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Schallenberg
Valserena Parmigiano Reggiano
Raschera
Rare Cheese Club Selections - 2024
Please note that occasionally we are able to secure a truly special, hard to find cheese on short notice and may substitute an item.
Featured Cheeses - January 2024
- Country: Switzerland
- Cheese Texture / Type: Hard
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 10 months
The award-winning Schallenberg is a very special offering made in the Emmentaler AOP of Shallenberg, Switzerland, by master cheesemaker, Hansruedi Gasser, at a picturesque mountain dairy and shop named Oberei where he resides with his wife, Brigitte, and their two children. Oberei is a certified mountain cheese dairy, and Hansruedi, an Emmentaler AOP Käsere top ten producer in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Handcrafting only four wheels of cheese per day in the centuries’ old, traditional method, Hansruedi produces cheese of the finest quality and consistency.
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- Country: Italy
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 2-3 years
Valserena Parmigiano Reggiano is a firm, cow’s milk, parmesan cheese, aged 24-36 months. Its texture is firm and crumbly, with visible flavor crystals. On the palate, this cheese explodes with flavors, including an interesting juxtaposition of rich butter and bright citrus. The finish is longingly inviting, so much so that you will wish you had more. Oftentimes this cheese is served in pieces drizzled with a touch of honey or balsamic vinegar from Modena.
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- Country: Italy
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 60 days
The thin and springy rind surrounds a buttery-yellow colored paste with small ‘eyes,’ or holes, in its otherwise creamy texture. The rusticity and grassiness of the milk shines through in its nutty and salty flavor profile. Because Cuneo is located in the Piedmont region of Italy, one of Italy’s most celebrated wine regions, Raschera pairs with Piedmont whites, such as Arneis, Cortese (Gavi), and Moscato (d’Asti), as well as the region’s reds.
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Featured Cheeses - February 2024
- Country: Spain
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-firm; Blue; Mixed Milk
- Milk Type: Goat, Cow
- Cheese Age: 6 months
Valdéon, is a pasteurized, semi-firm blue cheese made from both cow and goat’s milk from the base of the Picos de Europa in the town of Posada de Valdeón, Castilla y Léon, Spain, by a family-owned and operated cheesemaker. While considered a sister cheese to the Cabrales DOP (Denominación de Origen), the Valdéon is milder, with a luxurious, creamy texture. Traditionally wrapped in oak or maple leaves and aged six months, this cheese captures the attention of your palate with its rustic and robust flavor combination.
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- Country: Beglium
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-soft
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 5-7 weeks
Visually, Drunk Monk is pale ivory in color. On the palate, Drunk Monk is semisoft, silky, and sweet like freshly churned butter or heavy cream, but with brioche-like yeasty notes from the Belgian blonde ale wash. The Cascade hops influence takes a backseat to the sweet creaminess of the cheese, adding an appealing bitterness on the finish, especially closer to the rind.
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- Country: France
- Cheese Texture / Type: Soft; Bloomy Rind
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 1-2 months
Délice de Bourgogne is the name of a trademarked cheese from the Burgundy region of France, created in 1975 by Jean Lincet and his fifth-generation, family-operated cheesemaking company, Fromagerie Lincet, originally founded in 1895 and based in the towns of Saligny, Vaudes, and Brochon, the latter of which shares a home with the winemaking village of Gevrey-Chambertin along the Route des Grands Crus in the Côte de Nuits. The milk for the Lincet family of cheeses is gathered daily from 61 farmers with whom Fromagerie Lancet has worked for over 50 years.
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Featured Cheeses - March 2024
- Country: Netherlands
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Sheep
- Cheese Age: 12 months
Ewephoria is a Dutch gouda-style cheese made from pasteurized sheep’s milk instead of cow’s milk, as well as vegetable rennet cultures, and then aged 12 months. CheeseLand, a Seattle-based importer of Dutch cheeses, worked with a small farm to create Ewephoria in 2004. The sheep graze on salty, green, island pastures near a nature preserve in the northern Friesland region of The Netherlands bordering the sea, where they are treated like members of the family.
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- Country: United States
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-soft; Blue
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 3-4 months
Cheesemaker Jeff Jirik describes his top-shelf blue as complex, complicated yet delightfully intimate. The paste and mouthfeel are super creamy. This cheese has a distinctive spicy piquant sharpness and tanginess and the presentation is nothing short of gorgeous with its abundant bluing. Overall, it’s a very approachable blue and not too overwhelming. St. Pete’s Select Blue will pair well with strong ales like AleSmith’s Private Stock Ale or Duschutes Jubelale. It would also work well with your favorite tawny port.
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- Country: Italy
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 16 months
Sapore Mitica® is another Italian cheese from the same area as Ubriaco del Piave – the Piave River in Treviso, Veneto – and by the same cheesemaker, Sergio Moro, one of the finest makers of Sottocenere. Sapore del Piave as it is sometimes called – which means Flavor of Piave in Italian – originated in the 1960s, produced by a partnership of third-generation cheesemakers and a cooperative of dairy farms in the area of Oderzo, Italy. Made from pasteurized cow’s milk and aged for 16 months, Sapore Mitica is similar to a young Parmigiano Reggiano: buttery, with loads of fruitiness, nuttiness, and a delicious crunchiness from tyrosine crystallization.
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Featured Cheeses - April 2024
- Country: Switzerland
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 4-6 months
Kaltbach Le Crémeux is a fairly new cheese, arriving in the United States in early 2017. It is a washed-rind cheese made at the Emmi facility in Emmen, then cave aged in Kaltbach Cave, a veritable labyrinth of 22 million-year-old natural sandstone located near Lucerne in the Alpine Valley of Switzerland. It is named after the river that runs through the cave, which keeps the humidity at 96%, a crucial component in the development of the cheese’s texture.
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- Country: United States
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-soft
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 2-3 months
Sweet Grass Dairy produces six core cheeses and we are fortunate to offer the Thomasville Tomme as one of this month’s selections. Their version of a French Pyrenées Mountains farmhouse Tomme is a semi-soft, grass-based, raw cows’ milk cheese that is aged for 60 to 90 days. Reflective of its southern Georgia terroir, this cheese shows subtle earthy and grassy notes, as well as a creamy texture on the palate.
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- Country: United States
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-soft; Fresh
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 2 weeks
Tulip Tree’s Nettle, a 2016 American Cheese Society Winner, is a delicate, crumbly, and bovre-style fresh cheese similar in style to a chèvre but made with pasteurized cows’ milk using microbial rennet that is vegetarian-friendly. The cheese is covered in fresh mint, sage, and nettle leaves, which makes for a savory, yet clean, bright, and lactic flavor profile. It is an ideal cheese to bring along on a picnic because it is so versatile.
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Featured Cheeses - May 2024
- Country: Germany
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-soft
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 6 months
Sennerkäse is a traditional, semi-soft, German, Alpine cheese made from raw, organic cow’s milk and aged for six months, but made with the intriguing addition of yellow Eastern Indian fenugreek seeds. The inclusion of fenugreek is a cultural homage that celebrates the blue fenugreek that appears in decorations throughout the state of Bavaria in southeastern Germany. On the nose and palate, this creamy, buttery cheese shows herbal and grassy notes, toasted grain flavors, and slight salinity, all of which are surprisingly complemented by the nuttiness and maple-syrup sweetness of chewy fenugreek seeds.
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- Country: Spain
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm; Mixed Milk
- Milk Type: Cow, Goat
- Cheese Age: 2-3 months
Alisios is the name of the trade winds that blow over the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands off the Southern Coast of Morocco, where this lovely cheese selection is made. Its exotic location and ethereal name only add to the excitement and attractiveness of this semi-firm cheese aged two to three months, a magical mix of both pasteurized cow’s and Papoya goat’s milk covered with sweet pimentón – the source of Spanish smoked paprika.
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- Country: United States
- Cheese Texture / Type: Soft; Bloomy Rind
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 4-14 weeks
Because Redhead Creamery is a farmstead, the milk could not be any fresher, as the team has complete control over the cows' feed, the cows themselves, the milk they produce, and the resulting cheese. Little Lucy, a bloomy rind, brie-style cheese made from pasteurized cows' milk and aged for 4 to 14 weeks is named for founder Alise Sjostrom's young daughter, and offers a rich, buttery flavor profile, a clean mouthfeel, and a delicate sweetness.
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Featured Cheeses - June 2024
- Country: Spain
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-firm
- Milk Type: Goat
- Cheese Age: 2 months
Members of the Aguilar family, the affineurs of the award-winning Montealva, have been making cheese for over 50 years with milk from a herd of Payoya goats, a rare breed native only to the Sierra de Cádiz mountains, and hearty enough to thrive in this challenging environment. The goats graze in limestone-rich mountain pastures, whose terroir reveals itself in the bright, grassy, and herbal notes of this dreamy, semi-firm, pasteurized cheese.
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- Country: United States
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 6-9 months
Grafton’s flagship Clothbound Cheddar is a sharp, firm and flaky, yet creamy cheese made in the centuries-old British and pre-industrialized United States traditions, which means it is wrapped in cheesecloth, then cave-aged for six to nine months, yielding more robust and layered flavors than modern, plastic-aged cheeses. On the nose, it shows notes of butter, citrus, and an aroma resembling the cave in which it was aged. Its biscuit-crumbly and buttery mouthfeel is replete with savory umami flavors, nuttiness, and a hint of sweetness.
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- Country: Switzerland
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 3 years
Sbrinz is considered by many to be the oldest cheese in Europe, and the recipe has been preserved for centuries. The addition of the word “Alpage” signifies a Sbrinz made at a very high altitude in the Alps where cows are transported to graze on the summer’s flowery, grassy pastures, and only the summer’s milk is used to make cheese designated as Alpage. While Sbrinz is typically aged 18 months prior to release, the version we've selected is not released until it reaches 36 months of aging, resulting in a complex, full-flavored, and extra-hard cheese.
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Featured Cheeses - July 2024
- Country: Switzerland
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 6 months
Swiss cheesemaker, Reto Güntensperger, is a third-generation cheesemaker from the Saint Gallen Canton in Switzerland. The home in which he grew up was adjacent to the family’s historic Bodmen Dairy. In fact, his bedroom was only a few steps away from the cheesemaking room where the first two generations of cheesemakers, his grandfather and father, handcrafted Appenzeller cheese in a 1,500-liter vat. In 1999, Güntensperger’s father and two brothers purchased and rebuilt an empty, unused dairy in the village of Bütschwil, to expand and modernize their cheese production and ready the company for future family generations. Twenty years later, Kaserei Bütschwil maintains a balance of cheesemaking tradition and efficacy.
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- Country: Italy
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 4-6 months
Ubriaco del Piave is a semi-firm, Italian-style, latteria cheese from farmers in the Piave region of Veneto, Italy. It is made from pasteurized cow’s milk – from two milkings. The most striking initial aspect of this cheese is, of course, the deep and vibrant violet color of the rind and its remnants of grape leaves and seeds. Cheesemaker Sergio Moro bathes the Ubriaco del Piave for 40 hours in a proprietary mix of red wines and grape must, including the Veneto’s traditional Refosco wine, as well as other seasonal varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Clinton, then ages the cheese for four to six months.
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- Country: Spain
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-firm
- Milk Type: Sheep
- Cheese Age: 3+ months
This Spanish selection, first imported to the United States in 2004, has a unique story and inspiration: the Guirra breed of sheep. Valencian cheesemaker, Enrique, created this cheese to preserve this breed, which had become nearly extinct by 1990. With his cheesemaking, he has grown the herd to 500 sheep. The cheese’s preparation and presentation are distinctive: it is wrapped in cheesecloth, then the curds are drained by tying together the ends of the cloth, which causes the cheese to resemble a servilleta (napkin) when unwrapped.
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Featured Cheeses - August 2024
- Country: England
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 14-24 months
Situated on the edge of the beautiful rolling hills of Lincolnshire Wolds, about ten miles from the United Kingdom’s coastline bordering the North Sea, lies family farm Ulceby Grange, home of Lincolnshire Poacher. The property has been in the family since 1917 and became a dairy farm in 1970 under third-generation family member, Richard Jones. Richard's son, Simon, began making cheese on the farm in 1992. The raw milk for Lincolnshire Poacher is sourced from the farm’s herd of Holstein Fresian cows. After 14-24 months of maturation, the resulting cheese is a rustic hybrid of sorts, exhibiting qualities of both an English Farmhouse Cheddar and a Swiss Alpine Comté.
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- Country: Italy
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 18-20 months
Grana Padano, DOP cheese was originally made by the Cistercian Monks of Chiaravalle in the twelfth century – in the region between the Po, Ticino and Adda Rivers – as a means of not wasting fresh milk. By 1477, Grana Padano had evolved into one of Italy’s most sought-after cheeses. Until the early twentieth century, it was made in a variety of shapes, sizes, and methods. However, in the 1930s, advances in cheesemaking technology standardized production. Grana Padano is aged a minimum of 9 months, though the version we select for our club members is aged 18-20 months. The source of our Grana Padano selection is Farm 539, which is located on the border of two provinces, Parma and Piacenza, in the municipality of Villanova sull’Arda within the region of Emilia-Romagna.
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- Country: Netherlands
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 9-12 months
Procured and aged at the renowned Fromagerie L'Amuse in Santpoort-Noord, Holland, just outside of Amsterdam, each batch of L’Amuse Gouda is selected for us by L'Amuse owner Betty Koster. It’s aged for over a year, allowing big crunchy flavor crystals to develop. Over the years, owners Betty and Martin Koster have built up the L’Amuse brand to be one of the more respected gouda producers in the country through their affinage, or cheese maturation process. They’re known for aging goudas at higher temperatures, resulting in greater complexity and dept in flavor their cheeses flavor profiles.
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Featured Cheeses - September 2024
- Country: Netherlands
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Goat
- Cheese Age: 6-9 months
If you like goat cheeses… and you like gouda, this may become your new favorite all-time cheese! No doubt the first thing you'll notice about this cheese is its striking bone-white rind and paste, a hallmark of a goat cheese. The flavor is intense, complex, and super savory: sweet buttery notes, big tanginess, sweet grass and hay earthy notes, and hints of nuts. In short, a huge, sweet, umami bomb. Its mouthfeel is luxurious, silky and creamy. You could say it’s got it all: good looks, a big assertive, outstanding flavor profile, and super creamy texture.
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- Country: Italy
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-firm; Blue
- Milk Type: Water Buffalo
- Cheese Age: 3 months
The first thing to note is that water buffalo have twice the butterfat of traditional cows so the cheeses made from their milk have an extra richness and creaminess to them. A semi-firm cheese, Blu di Bufala is translucent in color with deep blue veining throughout the paste, offering a bold, full-bodied, distinctive and savory flavor profile. You’ll find it delightfully creamy, earthy and slightly herbal with a classic blue flavor profile offering a balance of sweetness and racy spiciness in the finish (piccante rather than dolce). The slightly tangy finish lingers nicely. We loved it!
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- Country: France
- Cheese Texture / Type: Hard
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 12-18 months
Traditionally made near the city of Lille, France, Mimolette was originally made at the request of King Louis XIV to replace Dutch Edam cheese which he himself banned in Flanders. So the French reproduced Edam, but with a few twists of their own to make it distinct, seasoning it with annatto which gives Mimolette its nutty, sweet flavor and unique orange hue. Mimolette is a very hard cheese, but the fudgy paste becomes smooth and creamy when eaten. Its intensely nutty flavor also offers slight fruity/pineapple notes with just the right amount of saltiness to balance the butterscotch sweet notes.
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Featured Cheeses - October 2024
- Country: France
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-firm
- Milk Type: Sheep
- Cheese Age: 70 days
This is a labor-intensive cheese… the curd is literally cut by hand. The cheesemakers reach into their kettle of warm curd, and ever so slowly, break it into small pieces from which the final cheese will be formed. This ancient technique protects the gentle flavor of the finished cheese. Pyrenees cheeses aren't the kind that hit you over the head. Instead, they're lovely, smooth, subtly fruity with a nice little bit of a nose, the kind of cheese you might eat every day at lunch, or with a simple dinner and glass of dry white wine. P'tit Basque offers floral and sweet caramel notes.
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- Country: Switzerland
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 12 months
L’Etivaz, named after a small Swiss mountain village, is said to be made as Gruyere cheese was once made over a century ago. An AOP designated cheese, L'Etivaz is made from milk from a small cooperative of 76 cheesemakers that felt that government regulations were enabling cheesemakers to produce Gruere in a way that compromised its original flavor profile and integrity. In the 1930s they created L’Etivaz and eventually sought and obtained AOP designation.
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- Country: United States
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-firm; Washed Rind
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 5 months
A semi-firm, washed rind cheese aged 5 months, Pawlet is unquestionably one of Consider Bardwell Farm’s most popular of the cheeses. It has a warm buttery-yellow, creamy paste and presents lactic and herbaceous aromas. The flavors are mild, sweet, grassy, a touch floral and nutty. Overall, we find it very balanced and savory. Consider recommends eating Pawlet with whole grain mustard, toast, and a wheat beer. A sound table, snacking cheese that would also pair nicely with olives and crackers.
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Featured Cheeses - November 2024
- Country: Switzerland
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 10 months
Where the Roth Grand Cru Surchoix also featured this month has loads of flavor up front, Chällerhocker builds flavor as you eat it. It begins more subtly, and the flavor unfolds on your palate to reveal a wealth of deep flavors. This is a cooked curd cheese, so you'll taste that rich custard flavor, but you'll also pick up on a roasted nuttiness and a slight sweetness. The sweetness is due in part from the wine that's rubbed on the rind. It's not an overwhelming sweetness but rather a subtle sweet note that adds to Chällerhocker’s complex flavor profile. Extra cream added back in adds to the rich, creamy, fudgy texture and mouthfeel.
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- Country: United States
- Cheese Texture / Type: Soft; Bloomy Rind
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 2-4 weeks
Manchester is named after the town where Zingerman's Creamery was originally located and is crafted from milk sourced entirely from one small local farm (Calder Dairy). It’s a double cream, so pretty rich right out of the gate. This soft, bloomy rind cheese is aged 2-4 weeks and presents a soft, velvety mouth feel. The flavor varies slightly with the season as it largely reflects what the cows have been eating. The rind is completely edible and delicious too. We found its flavor profile earthy, creamy, woody, slightly tangy and nutty, with a lingering, mouthwatering finish.
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- Country: United States
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm; Washed Rind
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 9+ months
Winner of the 2016 World Cheese Championship Contest, Emmi Roth’s Roth Grand Cru Surchoix was the first Wisconsin-produced cheese to do so in nearly 30 years. In 1865 Oswald Roth started exporting Swiss cheeses into the US. Fast forward to 1990 and Roth Kasen USA is founded in Monroe, Wisconsin, becoming the first to install copper vats for producing Alpine cheeses and the first to begin using red pine wooden planks to age cheeses in the US.
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Featured Cheeses - December 2024
- Country: Switzerland
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 10 months
Ur-Eiche is pale yellow in color and crumbly in texture, with aromas and flavors that reflect the one-of-a-kind approach to cheesemaking. It is all at once fruity, nutty, and yeasty, with a touch of salinity and a hint of barrique-like notes that come from the wood influence. Ur-Eiche will be lovely on a fruit and nut platter, accompanied by bourbon or a buttery, oaky Chardonnay.
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- Country: Canada
- Cheese Texture / Type: Semi-firm
- Milk Type: Cow
- Cheese Age: 3+ years
Old Québec Vintage Cheddar has a firm, ivory-colored paste that is crumbly with salt-like crystals. It’s all at once buttery and sweet with notes of tangy fruit and creamy caramel. It is robust and deliciously tangy. Suggested beverage pairings include stout beers, bold red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and Rioja (Tempranillo), or a higher-acid white like Sauvignon Blanc. Old Québec will enhance your fruit, nut, cheese, and charcuterie boards.
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- Country: Spain
- Cheese Texture / Type: Firm; Mixed Milk
- Milk Type: Cow, Sheep, Goat
- Cheese Age: 6 months
This Spanish firm mixed milk cheese is aged 6 months and uses a minimum of high quality 60% cow’s milk, 20% sheep’s milk, and 6% goat’s milk collected from local farms. While the cheese is being aged, the rind is repeatedly brushed and rubbed with olive oil, leading to herbal, vegetal and peppery aromas and flavors. The paste is light yellow with small eyes. The finish is particularly interesting, reminding us of savory bay leaves. Los Cameros Red Label pairs well with dry red wines and is traditionally paired with a fruit Dulce de Membrillo, a popular Spanish paste made from quince.
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Experience International Variety
You might receive a Gaperon, originating in France during the 14th Century, an
authentic Lancashire by Ruth Kirkham, and an Italian Taleggio matured in the
caves of Valsassina…all in one shipment!
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Our 100% satisfaction guarantee ensures that every item you purchase at Gourmet Cheese of the Month Club meets your high standards or we will replace it or refund your purchase.