Photo sourced from http://www.grampashoney.com/tag/cheese-pairings/

Honey, I Love You

Something sweet is coming this Valentine’s and it’s not wrapped in a heart-shaped box. Rather, its golden, slow-flowing and dripping of sweet sappiness—giving way to a moment of je ne sais quoi. Perhaps Winnie the Pooh describes it best: “Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
-- Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner

The Greek gods called it ambrosia, because it was the nectar to restore youth, heal the body of its ailments, and provide pure ecstasy upon its touch to the lips. With all this considered, I will court a new romance this Valentine’s with a new cheese class at Red, White & Bleu wine shop in Falls Church. I will pair a multitude of honeys with cheese and wine. Honey represents the new food fad sweeping the nation, but its beauty is recalled by Pooh bear. We will revel in the moment of anticipation right before actual indulgence—that fleeting second when your mouth salivates, your heart flutters, and your mind soars on surges of euphoria. This reaction reminds me a bit of love, but in reality, it’s simply HONEY—artisan and varietal—and true to your heart. If you’ve never had this “Winnie the Pooh” moment, I insist you must discover the magic between honey, wine, and cheese—truly a meal for the gods.

These days, honeys are just as sophisticated as wines; and like wines made from different grapes grown in varying climates and soils, honeys are uniquely distinct and express the facets of a bee’s life, mainly its diet. Two classifications exist in the honey world: varietal and artisan. To define it in lay terms, a varietal honey comes from a single source, like raspberry honey or clover honey, or sumac honey or tupelo honey. On the opposite spectrum, an artisan honey is a blend of honeys sourced from different plants depending on the year and climate at hand. In other words, artisan honeys are more a melding of Mother Nature’s discretion.

In Virginia alone, over 2,000 hobbyists and professionals alike keep bees. If you visit the Loudon Bee Association http://www.loudounbee.org/honey_varieties.html, you will see over 50 varietal honey sources listed. Each spoonful of honey displays its own taste based on the weather during the season, the moisture in the soil, pest pressure, and the craftsmanship of the beekeeper himself/herself. If you can’t make this Valentine’s event, I encourage you to experiment at home. Visit the local farmer’s market, buy a varietal or artisan honey, seek out different cheese styles, and drizzle some amber ambrosia on your cheese concoction, followed by a sip of wine….visions of Aphrodite may appear.

For your Valentine, may I suggest some delectable pairings? Slice a green apple into slivers, cut a wedge of aged parmesan cheese, and drizzle a tad of truffle honey over the two and sip a nice Chianti, Rosso di Montalcino, or anything red from Tuscany, Italy—truly divine! Or purchase a blue cheese, hard, soft, gooey, you name-it, any blue will do, and top smatterings of a mild-flavored, lightly-colored honey, such as clover or lavender honey and pair with a sweet Riesling or white dessert wine from Sauternes, France or from or Virginia wineries. Don’t be afraid to add some red grapes with your blue cheese and honey bites and pair with a bold California Cabernet Sauvignon. I promise this odd combo will blow your mind!

This Valentine’s join us at Red, White & Blue wine shop Sunday, February 12^th for an instructional tasting of honey, cheese, and wine. Phone for details, and remember to say this year “Honey, I Love You!”

Christianna Sargent
Certified Sommelier
Advanced Certificate--
Wine & Spirits Education Trust
Association of Italian Sommeliers
French Wine Scholartalesofasommelier.blogspot.com



The Milk Maid

Tommorow is the summer finale of Cheese Boot Camp at Red, White & Bleu Wine Shop--until January 2012. We will taste how the milk source affects the flavor of the cheese. Not to be sexest by using the milk maid comparison, I couldn't help but to think of Michelle Bachmann's hats-off to submissive wives. Despite the milk maid imagery, two factors play an important role in the final flavor of a cheese: the breed of animal and the land on which it munches. We will ignore cheeses crafted from the milk of "exotic" animals, such as reindeer, yak, and camels. The animals we will focus on are cows, sheep, goats, and water buffalo.

We won't be using any processed cheese. We learned in the Cheddar Whiz class that mass-market "cheese food" is a process of cooking curd and mixing it with various preservatives, fats, flavorings, colorings, and water. In turn, "processed" cheese is reconstituted in blocks, slices, or wedges and then shrink-wrapped in plastic, only to be flooded in refrigerator cases at your local grocery. Rather than using prepackaged cheese, we will be tasting real cheese--good cheese--made from milk, starter cultures, rennet, and occasionally a natural coloring or a mold culture.

The key to this course will be the flights of cheese and how they are ordered.  Three flights will be organized with a sampling of three different milk styles within each flight: goat, sheep, and milk. Each cheese flight will vary by cheese style. So the first flight will consist of only soft or soft-ripened cheeses--one made from goat's milk, one from cow's, and one from sheep's milk. Got it? This is a great way to taste the variation of flavor derived from milk type. A cylindrical mound of goat fluff brought on by Cherry Glen, tasted against a soft, creamy sheep's milk by Boschetto and a delicate, soft-ripened Fromage d'Affinois cow's milk cheese is an eye-opening experience. Here's why.

Cow's milk is not as concentrated as sheep or goat. Cows produce more milk than sheep or goats, but not proportionally more milk. Only 13% of cow's milk is solid, the rest is water. Cow's milk does contain vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene, which is an orange or yellowish substance--think carrots. Thus, cow's milk is off-white or ivory-colored and darker in the summer months when the cows are digesting more beta-carotene from the pasture fodder.

Sheep's milk is more hearty and concentrated, comparable to the animal itself, which can survive in sparser conditions than cows. Ewe's milk contains up to 20% solids with more fat and protein than cow's milk. Since cheesemaking is a process of concentrating milk (through dehydration)--ewe's milk is one step closer to the end goal: cheese. Sheep's milk is pure white.

Even hardier than sheep, goat's are known to be the ultimate diners. What won't a goat eat? Despite this belief, the goats that produce many of the world's most famous cheeses graze in lush green pastures and sport a mellow temperament. Goats produce the most milk proportionate to their body weight. They birth their babies in mid-late winter lactate for at least 10 months, but don't make it out to pasture until spring or summer. Goat's milk has slightly less the same fat and protein content as sheep's milk.

These rules are very generic and many factors play into the ultimate flavor and fat content of the milk, like lactation cycles and time of day of milk collection, and seasonal animal diets. Overall, it's often said that goat's milk is best for drinking, cow's milk makes the best butter, and sheep's milk the best cheese. In the end, Pierre Androuet sums it up in the Guide du Fromage, "Every region has its own special magic which chemistry and technology have thus far been unable to duplicate. The character, subtlety and perfection of a cheese attest to centuries of refinement in individual cheese-making methods within limited geographical areas sometimes no larger than a few fields. Vegetations, climate, rainfall, subsoil, and breed all contribute to the production of a cheese which is unique and inimitable."

It will be interesting after tomorrow if I can say cow's milk cheese is sweeter, or sheep's is richer, etc. I will type those conclusions soon.

Flight One (Soft Cheeses):
Cherry Glen Monocacy Ash Maryland Goat's milk
Boschetto Al Tartufo Spain Sheep's milk
Fromage d'Affinois France Cow's milk
Wine Pairings: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Tuscan Sangiovese, Ribera del Duero Tempranillo

Flight Two (Hard Cheeses):
Cabra Buenalba Spain Goat's milk
Grand Old Man Pecorino Spain Sheep's milk
Meadow Creek Virginia Cow's milk
Wine Pairings: California Barbera, Austrian Pinot Noir, Alsatian Pinot Blanc

Flight Three (Blue Cheeses):
Valdeon Spain Goat's milk
Roquefort France Sheep's milk
Cashel Ireland Cow's milk
Wine Pairings: Beaujolais Cru, Sauternes

Cheddaring It Out

Yesterday's third session of Cheese Boot Camp: Summer 2011 was an awesome affair. We cheddared it out with eight different cheddar cheeses paired with two beers and six wines. Farmstead cheddaring took center stage--an art that was resurrected in the 60's by the hippies. Disillusioned by national politics and the controversial Vietnam War, humble people seeking land and rural farm life left their occupations to craft cheese. After the Industrial Revolution and both World Wars, cheddar had lost its identity and had become the homogenized American orange, creamy, pasteurized cheese block found in every supermarket.

Cheddar originated in Somerset, England in the caves of Cheddar Gorge, but the process crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in the Mid West and went on to Australia and South America. The name Cheddar was never protected by the Brits, so it became widely used by many cultures. Unfortunately, very few cheddars were true to the original style made famous in the West Country of England in the departments of Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset. Due to the rising population, food demands drastically increased and companies were encouraged to produce large quantities of fast-ripening cheese. Small producers were quickly forgotten and hard to access during the Industrial Era in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Before World War II, Britain boasted 15,000 cheesemakers. In 1959, only 130 cheesemakers could befound in the British nation.

Everything comes full-circle though, and cheese makers are crafting more phenomenal cheddars by the day. A range of flavors can be experienced when you have the opportunity to nibble a small cheddar wedge crafted from purists. Mostly flavors of toffee, nuts, caramel, grass, burnt sugar, butter, spice, salt, and pungent sensations pop in mind when tasting cheddar cheese. The beauty of cheddar is the bold, rich flavor you inevitably experience. Sure, I like stinky, washed-rind cheeses or an occasional soft-ripened Brie with its earthy, shroomy undertones; but a cheddar cheese is generally a sure bet for hedonistic pleasure. Most importantly, they pair so well with beer and bold, robust red wines. White wines can work if you look to full-bodied grape varieties such as Chardonnay, Semillon, Roussanne/Marsanne, Viognier, and Chenin Blanc; but reds work better, in my opinion.

Below, I have listed the pairings and cheeses sampled at our Cheddar Whiz session. The class conveyed that cheddar is not a specific cheese, but rather a process that some cheeses are fated to undergo. Cheddaring is a method of stacking small, compact curds to create pressure; thereby, eliminating moisture and dehydrating the aging cheese. End results produce hard cheeses with sharp, mouth watering flavors.

Cheese Pairings:

mildest in flavors:
Double Gloucester Singleton, UK
Saxon Brown Semillon Mendocino, California

fruit and spice:
Beehive Cheese Co. Big John's Cajun Rub Promontory, Salt Lake City, Utah
Green Flash Brewery Trippel Belgium-style, San Diego, California

chocolate on chocolate:
Rogue Creamery Chocolate Stout Cheddar Oregon
Rogue Brewery Chocolate Stout Oregon

fruity, tangy, mild:
Fiscalini Cheddar Rodesto, California
Worthy Sophia's Cuvee Napa Valley, California

goaty, earthy, medium:
Snow White Goat's Cheddar Carr Valley, Wisconsin
Elizabeth Spencer Chenin Blanc Mendocino County, California

horseradish, herbaceous, pasteurization of cheese:
Quicke's Cheddar Devon, UK
Familia Mayol Quatro Primos Mendoza, Argentina (Syrah, Malbec, Bonarda, Cabernet Sauvignon)

sharp, buttery, nutty, caramel, Vermont style (meaning no coloring):
Quebec 7 year aged Canada
Tierra Rioja Crianza, Spain

sharp, firm, pungent, grainy, rich:
Cabot Clothbound Reserve Cheddar Vermont
Goose Ridge G3 Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, Washington

Cheese Whiz on Cheddar

Cheese Whiz on Cheddar 

hartkeisonline.com

Imagine a world without cheese. Visit Whole Foods without sorting through towers of cheddar looming over wrinkly, ashen pyramids of fermented goat’s milk. Picture empty cases once laden with downy-soft, ivory disks of soft-ripened, creamy bliss. Balk at Farmer’s Markets scarce of cheesemakers, tranquility fractured by haunting echoes of vast silence supplied by cheese dearth.  Envision a world lacking in magic from the absence of wine and cheese pairings; the ultimate sanction suffered from cheese coiffures gone dry. Too heavy a burden the world would bear…Oh Cheese, forever would I lament you, a world of senseless whirling gone awry.

Drastic measures of which I speak, exaggerated with descriptive language I admit. But, truly, cheese industrialization almost put farmhouse cheddars out to pasture. The ravages of the Second World War devastated the British cheese industry and paved the path for tons of mass-produced American Cheddar to fill the bellies of Americans and Brits alike. Few men remained to pass on age-old cheesemaking traditions. A country once blessed with 15,000 cheesemakers crafting “territorial” cheeses was left with 126 farmhouse cheesemakers.  The British were not alone. America experienced the same plight. Flooded by European immigrants in the 1800s, America feared the population’s food demands would outpace the slow, local process of cheese production. In 1877, John Jossi, a Wisconsin cheesemaker of Swiss origin, developed a process to emulate English Cheddar by using two bricks to squeeze fresh curd, resulting in a firm, more rubbery cheese ideal for cutting. The process quickly inspired Britain’s Ministry of Food to rule all excess milk be used to make fast-cultivating “National Cheese.”

By the 1970s, farmhouse cheddar was all but forgotten. Large companies stamped out most small co-operatives as cheese became a commodity to be distributed as cheaply and efficiently as possible to supply the increasing number of supermarkets. Where had all the cheddars gone? Millions only knew cheddar as the orange or white, velveeta-like, manufactured cheese, sterilized and standardized. But, the Vietnam War partnered with the hippie movement sparked the dawn of a new age. A generation of people, who harbored aspirations to shrug off the disillusioned world, decided to lay testimony to the rural, farm life. Cheese was to be revolutionized.

July 17^th at Red, White & Bleu, another session of Cheese Boot Camp forges ahead with a close-up view on the history of British farmhouse cheddars and today’s movement to revitalize artisanal and farmstead cheesemaking. This educational tasting session will expose American supermarket shelves as the bearer of ready-to-go shredded or sliced Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Colby and Swiss processed cheese, marketed as “fresh” by the power of preservatives. Pique your senses with the opposite of factory flavors ranging from bland to sharp and venture into farmstead flavor including caramellike, fruity, nutty, tangy, grassy, and spicy.

Cheddar production dates back to the medieval times, and the name itself is no longer associated with a village in southwest England’s Somerset County. Rather, the name refers to a technique and is not a protected designation of origin. Cheddaring is a process by which the curds are pressed and stacked resulting in a characteristically smooth, firm, tight texture of Cheddar. Everything Cheddar will be discussed Sunday, July 17^th at Red, White & Bleu Wine Shop at our 1pm and 3pm reservation openings. Seven farmstead cheeses will be tasted from the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Plus, seven wines that pair classically with Cheddar will be sampled. Call the shop at 703.533.9463 to reserve your spot, and anticipate finishing the course as a true Cheese Whiz on Cheddar.

Cheese Rules

The first Cheese Boot Camp class the other week went extremely well. Everyone love the cheese and enjoyed the wine pairings immensely. So, I thought I would share some tips on how to match a wine with a particular cheese. In a world where you can choose from thousands of cheese and even more wine, the concept of picking the perfect wine for a cheese can proof daunting. First rule, lighten up and go with the flow. The best is to enjoy overall and accept that no definitive rules exist for such a subjective topic. It's hard to find a wine that doesn't work well with cheese. You might come across some clashing pairs, but follow some easy guidelines listed below and you'll be on your way to cheese and wine bliss.

Consider the cheese selection first and then go for the wine pairing. If you have the option for a cheese plate, make sure your wine bridges the various flavors between the different cheeses, even if you have one or two odd balls the accoutrements might ease the pairing. There are seven styles of cheese and usually each category pairs with particular classes of wine. When considering cheeses from France, Spain or Italy, go for a wine from the same region if you want to keep it simple. Like Crottin de Chavignol and Loire Valley whites or reds (Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, or Gamay). Munster with Alsatian or German Rieslings. Manchego with an inexpensive, fruity Spanish Tempranillo or Grenache/Mourvedre blend. Cow's milk semi-firm cheeses from Colorado, Wisconsin, or California with California Chardonnay, California Syrah, or Oregon Pinot Noir.

So how do you determine category or style of cheese by appearance? The rind depicts the style; hence your visual clue.

1. Fresh Cheeses have no rind. Think mozzarella, feta, cream cheese, ricotta (although that's slightly different as it's made from whey and not curd). They also have the most moisture and least complexity. Best to go for light to medium bodied wines or rosés (Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, unoaked Chardonnay, Trebbiano, Dolcetto, Beaujolais, rosés from the Loire or Provence).

2. Soft cheeses with fuzzy, white rinds made from Penicillium candidum form your soft-ripened category of cheese . The rind forms because the cheeses are stored in humid, warm facilities attracting the mold that makes the cheeses we know as Brie, Camembert, Explorateur and Pavé d'Affinois. The rind imparts an earthy, mushroom aroma and flavor but the good gooeyness in the middle ranges in flavor from mild, tangy, salty to rich, buttery and more strongly flavored. Best to consider texture of these cheeses and match to a wine. I love Pinot Noir with Bries or Camemberts. Any wine with smooth texture from high glycerol content gives the sensation of silk, satin sheets. A sheer softness can be found in medium-priced Cabernet Sauvignons ($18-$35), Chiantis with volume, rich Bordeaux mostly from the Right Bank. But, there is nothing better than slicing a warm baguette and slathering it with fresh, creamery butter, topped with Fromager d'Affinois (or any triple-cream, soft-ripened cheese) and guzzling a glass of decadent red like Australian Shiraz that's over-the-top with fruit and jam, delivering a velvety mouthfeel. Sparkling wines not heavy on the sur lees aging pair quite well, or even New Zealand Sauv Blancs and French Sancerre.

3. Natural rind cheeses exhibit blue-grey molds with a wrinkly rind. This style encompasses all your small-sized French goat cheeses, and some American styles like the Wabash Canonball, Crocodile Tears, Crottin de Chavignol, for instance. They are harder to source in the states, but they're phenomenal with Loire Valley reds and whites (Pouilly-Fume, Sancerre, Touraine, Anjou, Saumur, Vouvray, Chinon, Bourgeuil) Chenin Blancs, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Gamay. Quintessential pairings would be your tangy Sauvignon Blancs from Sancerre, Quincy, Menetou-Salon, New Zealand or South Africa.

4. Semi-soft/Semi-firm cheeses cover all the cheeses in the middle such as Edam, Sonoma Jack, Fontina, Lambchopper, P'tit Basque, Abbaye de Belloc, Tomme de Savoie. They are not hard and they have pinkish brown to dark grey rinds, some or waxed or covered in herbs & spices. They have a somewhat "elastic" feel. The key is they do not have sticky, stinky orange rinds, or the fuzzy, bloomy white rind. They are more distinctly flavoured and can be made from goats milk, sheep or cow. So, they pair well with wines from around the world. Go for bolder flavors found in Rioja, Priorat, Argentina or Cahors Malbecs, Chiantis/Sangiovese, California Zinfandels, Cabs or Syrahs, Oregon Pinots, Burgundy. Truthfully, they are incredibly versatile with a range of medium to full-bodied reds and whites. This category is more experimental. Best to taste the cheese first and determine how aromatic, mild or robust in flavor it is to match a wine with equal complements.

5. When you're brave you explore the washed-rind cheeses which have an orangey-brown sticky rind. They are pungent in smell and flavor and most always have to be enjoyed with wine (in my opinion). Think Chimay, Munster, Epoisses, Grayson, Taleggio. Difficult cheeses to pair only because so many people will buy wine in the lower price-range, a category that fails to deliver in this case. Washed-rind cheeses are so complex aromatically, and in the organoleptic sense, that you must pair with a complex red or white wine, something that stimulates conversation for hours, a wine to truly ponder due to its layers of flavor and complexity. Aged Bordeaux, northern Italian wines such as Nebbiolo, Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera d'Alba, Super-Tuscans, domestic Meritages, Rhone reds. In the white realm, think aged Chenin Blancs or white Bordeaux, possibly even high-quality Gruner Veltliner from aged vines, or Grand Cru Alsatian Pinot Gris or Gewurztraminer. In other words, the wines can't just be fruity and tangy, they need to be developed with secondary and tertiary aromas coming forth with great viscosity (not in a sweet wine sense but from pysiologically ripe grapes sourced from quality winemaking). Price point does matter in this case I believe.

6. Hard cheeses are fairly simple to identify for obvious reasons, they're hard. Pairing a wine is not so simple though. They range from mild to outrageously tangy or salty, so almost any wine can be a potential match. Rule of thumb is the stronger the cheese the bigger the wine required. Milder flavored cheeses do so well with Chilean reds like Carmenere or American Merlots. Cotes du Rhones, Gigondas and Chateauneuf-du-Pape taste great next to Mahon, Gruyere, Pecorino, Romano, and Roncal. Big, bold Cabernet Sauvignons do nicely with aged Goudas, aged or cloth-bound Cheddars, Mimolette, Beaufort, and Jack.

7. Blues are simple. They are usually wrapped in aluminum foil because the molds constantly release liquid that collects on the outside, the wrapper prevents a rind from forming. This category is the strongest and also the saltiest. Thus, the world of sweet and fortified wines awaits. Classic pairing would be Sauternes with Roquefort, but you can find sweet wine from anywhere. You typically want to go with white sweets that exhibit tropical fruits versus nuttiness or marzipan found in Sherry (there are exceptions of course). Botrytized wines prove to be a great pair. Red dessert wines pair nicely, including Port with Stilton or Shropshire, late harvest Zinfandels.

Below, I have listed the seven cheeses and pairings that we matched in the shop, all of which were fantastic according to the cheesemongers in attendance.

Fresh Cheese: Cypress Grove Purple Haze Arcata, California
Santa Digna Sauvignon Blanc Central Valley, Chile $11.99

Soft-Ripened Fuzzy Rind: Old Chatham Nancy's Camembert Old Chatham, New York
Elizabeth Spencer Chenin Blanc Sonoma, California $22.99

Semi-firm: Istara P'tit Basque Sheep's Milk Pyrenees Mountains, France
Savigny-Les-Beaune Les Taupes Bourgogne Rouge $22.99

Washed-Rind: Chimay Trappiste with beer Mont du Secours, Belgium
La Rivalerie Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux, Entre-deux-Mers, Bordeaux, France $24.99

Flavored Cheese (Semi-firm Category): Red Dragon made with Welsh brown ale, mustard seeds, Wales
Lucien Albrect Gewurztraminer Reserve Alsace, France $17.99

Hard: Beemster XO Gouda, Holland
Baron Philipe de Rothschild Escudo Rojo Cabernet/Carmenere Maipo, Chile $20.99

Savor with Savigny-les-Beaune

 

Pic from www.foodnetworkstore.com

Mouth-watering cheese and wine pair: Abbaye de Belloc partnered with a savoury Savigny-les-Beaune, Burgundy Pinot Noir. Tucked away in the Cote de Beaune region of France, nestled up against a hillside southwest of the famed vineyards of Aloxe-Corton, sits a region known as Savigny-les-Beaune. Great value pinot noirs leave this commune boasting silky, supple tannins and soft berry fruit. The mixture of flavors perfectly swell your mouth with luscious hints of violets, black cherry, blackcurrant, spice, leather, and crinkly autumn leaves--the crinkle texture sprouts from the high acid levels in the pinots.

Benedictine monks from the Notre-Dame de Belloc artfully craft the Abbaye de Belloc, a French Pyrenee's sheep's milk cheese sporting rich texture and high fat. Truly Basque in nature, the cheese calls for an elegant Bordeaux or a dense Madiran, but I had Pinot fixation in mind this night (and Pinot tasting notes to write). So, I grabbed three different Savigny-les-Beaune Pinots from vintage 2008. The acidity levels and soft fruits took on the rich, semi-hard cheese, melting it in your mouth. Highly recommend a fresh baguette! Enjoy.

On the Wagon or Off?

Just had the opportunity to taste my new fav cheese for everyday consumption. Granted it was midday and I was caring for three beautiful children, the warm weather mid-February provided the perfect hiatus and excuse to bust open a low alcohol white wine spritzer. My roommate bought it on a springfever craving and had already consumed a couple of glasses the previous evening. I never considered pairing it with food, always drank Vinho Verde as a palate perker, something to bubble me up. Well, this midday snack was just what the doctor ordered, or at least the mommy fairies who witness the tedious challenges of caring for two infants and a toddler. I'm sure many moms mumble to them from time to time or shout in anxst. Regardless, I sliced some Cowgirl Creamery Wagon Wheel cheese, their latest addition to the line-up, stacked it on some Parmesan-Reggiano flatbread and went to town. The bracing greenness of Vinho Verde utterly melted away in waves of Cowgirl Creaminess. I oohhhed and awwwed my way through a quarter pound in 10 minutes flat. Frightening decadence, but what a pair! A peek into spring sure did the body good.

Big John's Cajun Rub—FREAK OUT!

Beehive Cheese Co. Promontory Big John's Cajun + Green Flash Brewing Co. Le Freak Ale
Can we start with the tune, AHHHH FREAK OUT! the quintessential disco tune rapping in your head. Drum roll please! roll out the crackers, cut the cheese, uncap the beer, POUR, sip, nuzzle into your couch, or wherever you lounge for comfort, and pop that cheese into your mouth....AHHHH FREAK OUT!

I must name this zany pair, for oh so many reasons. Beehive Cheese Company from Utah claimed its fame with its promontory cheese, Big John's Cajun Rub, 2nd place winner at the 2008 American Cheese Society Annual Competition. http://www.beehivecheese.com/ Folks, this cow's milk cheese is not the product of your everyday grazing Jersey cow. Rather, these plump biddies range on 350 acres near the salt marshes, mud flats, and ponds of the mineral-loaded Great Salt Lake. Their alfalfa fodder just so happens to be fertilized by migrating birds who just nutritiously dined in these mineral-laden waters. Could this cheese be superstitiously tied to the healing powers of minerals--delivered straight from the bovine?

Better yet, cheddar lovers beware, channel the spices of this cheese to a milder, sweeter tone by adding the slurpy call: Belgian-style IPA from Green Flash Brewing Co. San Diego, LE FREAK--where American Imperial IPA meets Belgian Trippel. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2743/36727 Between the cheese and the citrus back-tune of the beer, aromatics explode, basically giving way to a party in your mouth. Definitely want to be in the mood for rich, because these two culprits don't take the backseat to anything. nOOO, they FREAK OUT.