Need some inspiration of what to put on your next tasting plate? Here are some cheeseboard add-ons for your next party with friends or an evening to yourself.
BAY BLUE
•Bay Blue• who seems to mimic the ocean vessels which carved their way into the landscape around Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company is made out of pasteurized cow´s milk and ages for 90 days.
Bay Blue is a regular on the winning boards of cheese competitions from the American Cheese Society to the World Cheese Awards.
Tasting notes:
Bay Blue delivers a sweet spice wrapped into a slightly resistant crumbly melt that finishes off in a wonderful salty caramel
BERGMATTER
*Bergmatter* by Swiss cheese maker Willi Schmid who says this is his favorite offspring. Raw, hay-fed brown cattle´s winter milk is turned into a delightful semi-hard cheese, that is matured for at least 8 months.
Tasting notes: as always age impacts the taste of cheese and with Bergmatter it either has bouncy eyes or a crumbly melt. In both cases it offers wonderfully warm and slightly spicy aromas of caramel and roasted barn.
Gustav says he also catches notes of fruit and smoked whiskey and rates our market find 13/10.
BLU DEL MONCENISIO
The Blu del Moncenisio got its name from the Moncenisio pass connecting the Valley Susa with neighbouring France. It´s made out of paseurized cow milk from local herds and offers a rich flavor combined with a dense, yet moist texture. Unfortunately it is not produced in large numbers and therefor one most likely has to visit the area to enjoy its company.
Tasting notes: depending on the age, the flavours go from rather mild to a perky, blue spice, with hints of grass and wood.
BLAUE GEISS
•Blaue Geiss• by swiss master cheese maker Willi Schmid is made out of thermized goat´’s milk and ages for 5 weeks.
Tasting notes:
*Blaue Geiss* welcomes us with an evenly firm yet creamy bite.
Her miniscule shardy pearls deliver tangy explosives with a polite goaty twist and make you instantly crave for more.
BLEU DE TERMIGNON
The Bleu de Termignon is an extremly rare cheese made by only 4 producers in the Rhone-Alp, Savoy region of France. It is made high up in the alps from the curds of two days of milk. After a few days of resting the cheese is taken into caves where it matures for 5 months, taking up the natural molds of its surrounding. Although this cheese is not for the light hearted – if you ever get the chance to put your hand on it – don´t miss out!
Tasting notes: rough, brown rind | melting yet crumbly texture | yeasty and fresh when young, barny and earthy when matured.
BOONT CORNERS
Boont Corners, made out of a mix of raw goat and sheep´s milk is a Tomme-style Californian who doesn’t have to hide behind his famous relatives from the French Alps.
Produced by Pennyroyal Farm it is one of the first cheeses they produced after using sheep and goats to keep their vinyards in shape
Tasting notes: •Boont Corners• has wonderful flavors of roasted nuts and vanilla cream and it‘s ivory paste has just the right amount of holes to make for a fluff tasting
CRAVANZINA
Cravings for a bloomy rind cheese, but can’t decide for sheep or cow? Then the Cravanzina by Caseificio dell’ Alta Langa in the Piedmont is your pick of the day! Made out of cow´s milk as well as sheep´s milk and cream it´s produced striktly according to old methods and without any additives.
Tasting notes: It’s amazingly creamy,buttery and mild but still manages to offer a ton of citrussy-mushroom flavors to enthusiast your pallet. The stripes, by the way, come from the ancient method of aging the cheese on straw.
CORNISH YARG
Although the origins of this nettle-wrapped cheese from Cornwall might date back to the middle ages, the Cornish Yarg as it presents itself now was created in the early 1980ies by Jenny and Alan Gray – named after themselves, just spelled backwards. For a flawless result, the nettles are all handpicked and carefully applied to this semi-hard cheese, made out of the milk ofAyrshire, Jersey and Friesian cows. The Cornish Yarg with its fresh, citrus taste won Gold at the 2017 World cheese awards and is also suitable for vegetarians! Born and raised @ lynherdairies
Tasting notes: fine, crumbly texture | fresh, moist and tangy with a hint of mushroom.
DELICE DE ROUGEMONT
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As you can see *Délice de Rougemont* can look quiet different depending on her age. First equipped with a hearty core and a somewhat mild and innocent flavor profile, Michel Beroud´ s raw cow´s milk bloom slowly summits onto higher peaks.
Tasting notes: After an innocently fresh and bloomy youth, Delice de Rougemont mutates into an elastic fudge, transporting buttery notes of slightly tangy cauliflower and white mold.
DURRUS
Durrus, a semi-soft, washed-rind cheese made with raw cow´s milk and traditional rennet by Jeffa Gill in Coomkeen, West Cork has slightly buttery and floral flavors that become fuller with age. The paste is semi-soft, with little air pockets, surrounded by a beautiful orange-white colored rind. Born and raised @ durruscheese
Tasting notes: semi-soft, creamy and open texture | rustic and earthy and buttery flavours.
ERBORINATO SANCARLONE
Erborinato Sancarlone – named after the patron saint of Arona, a little town on the South-West Piemontese shore of pittoresque Lago Maggiore is made out of unpasteurized cow´s milk from the Novara region. Sancarlone ages for at least 90 days the affineurs of Luigi Guffanti will let us put our eyes, hands and guts on it.
Tasting notes: Intense with a balanced barn spice and velvety veins, this Blue from the Piemont will cream its way directly into your heart.
ESTERO GOLD
Estero Gold by Valley Ford Cheese & Creamery South-West of Santa Rosa in California is made out of unpasteurized cow´s milk and ages a minimum of 6 months or over 18 months for the Reserve version. The paste, depending on age starts from a light crumb to a dense and crystalline structure.
Tasting notes: Our Estero Gold was about 7months od and delivered acidic & grassy notes on a melted brown butter bed.
FONTINA PDO
Made out of unpasteurized cows milk of the Valdaostan cows, Fontina is a cheese whose history dates back to the 12th century. The cheese is made all year round – on the alpine pastures during the summer and in the valley during the winter. It is made twice a day, and aged for a minimum of three months in caves and cellars.
Tasting notes: natural orange to brown rind | melting, creamy texture | Fontina is mild and nutty when young, and gets earthy when matured.
FORMAGELLA BERGAMASCA
Formagella Bergamasca comes from the Valleys behind Bergamo in Italy´s Lombardy region and is made out of pasteurized cow´s milk. More famous relatives are “Formaggella della Val Brembana” and “Formaggella della Val di Scalve”. For aditional info click here
Tasting notes: The rind has a soft, dry touch and the interior pampers with a fluffy and slightly sticky paste. The taste reminds of butter and a summer landscape which makes it a great all day companion.
IDIAZABAL
Idiazabal, a spanish goat cheese made out of raw ewe´s milk obtained by the Laxta sheep comes in a pure and smoked version.
More info you can find here[klick]
Tasting notes: crumbly chards and a light lactic and sheepy fragrance. Great buttery notes with malty nut aromas, with the smoked version also offering reminiscence of wood and hey.
LANGRES AOC
The Langres comes in an unmistakable appearance of a wrinkly cylinder with a sunken head (perfect for a gulp of champagne). It has been protected with the AOC label in 1991 and is now only produced by three dairies, – Schertenleib, Reumillet and Rians – out of which the Sylvain Remillet is the only one that makes the Langres AOC out of raw milk. The orange colour develops from the use of annatto for the brining.
Tasting notes: A lot milder – though not necessariily with less odor – than his cousin “Epoisses de Bourgogne” it is spicy and salty with a grainy texture when young. When older the rind can get even stickier and the paste develops into a creamy, mouth-melting companion giving room for afternotes of honey thus never loosing it´s salty and slightly lactic character.
MOTTHAIS SUR FEUILLE
Mothais sur Feuille takes its name from the town of La Mothe-Saint-Héray in the region of southern Poitou-Charentes, in Frances far west and ripens a minimum of 12 days after renneting. It is made out of raw goat´s milk and other than most goat cheeses is ripened in very humid (90-95%) and unventilated cellars.
more Info you can find here [klick]
Tasting notes: The paste is oozy and sticky on the outside with a soft nucleus, the flavor is lemony and woody with a clear hint to goats and a great earthy aroma.
ROBIOLA DI BUFALA
•Robiola di Bufala•
a „classic“ Robiola with a Buffalo milk twist from Lombardy. Pasteurized, dry-salted and dressed in a bloomy rind it ripenes just for 8-10 days.
Tasting notes: •Robiola di Bufala• is charmingly sweet, oozy and soft, and delivers just the right acidity to give your day a perfect start.
ROUELLE DU TARN
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*Rouelle du Tarn*
by Fromagerie Le Pic in Southern France
ís all you need for a fresh start into your day! *Rouelle* delivers a wild and charmful raw goat’s milk experience with a super soft, yet structured ashy shell around a creamy and gooey heart. Look at some pictures of its home town Penne du Tarn and you can visually taste its naughty magic of creamy citrus and green hazelnuts.
LE SAPALET
Jean-Robert Henchoz, like all other cheese-makers of Switzerlands Pays-d´Enhaut area originally came out of the cow-milk genre but gradually made his way up to now be the owner of the largest sheep herd in Switzerland. Le Sapalet – meaning “little fir tree” was the first ewe´s milk cheese he produced and therefor the namesake of the now well-known Le Sapalet fromagerie and dairy.
Tasting notes: It´s a Tomme refined, Brie-like cheese whose creamy paste holds on to a cakey nucleus and its bloomy rind offers just the right bite-strength to feel nice to the tooth. The soft, non-sticky inner spoils you with a lactic, mild yet sheepy and barnyardy flavour
SEIRASS DI LATTE – Ricotta Piemontese
The name Ricotta in this case is a little misleading though. *Seirass di Latte* is made from whole milk and with the use of rennet- unlike Ricotta which is made solely from whey with no rennet in action. Like the whey with Ricotta, the milk in Seirass is heated to about 80°C and *Seirass di Latte* hence unifies whey proteins with casein and fat globules.
Tasting notes:
The outcome is a soft arctic-white body which releases fresh&sweet lactic aromas with a tiny acidic twist. The paste is creamy and of a fluffy air-infused whipped butter-like structure with almost attometer sized curds. The flavors point to a fresh delicate cow´s milk with light notes of yogurt, cream and salt with a miniscule acidic twist.
STILTON
For once a cheese is not named after the place of origin but after the place where it found its first fans. In this case the town of Stilton where in the early 18th century it was first served to travelers in the town’s Inn and quickly made its way to the tables of London. Made out of pasteurised milk, it holds the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and is made only in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
Tasting notes:Depending on age and maker Stilton can be sharp and aggressive or nutty with a rich and natural sweetness.
STINKING BISHOP
Washed rind *Stinking Bishop* is a handcrafted english man out of pasteurized cow’s milk from the old and rare Gloucester breed. During his about 4 months of ripening Stinking Bishop gets dressed in a beechwood lath and regularly rubbed with perry – a fermented pear juice typical to the area.
Producer: Charles Martell&Sons Ltd.
more Info you can find here [klick]
Tasting notes:
The texture is smooth, gooey and adhesive but still offers a clean bite. The aromas, depending on age, can be a brothy killer but the flavors are most certainly a charmer.
TOR
TOR, an award winning soft goat cheese of the Somerset region that got its name and pyramidal shape from the Glastonbury Tor, a Somerset landmark and with its fresh and slightly floral yet earthy taste and use of vegetarian rennet will also win the heart of vegetarians. Born and raised @ whitelake
TOUMIN DEL MEL
The Toumin del Mel comes in different varieties – the picture eg. features also the Toumin del Mel al Pepe – and has been produced in the Piemont Valle Varaita since the end of the 7th century. It has a creamy body with a fresh and milky taste and just the right amount of fat. It´s currently awaiting to get the DOP status – fingers crossed!
Tasting notes: white coloured paste | soft, patty and edible shell | when young has a wonderful flavour of fresh, acidified milk, when older hints of moss and wood. | the pimped Toumin del Mel al Pepe is all this with a wonderful peppery note.
TUNWORTH
Tunworth – an all British Camembert from the Hampshire region produced by Hampshire Cheeses using the milk of a local herd of Holstein cows. It was awarded twice as British Supreme Champion and in 2015 won the Gold Medal at the World Cheese Awards. Tasting notes: soft, white and bloomy rind | white, melting paste | rich, sweet and nutty flavour,
U CABANIN
For U Cabanin the use of raw cow´s milk obtained from the extremly rare Cabannin cow breed is the key to it´s success. The milk is rich in fat (3.5%) and delivers the taste of the landscape right into the cheeses.
For aditional info click here
Tasting notes: a fresh and bouncy table companion that carries the notes of butter, hazelnuts and the Genoese landscape it was born in, with the variations having their own joyful tasting strengths.
VACHERIN MONT D´OR AOC
This seasonal cheese is produced only from Mid-August until Mid-March by less than a dozen cheesemakers in the swiss Jura region.
One could say it is a direct relative of the Gruyere-cheese since the same cows that deliver the milk for the famous hard cheese when on their alpine pastures, are also responsible for the production of the Vacherin Mont d´Or. Since not enough milk for Gruyere is produced in the winter months, the farmers use it to make this high in demand brie-like cheese.
Tasting notes: cream coloured paste | wrinkely and soft shell with a bite | tangy and earthy flavors with a hint of wood and mushrooms. Most fun when just eaten by the spoon.