Current Featured Cheese - August 2025

Pantaleo’s rind is a pale yellow. Inside is a firm, crystalline ivory paste that crumbles easily when sliced. On the nose, it shows an inviting juxtaposition of savory herbs and warm, melted caramel. At first the flavors are gentle and mild on the palate, but they intensify midway through. There is pronounced nuttiness and salinity enhanced by lively, bright citrus and floral notes. The finish is clean and pleasantly spicy with notes of...

This mouthwatering Basque cheese is believed to be one of the oldest in Europe, dating back 5,000 years. It's made from 100% sheep’s milk from the famed brebis sheep that graze in the valleys of Ossau and Iraty. These small creamy-brown sheep have helped make several well-known cheeses, including the famed Roquefort. Ossau Iraty is ivory in color with a natural dry thick rind that can range from an orangish yellow to a dark brownish gray. Aged for approximately eight months, this semi firm cheese has a slightly oily texture with a savory and sweet nutty flavor with hints of figs, hazelnuts, and olives.

The most famous Dutch cheese, Edam, is made with partially-skimmed cow's milk, and is meant to be eaten within weeks of its creation, while it's still smooth. Pasteurized milk is heated and bacteria is added to increase the acidity level. Liquid rennet is added to create curd, and the curd is cut into tiny pieces, then heated, drained, molded and pressed. After the cheese is salted, it ripens and is exported wrapped in red wax.

Aged for 4-6 months, Flat Rock’s rind is a rich amber hue. Just under the rind the cheese itself is also a rich golden color. The paste is firm but still pliable and supple. It has an assertive aroma and an intense buttery, fruity, toasted hazelnut flavor profile that’s balanced nicely with a touch of lactic acidity and sweet grass. As it warms to room temperature, you can almost taste the terroir where the herd grazed as fragrances of bright vegetation emerge.

Ombra, unlike any other Spanish sheep’s milk cheese, is a four-month aged small format wheel showing a natural mottled gray rind. The small round wheels, roughly two pounds each, offer a firm snowy white paste. As the cheese ages, it becomes studded with crunchy nuggets of crystalized amino acids and turns a warm buttery color. As the cheese warms to room temperature, butterscotch and bright tropical pineapple notes emerge...

BiancoSardo’s texture is drier, similar to an aged Parmigiano Reggiano, crumbly with heaps of flavor crystals (tyrosine). It’s considered to be an 'old world' cheese. The flavor is savory and sweet from the sheep's milk, slightly herbal and earthy closer to the rind, and tangy, while offering a balanced amount of salinity. Though sharp and full flavored, BiancoSardo’s flavor profile and surprisingly creamy mouthfeel will please many palates.