A Cheesy Sunday Afternoon

On Sunday afternoon Alex, Cass and I attended a program at the Museo ItaloAmericano in Ft. Mason Center – a talk by Janet Fletcher on Italian cheeses followed by a tasting. Even better, it was free, thanks to support from Wells Fargo Bank.

In the past the three of us had taken a number of classes taught by Janet at The Cheese School of San Francisco and had found them uniformly excellent. Janet – who among other things writes the “The Cheese Course” column for the San Francisco Chronicle – has a wonderful knack of explaining about a cheese in the context of its place of origin. She also co-authored with Rosetta Costantino one of my favorite cookbooks - “My Calabria” – which was published last year. Her skill in weaving a narrative about food, culture, history and geography are very much in evidence there too. Her most recent book is “Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying” – Janet is all about food!

Janet led off Sunday’s program with a general overview of Italian cheeses, then focused on the five cheeses that we were to taste at the end of the program:

1. Brunet – pasteurized goat milk – Piemonte
2. Marzolino Rosso – raw sheep milk – Toscana
3. Brescianella Stagionata – raw cow milk – Lombardia
4. Canestrato di Moliterno – raw sheep and goat milk – Basilicata
5. Blu di Valcasotto – raw sheep milk – Piemonte

As shown on the following map, the cheeses came from all over Italy.

Janet explained that all five of the cheeses had been provided by Fresca Italia, Michele Lanza’s Italian cheese and specialty food import company in Brisbane. She pointed out that Michele, who is originally from Basilicata, has done a great deal to expand the variety of Italian cheeses which are available to us at markets and restaurants here in California. Thank you Michele and Fresca Italia!!

Janet also told us that she had not specified the cheeses she wanted for the program, but had rather left it to Fresca Italia to select a range of cheeses with regional and milk-type variation that they felt were at their peak. As Janet pointed out, that is a good strategy to follow whenever one buys cheese.

Following Janet’s formal remarks, we moved to an adjacent room where we enjoyed samples of the five cheeses, together with a red wine (2008 La Maialina Chianti Classico) and a white wine (2009 Mancini Vermentino di Gallura) wine that Janet had selected, and Janet did some book signing. I took the following picture of a set of the samples – unfortunately I was not able to get a shot of the cheeses before they were cut.


1. Brunet – pasteurized goat milk – Piemonte

This cheese was the subject of one of Janet’s articles in The Cheese Course which is worth reading. It is produced by the Caseificio dell'Alta Langa in the town of Bosia in Piemonte, a firm that produces a number of other excellent cheeses (La Tur is another of their cheeses we like a lot). Brunet, the name of a breed of goat, is not a traditional name of an Italian cheese, but rather a proprietary name given to the cheese by the producer, a recent trend in Italy that seems to be increasing as producers seek to stake out marketing territory. In her article Janet described the flavor as follows:

“Brunet's soft, thin, bloomy rind fuses with its creamy interior; don't even think about trying to cut the rind away. The supple ivory paste, or interior, smells of mushrooms and creme fraiche and feels like silk on the tongue. A tangy finish keeps the cheese from being cloying.”

The cheese also made her top 10 list for 2008.

2. Marzolino Rosso – raw sheep milk – Toscana

There is a traditional Tuscan sheep milk cheese called Marzolino del Chianti which, as the name indicates, comes from the Chianti area of Toscana between Firenze and Siena. As the name also suggests, in the past it was primarily produced in March (“marzo” is March in Italian) using the milk from sheep that had been eating the new grass on the Tuscan hillsides.

Marzolino Rosso is basically the traditional Marzolino which has been rubbed with a tomato paste to give it a reddish hue. This can be seen in the above photos – the traditional Marzolino del Chianti is on the left, and a slice of the Marzolino Rosso is on the right. As far as I could tell, the tomato paste did not affect the flavor, although my piece did not include any of the rind.

I was not able to determine exactly from where in Toscana the cheese we had comes. Janet said it is purchased from the producers by the Luigi Guffanti firm in Arona, in northern Piemonte (one of Italy’s leading cheese agers - they have been at it since 1876!), who then age it before selling it to distributors. I have always wanted to visit the Guffanti caves!

Janet also did an article in The Cheese Course about Marzolino Rosso, in which she described it as follows:

“…it has an ivory interior with the warm, milky fragrance of melted butter. The flavor starts sweet and nutty but finishes with a faint bitterness.”

This cheese also made her top 10 list for 2008.

3. Brescianella Stagionata – raw cow milk – Lombardia

The Brescianella Stagionata is another traditional cheese, this one from around the town of Brescia northeast of Milano, from which the cheese derives its name (“stationata” simply means “aged”). It struck me as very similar to a Taleggio. Here is Culture’s take on the cheese:

“Brescianella Stagionata is a washed rind cheese with a classic orange-brown, slightly sticky rind, marked with linear indentations where the cheeses have matured on straw. Aromas are pungent and sweet. The interior paste of the cheese is smooth and yielding and ivory-white in color. Flavors are rich and milky, with notes of vanilla and hazelnuts, and sweet with a lingering grassy aftertaste.”

It is another cheese which spends some time in Guffanti’s caves before making its way to market. Note to self – future trip to Arona a must.

4. Canestrato di Moliterno – raw sheep and goat milk – Basilicata

For the fourth cheese – the Canestrato di Moliterno - we headed far south to Michele Lanza’s home region of Basilicata (if you would like to learn more about that region here is a great video narrated by Francis Ford Coppola whose relatives came from the region). Molierno is a hill town in the mountains in the province of Potenza and over the years a combination of numerous sheep and goat herds in the area, as well as a climate favorable for aging cheese, resulted in the town becoming a center of cheese production. “Canestrato” refers to the woven baskets seen above used to hold the cheese when it is first made, and which give the rind a distinctive pattern. Typically 70-90% of the milk used for its production is sheep milk, and the balance goat milk. The cheese was very good with a nutty flavor and nice level of saltiness – similar to a number of other Italian sheep milk cheeses I have had in the past such as Pecorino Romano or Fiore Sardo.

5. Blu di Valcasotto – raw sheep milk – Piemonte

For the final cheese – a blue– we headed back north to the small town of Valcasotto in the Ligurian Alps just a few miles from the French border. Beppino Occelli is another major cheese producer in Piemonte with a broad portfolio of cheese types, similar to Caseificio dell'Alta Langa, and a sophisticated marketing approach. The Blu di Valcasotto seems to be a relatively new cheese for the company, although it may be that, for marketing reasons, they are simply distributing the same or a very similar cheese under different names. I enjoyed the cheese, although my preference in blue cheeses tends towards younger and milder varieties.

OVERALL PREFERENCES

While all the cheeses were good and I would look forward to trying them all again, our overall #1 preferences for the day were:

Cass: Brunet
Alex: Marzolino Rosso
Mike: Brescianella Stagionata

It just goes to show you that after so many cheese tastings together, our preferences head in different directions. Thanks again to Janet, Fresca Italia, the Museo and Wells Fargo for a most enjoyable event.

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Wine & Cheese @ IWM in New York

On Saturday afternoon during our recent trip to New York, Nancy kindly babysat Cece and freed up Rob and Janet to take me to a wine and cheese tasting at Italian Wine Merchants just off of Union Square.

I had been to IWM a couple of times on previous visits to New York and it is always a fun place to go. It does not look like much from the outside, but it is very nice inside. It is owned by Sergio Esposito (author of “Passion on the Vine”) together with Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich (the co-author of “Vino Italiano” (the best book I have seen on Italian wine), not to mention being the son of Lidia Bastianich), so it certainly is well connected with the Italian food and wine movement here in the U.S.

IWM offers an excellent selection of Italian wines and a good deal of useful information on their website. They even have opened a branch in Hong Kong to tap into the growing Asian market for wine – see this entry on their blog from Josh Rubenstein who moved there from New York last year.

IWM’s tasting programs are held in its Studio del Gusto and let by one of their staff, in this case John Camacho Vidal, a portfolio manager. Upon our arrival, we wandered around the main display room for a bit, then were admitted to the Studio.

IWM’s Studio del Gusto is a very pleasant and well-appointed room Rob, Janet and I had our own table which was set prior to our arrival with the afternoon’s pairings with very generous quantities of both the wines and cheeses. The glasses at each place setting were placed on a place mat (pictured further below) with circles on which the glasses were placed with the names of the corresponding wines – a nice touch.

Here are the wines and cheeses we were served.



They were presented in the order shown and we were encouraged to try each wine with the corresponding cheese. I thought this was not the best approach since in my view a number of the pairings were not optimum (Gorgonzola with a Chardonnay?). I would have preferred more encouragement to try each cheese with different wines – something that is done at the Cheese School of San Francisco where we have taken a number of classes.

It was a very enjoyable class, although it was a bit hard to hear some of John’s comments and I thought a few of the things he said were not completely accurate. Here is copy of my placemat on which I kept some of my notes.

As indicated there, our favorite wines were the Bruno Giacosa Barolo (Rob) and the Quintarelli Valpolicella (Janet and me) – two of the more expensive offerings - and our favorite cheeses were the Rosso di Langa from Caseificio dell'Alta Langa and the Fontina. As Janet Fletcher recently wrote in a review of Rosso di Langa:

“If you love the garlicky, barnyard smells of a ripe Taleggio, Rosso di Langa
may strike you as wimpy. But for those unaccustomed to strong cheeses, Rosso di Langa provides a gentle introduction to the category. My mother liked it, which is one way of saying that the cheese is not remotely scary.”

Hmm, the IWM tasting notes for the Rosso di Langa didn’t mention anything about “wimpy,” but if the shoe fits...

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Pescadero Pleasures – Harley Farms and Duarte’s Tavern

I first heard of Harley Farms in March of last year at, somewhat incongruously, a class entitled “Belgian Beer and Cheese” taught by Sheana Davis at the Cheese School of San Francisco. The first cheese in the 12:00 position on our plate that night was one called “Monet,” a snow white, fluffy goat’s milk cheese with a thin layer of herbes de Provence, decorated with flower petals.

Sheana told us that the cheese was produced at a small farm run by a woman named Dee Harley in Pescadero on the San Mateo County coast, not far south of Half Moon Bay. The cheese has nothing to do with Belgium, but it was very tasty and paired very well with a raspberry-flavored Belgian beer that Sheana had us try.

A couple of months later we attended another Cheese School class which sampled prize winners from the annual American Cheese Society meeting. Again we ran into the colorful “Monet” which had won first place in the Farmstead Cheeses category. Then, just a couple of days later, at a drop-in night at the Cheese School, we entered the room to find a whole wheel of “Monet” the size of a large pizza awaiting us on the table. By comparison to the small pieces we had had at the earlier classes, it was absolutely breathtaking.

Finally, when we first met Wil Edwards at a class at the Cheese School a few months later, we learned that Wil had worked at Harley Farms early in his cheese career. We also learned that, in addition to making great cheese, Harley Farms was one of the few goat cheese operations in Northern California to offer tours at their farm. Since then, Alex, Cass and I had been trying to figure out when we could visit Harley Farms and go on one of their weekend tours. A visit by their friend Amanda to the Bay Area this weekend provided just the motivation we needed.

Although I had never been to Pescadero, I had heard of Duarte’s Tavern (by the way, should you wish to avoid the same mistake I made, the pronunciation of “Duarte” morphed somewhere along the way from the original Portuguese doo-ART-tay to the current DOO-arts) and their famous olallieberry pie. Plus in March I happened to hear a very interesting NPR story about Duarte’s. Hence, we added a stop there to the agenda for the day, especially when we discovered that Harley Farms was less than a mile from Duarte’s.

I picked Alex, Cass and Amanda up in San Francisco under sunny skies and we headed south down 280 and across 92 to the coast. By the time we descended into Half Moon Bay we were in the fog and it stayed with us during the ride south along Route 1 to Pescadero. We had allotted 1.5 hours for the drive, but made very good time and arrived in just over an hour, so we explored Pescadero a bit before heading over to Harley Farms. Pescadero is not a big town - Duarte’s Tavern anchors the south end of town as does Arcangeli’s Market, pictured below, about 100 yards to the north.


After a brief exploration we made the short drive to Harley Farms, arriving just as the fog was beginning to burn off.

At the farm we were met by a woman named Pat who was leading the the morning tour. Harley Farms generally offers two 2-hour tours a day on the weekends – the morning tour starting at 11:00AM and the afternoon tour starting at 1:00PM. Ages 5 and under are free - the charge for ages 6-10 is $10 per person, and for those over 10 the charge is $20 per person.

Pat started us out with a brief history of the farm and a helpful admonition not to lean on the electric fence surrounding the field!

We then entered the pasture and met the nannies (adult female goats) of the herd who had been keeping their eyes on us.

The “adolescent” goats, who were born early this year, are apparently generally too rambunctious at this age to allow for contact with the general public so they are kept in a separate pasture. However, one of them, #76, had somehow found his way into the pasture with the nannies and certainly seemed well-behaved to us.

We wandered around the pasture for a while, being nibbled at periodically by the nannies who were very friendly and loved attention (or maybe they enjoy the taste of clothing). Pat said that Dee Harley strives to keep her goats happy and from what we could see she succeeds completely.


Pat explained to us that the farm is constantly striving to find additional ways to practice sustainable agriculture. Among them is the use of a “chicken tractor” pictured below – a bottomless chicken coop which is moved ever couple of days to a new location in the pasture to provide fertilizer directly to the soil (not to mention a nice perch for the goats). The chickens are rotated too as I imagine they must get tired of having goats constantly climbing over their coop.

Also on the sustainability front, the farm has been able to find uses for the goats’ production beyond mere milk!

Although almost all the animals on the farm are goats, there are a few chickens as noted above, as well as a pair of very woolly sheep and a couple of large llamas which guard the adolescent goats.

After we finished our tour of the pasture, we moved to the farm buildings, first saying hello to the two billy-goats who are responsible for producing all those kids – aptly named Elvis and Lucky (a third, Romeo, having recently gone to goat heaven, although it is hard to imagine what additional pleasures he may be enjoying in the afterlife). From the pens we moved to the milking shed where Pat showed us the proper "OK" grip, and then unleashed us to try our hands at milking a couple of very patient nannies (see below and this video).

From there, after donning fetching hairnets, it was on to the cheese production room where we formed a round of Monet – mere child’s play -- including the application of some of the edible flowers from the Harley Farms garden that they use to decorate the Monet and Van Goat products.


Then upstairs to the Hay Loft where we happily sampled the Monet with some excellent ciabatta bread from the bakery at Arcangeli’s Market.

The Hay Loft is a beautiful room with a wonderful rustic dining table surrounded by a fanciful set of chairs, all made by hand and without the use of any metal by a Pescadero native named Three-Fingered Bill whose photo keeps an eye on things from the wall of the room.

As reported here, it appears we also have Bill to thank as at least one of the factors that led Dee Harley to Pescadero in the first place. The Hay Loft is also where Harley Farms' periodic seasonal dinners are held – see the below picture of the table set for one of those dinners, and here are two great related posts – one set on Flicker and a second from Justinsomnia’s blog about one of those seasonal dinners he attended in May (which, as you can see from the pictures of the baby kids, is definitely one of the best times to visit the Farm!).

After a final stop at the Harley Farms cheese store for more tasting (yummy feta, ricotta, garlic-infused chevre, etc.), we then made the short drive to Pescadero for our late lunch at Duarte’s Tavern. It seems that there is a fairly strong connection between Duarte’s and Harley Farms since Tim Duarte and Dee Harley are married!

Duarte’s Tavern was packed, but happily we had made reservations and were seated quickly. I went with their signature soup (a two-tone green combination of their famous artichoke and green chili soups), the cioppino and their famous olallieberry pie (with ice cream of course – once one has gone that far, why hold back?) – all were wonderful.

Then a quick stop back at Arcangeli’s Market to pick up some of their bread before heading north in a food stupor. It was a perfect day and we look forward to a quick return to Pescadero!

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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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