Past Newsletters
April 2008
Cheeses—Three Trés Dèlicieux!
Fromage d'Affinois
Fromage d'Affinois is a wonderfully luscious pasteurized cow's milk, soft-ripened French cheese in the triple-crème category. Mild and buttery, it's a wonderful addition to the brie world. It's produced from milk that has been specially filtered to break down some of the fat content yielding a smoother, silkier texture than Brie. It's hard to characterize a cheese this rich in flavor as light but it is compared to its Brie cousins. It's also creamier and a little thicker than most Bries.
The cheese is made using a process known as ultrafiltration. The process is somewhat similar to homogenization and serves to remove water from the milk, concentrating all the other components including fat, which is distributed evenly throughout the paste. This imparts a taste like a triple-creme, although the fat content is closer to a double-creme. Ultrafiltration also accelerates the cheese making process. Whereas Brie takes eight weeks to make, Fromage d'Affinois takes two. In addition to retaining more fat, ultrafiltrated product also retains more protein and nutrients. When ripe it has a runny texture that coats like icing. The rind is flawless and adds flavor to the sweetness of the cheese.
Tasting Notes: Fromage d'Affinois' sweet, mild flavor is lighter than the mushroomy earthiness characteristic of its identical-looking cousin. It also has a freshness that distinguishes it from the Bries. It's a must for cheese trays: absolutely sinful—and even more sinful served with a fig spread. Pair it with crusty artisan bread or with fruit. If you have it with bread, enjoy it with a red zinfandel or Beaujolais. If you serve it with fruit, a sauvignon blanc, viognier or chardonnay light on the oak will complement it well. For that matter, it pairs well with almost any white wines, dry or sparkling.
Crottin de Chavignol
Those of you who savor goat cheese are going to love the classic Crottin de Chavignol. It's made exclusively from whole goat's milk, molded for 12-24 hours, then salted, dried and ripened at least ten days. The word "crottin" is a little unsavory. Basically it translates "road apple," referring to "doo-doo" left by an animal. The name could derive from what the cheese looks like when it's well aged—brown and hard like a road apple that has been drying in the sun for weeks. Or the name could simply reflect the size of this small cheese which resembles the size of an average road apple. For club members who prefer to enjoy a product not associated with dung, another explanation for the cheese's name is that the word "Crot" describes a small oil lamp used in the mid-1800's when the cheese was formally named. The lamp was made from burned clay that resembles the mold used to make Crottin. Chavignol is a small village on the Loire River, south of Paris where the cheese has been made since the 16th century. Thus "Crottin de Chavignol."
No wonder this small jewel—usually weighing between two and five ounces, depending on its age—is considered one of the great French cheeses. Even when young, the solid, compact Crottin, with its pale ivory rind, has a wonderful nutty flavor. As it ripens, the dough yellows and becomes crumbly and the mold on the rind matures into a bluish color. Eventually the rind turns brown but at the brown-rind stage, Crottin is more apt to be enjoyed in France and is rarely exported here. Not surprisingly, as the cheese ages, it becomes increasingly sharp and pungent.
In addition to fine cheeses, the viticulture fortitude of the Loire Valley yields an astounding array of incomparable wines, many of which we feature on a regular basis in our International Wine of the Month Club. Whether it's a robust red, a flowery rose, a fruity white, or a dry white with subtle tones of oak, we ship some of the most extraordinary wines at great prices. Our monthly features are selected by a panel of professional wine tasters, some of whom travel the world in search of rare vintages. You can view exactly what we have shipped by checking the newsletters and featured wines sections of our website: www.monthlyclubs.com.
Tasting Notes: Crottin de Chavignol is delicious at many stages of maturity. After just ten days, the cheese weighs 140gr and even in its youth has a great nutty flavor. After 4 months the cheese weighs only 40gr and has become increasingly sharp and pungent. When eaten simply with bread, it is often paired with a wine made in the same region—the Loire Valley—such as Sancerre or Vouvray (whites) or a Chinon red. You can make a classic goat cheese salad with warm Crottin de Chavignol, a variety of baby salad greens, crumbled bacon and croutons dressed with simple, light-garlic vinaigrette. (Consider using pistachios or your favorite nuts instead of croutons.) Crottin is also good as a starter. This cheese deserves a place on any cheeseboard designed to impress!
Mirabo Walnut
Gourmet Cheese of the Month Club is proud to bring you a unique, sophisticated cheese from Germany—Mirabo Walnut. Its exclusive blossom shape, with fine white mold, gives Mirabo its unmistakable appearance. Mirabo Walnut is a cheese with little history as far as we know, but it sure is tasty! Käserei Champignon of Bavaria, Germany introduced this soft-ripened rind cheese made with cows' milk and crème fraiche. Walnut Mirabo has pate that is soft and creamy with the finest crushed walnuts, speckled throughout.
Mirabo Walnut is actually a German interpretation of Brie. Most varieties are made with pasteurized milk, some with added cream. All of them are soft, velvety cheeses with mild, but pleasantly sophisticated flavors. They are allowed to ripen naturally in the traditional manner—from rind to the center, until they reach the pinnacle of perfection. Enjoy Mirabo Walnut and other German Bries at peak flavor by unwrapping them to let the cheeses breathe and come to room temperature.
Käserei Champignon is a family-owned business founded by Julius Hirschle and Leopold Immler a century ago. In 1908, they gained acclaim for their special mushroom Camembert, which today has become a staple for many cheese boards. The business headquarters and main production plant are located in Heising, in the pristine countryside of the Bavarian Alps. It is there that their free grazing cows enjoy the plush, green valleys conducive to producing their rich Bavarian milk. Combine their cheese-making heritage (handed down over the generations), the latest in advanced technology, and an inordinate dedication to quality, and you have Käserei Champignon, an internationally recognized leader in the industry.
Tasting Notes: Made in the fertile land of Bavaria, this brie style cheese with walnuts is delicate and ripened to a soft consistancy. Its unique shape and presentation really set it apart on a cheese board, and its delicate flavor is sure to please. Serve it with many of the excellent German Rieslings and Gewürztraminers. As with all classic Bries, Mirabo Walnut is outstanding with a full-bodied white wine such as Ruländer or Morio-Muscat, or with a smooth, elegant red wine such as Blauburgunder or Bordeaux. This nouveau cheese is out of this world as a dessert cheese. Serve it with honey drizzled on the top and your choice of fruit on the side.
Culture Corner |
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Cheese |
Pronunciation |
Recommended Wine/Beer |
Fromage d'Affinois |
fro-mah-ZHAY dah-fee-NWAH |
Dry white wines or light-bodied reds |
Crottin de Chavignol |
crow-TAH-duh-shah-veen-YOLE |
Dry white wines or light-bodied reds |
Mirabo Walnut |
mer-rah-boo |
Sweet, full-scented white wines; full-bodied red wines |
