Grana d'Oro located in Cavriago between Reggio Emilia and Parma.

Today Parmigiano produced from the Reggiana breed is increasingly available, although it is more expensive than Parmigiano made from the milk of other breeds of cows. Parmigiano produced using milk from Reggiana cows can be identified by the mark of the Reggiana breeders association (L’Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Bovini di Razza Reggiana (ANaBoRaRe)) which appears on the rind. In addition, Grana d’Oro has its own a proprietary “Vacche Rosse” mark which appears on their cheese.

Cass and I felt this was one of the best classes we had attended at the Cheese School (and this was #22 for me!), even discounting for the fact that I am such a sucker for anything Italian. The cheeses and wines were well-selected and Lynne and Andy worked well together. We are looking forward to more to come.

With Abby and Ariel and Cheese School Class #22 Special Gift Pack!!

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Got (Alpine) Cheese? Pairings with Alsatian Wines

After as many classes as we have taken at The Cheese School of San Francisco (now over 20), we have covered many of the best known cheeses and cheese types and have become a bit more selective about the classes we attend. However, in January when we saw the offering of “Alpine Cheese & Alsace Wine” on the School’s calendar of Spring classes, we realized that there were still new pastures to explore. Last Thursday evening Alex, Cass and I were back at the School for that program:

“Yodel-ay-hee-hoo! You’ll want to shout from the mountaintops after
indulging in this deep dive into the best alpine cheeses from Switzerland,
France, Italy and Germany – known for their creamy, nutty, sweet goodness – paired with Alsace wines from along the banks of the Rhine, which originates high in the Alps and flows throughout the valleys in which Alpine cheesemakers have traditionally brought their wheels to market.”

Mark Todd had been scheduled to teach the class, but at the last minute had a conflict, so a team comprised of veteran School instructors Wil Edwards – who had taught our “Pecorino Perfection” class in January and who we had just seen at the Artisan Cheese Festival the previous weekend - and Melissa Schilling, stepped in to fill Mark’s shoes.....

Although I like to think that I have a fairly good sense of geography, I realized when we signed up for the class that I was not sure where Alsace was, over what area the Alps extended, or where they were in relationship to each other. The following map answers all of those questions (the numbers on the map correspond to the ten cheeses listed below and show the general areas where each cheese is produced):

It is always a pleasure to attend a class at the Cheese School at any time of the year. However, on Thursday evening was the first class we had attended in some time where we arrived when it was still light out, and the classroom on Thursday evening with all the cheeses set out and lit by the natural evening light struck me as particularly beautiful:

At the beginning of the program, Sara Vivenzio, the founder and Director of the School, introduced Wil and Melissa.

Then we were off. The following ten cheeses from the general area of the Alps – all cow milk, six Swiss, three French and one Italian - had been selected for the evening:

1. Emmentaler Switzerland – “Höhlengereift” (cave-aged)
2. Le Maréchal – Switzerland
3. Appenzeller – Switzerland
4. Le Chartreux – France
5. Comté – France
6. L’Etivaz Gruyére - Switzerland
7. Bettlemat – Italy
8. Vacherin Fribourgeois – Switzerland
9. Grès des Vosges – France
10. Forsterkase – Switzerland


They were paired with the following five Alsatian wines:

1. NV Cremat d’Alsace - Jean-Philippe et François Becker
2. 2006 Pinot Blanc Reserve – Pierre Sparr
3. 2006 Riesling – Trimbach
4. 2007 Muscat – Allimant Laugner
5. 2005 Pinot Noir – Charles Baur

Here are a couple of maps of the Alsace region showing both the wine producing area and the topography – the Vosges Mountains to the west (with the vineyards on their eastern slopes), and the Rhine river, the border with Germany, to the east.

The wines were all very good and well worth trying again. There is much more to explore on the Alsatian wine front, and there are some helpful online resources here, here and here.

There were a full range of accompaniments presented with our wine and cheese, bread, dried and fresh fruit, chutney, and nuts. In addition, for the first time we were served Hibiscus flowers (on the left in the following picture - who knew they were edible!) – which hade been dried and then reconstituted in white wine. They were quite good - crisp and not overly sweet.

It was an entertaining (and filling!) evening, although given the large number of both cheeses and wines and the amount of information that they wanted to present, it seemed that both Wil and Melissa – who are both high energy people - were in many places rushed to get through the program, and it was frankly not the best coordinated class we have attended at the School. This seems to me to have been one class where less would have been more.

As far as the cheeses go, there were three – the Appenzeller, Comté, L’Etivaz Gruyére – that we had sampled at earlier classes at the School. However, looking back at those earlier notes it was interesting to see that at least my reaction to the cheeses this time was quite different for the Appenzeller (which I liked much better this time) and the L’Etivaz Gruyére (the reverse) – no doubt the pairings are a contributing factor (the earlier class was Sheana Davis’ “Belgian Beer & Cheeses” class!). The one unwavering cheesy beacon was the Comté which we have had a number of times (just last week again at the Cheese Festival and which is perhaps my favorite cheese of all (as long as it is Daphne Zephos selection!). This time, just a step below the Comté on my “Mike Likes” scorecard, were the Appenzeller, Le Maréchal and Vacherin Fribourgeois.

A couple of interesting things to note regarding the cheeses:

~ The name “Emmentaler” is not a protected name, such that much cheese called “Emmentaler” comes from other areas. For the traditional and best Emmentaler, look for “Emmentaler Switzerland” (which is a protected name). Höhlengereift” (cave-aged) indicates a further step up in quality.

~ Traditional fondue is made with a combination of three of the Swiss cheeses: Emmentaler, Appenzeller and Vacherin Fribourgeois.

~ The Grès des Vosges – the only one of the ten cheeses that was from Alsace - is named after a orange sandstone found in the Vosges Mountains given the orange color of its washed rind. The famous Chateau de Haut-Koenigsbourg, which is on the heights above the vineyards on the eastern slopes of the Vosges, is made from the same stone.

~ The Forsterkase is wrapped in fir bark, which you can just make out in the photo of the cheeses.

That was our second to the last class at the School for the current term. We are looking forward to "La Dolce Vita: Italian Cheese & Dessert Wine" on April 7!

Alex and Cass (far right) with Cheese Elves, Abby and Rebecca

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