gordonzola

Finally, my favorite new (to me) cheeses that I tasted at this year’s American Cheese Society conference… remember these aren’t necessarily my all time favorite American cheeses, just ones that either I hadn’t tried before or that were much better this year then ever before.

But first a picture of the cheese that is probably my favorite US-made cheese. Jasper Hill Winnimere. I just can’t get enough. I just want to dive in and submerge myself in the smoky cheese stink!

I would say that the washed-rind cheeses* were the ones that really stood out. As a group they were tremendously improved from even last year. I would buy almost anything that was out there at the Festival of Cheese.**

In no particular order:

1. Sweet Grass Dairy Titan. I’ve love the Sweet Grass folks and their grass-fed cheeses (Green Hill, Thomasville Tomme etc.) for awhile but this washed rind one hit some new heights for them. Check it out if you can find it, I think it is in very short supply these days.

2. Pasture Pride goat cheeses. We’ve carried their 40# lb. cheddar and I always loved the name, quite possibly because we have “Cheese Pride” buttons for our cheese department. I had no idea they were making awesome aged goat cheeses though.

3. Prairie Fruits. At an event like this it can be hard for some cheeses to stand out. Washed-rinds and aged cheeses tend to be more memorable once you’ve tried 50 other cheeses. However, Prairie Fruits soft-ripened cheeses were nearly perfect. They don’t get out my way so I hadn’t heard of ‘em before but if you’re around Illinois, go get some.

4. It seemed like every time I tasted a cheese and went “wow” I’d look at the sign and it would be from Vermont cheesemakers Consider Bardwell Farm. So, if you can find it, do more than consider it, ok?

5. Hendricks Farm Telford Reserve We’ve carried their “Cow Pie” but this aged farmhouse cheddar is so flavorfull it verged on too much. Verged, mind you, it veered back at the last possible moment. Fruity, earthy. and a little intense in how the flavor explodes in your mouth.

6. Blackberry Farm Trefoil My notes were a casualty (the only one, I am a professional, believe it or not) of someone’s spilled beer during our room party but I guarantee it was good because it had lots of exclamation marks. Here’s what I can read: “ … awesome(sic)…!! … eep ? BIG …ar…mmmmm! Wh… re … ple? !!!” I can’t think of a better recommendation

7. Redwood Hill Kefir Goat kefir from Sebastopol! New!

8. Have I mentioned how awesome the Bellwether Sheep Yogurt is recently? It is quite possibly the awesomest yogurt made in this country.

9. Carr Valley Snow White won best of show. It’s a traditional (bandage-wrapped) cheddar made of goat milk. I have a little piece in my fridge that I smuggled back home.

10. Hidden Springs Their cheese is so great that I went and visited after the conference. Sheep pics are coming!

Cheese Bear says, “Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.”

*washed rind cheeses are, like the name implies, washed with something, usually salt, sometimes booze, that creates a good environment for certain bacteria. It’s why those cheeses tend to be more stinky and pungent. Examples are Taleggio, Pont Leveque, Livarot, Munster d’Alsace, and this Winnimere. Mmmmmmmmmm.

**Festival of Cheese is when all the cheese that professional cheesemakers send is put out in a huge, fancy hall for all of us to gorge on. Over 1000 cheeses from all over the US and Canada.

Current Music: King City

I should mention that with 1208 cheeses in the room, I have to concentrate professionally on the ones I don't know. These are the best cheeses I tasted this year at the American Cheese Society Festival of Cheese, but you will notice only one California cheese on this list. Duh, I know all of them! I had to save my pallet.

I mean, look at all that cheese! This is just one tiny section, not even 1/100th of the total.

ok, here we go:

1. Leelanau Aged Raclette, Michigan. Won best in Show and I voted for it. Pungent, rich, earthy, and fruity. The flavor jumped out at me despite (because of?) the fact that I'd tasted 200 cheeses in the previous 36 hours. Someday I hope to actually be able to buy this cheese but from what I've heard, this cheese is so small production that it's difficult to get even in Michigan. They also make a younger Raclette which is very good, but this aged one is transcendent.

2. Beecher's Flagship Reserve, Washington. Won second place in the competition. Unlike the regular Flagship cheddar, which is wonderful in its own right, this is a traditionally made, bandage-wrapped cheddar aged about 18 months. Most cheddars are made in a massive 560 lb. square, subdivided into 40 lb. blocks and aged in plastic. Some great cheddars are made this way, but cheese made in cheesecloth and rotated in an aging room ages faster, and tends to be much earthier, full flavored and distinctive. This is a great addition to the few US versions of this cheese, Joining the Fiscalini 18 and 30 month, Bravo Silver Mountain, and the Cabot/Jasper Hill cheese that won the ACS competition last year. The Fiscalini 30 month, in particular, challenges the best Neal's Yard imported cheddars in terms of flavor and quality.

3. Estrella Family Creamery, Washington. These folks are quietly making some of the best cheese in the country. The Caldwell Crik Chevrette is a stinky washed-rind goat/cow blend that many customers simply refuse to believe isn't high-quality French cheese. Dominoes is a Tomme De Savoie-type cow's milk cheese, earthy, milky, and with flavor that you keep think is about to end but doesn't. It's named after one of their favorite cows, Domino. Domino's daughter, Darla, is the namesake of the Red Darla, a washed-rind Dominoes that is super pungent, rich and amazing. I can't tell you why none of these cheeses medalled but the one cheese of theirs that I judged took first place in it's category.

4. Pholia Farm, Oregon. Milk from Nigerian dwarf goats. Solar-powered and off-the-grid. I tried the Elk Mountain at a regional tasting and thought it was the best aged goat cheese I had at the conference. This stuff is also almost impossible to find but everything they make is amazing. If you see anything under their name, buy it.

5. Dante, Wisconsin. Aged sheep milk cheese from the Wisconsin sheep farmer co-op. Nutty, sweet, and smooth. There aren't many sheep cheeses like this made in the US. It's seasonal, so grab it when you see it.

6. Beehive Barely Buzzed Cheddar, Utah. Ok, you know how I feel about the "cheese with stuff in it" category. But I really like this cheese. The rind is rubbed with coffee and lavender and that bitter, flowery bite works really well with what is now a nicely aged cheddar. When I tasted an early version of this cheese a year ago, the cheese was too mild to stand up to the rind but it's an almost perfect combination now. Like all flavored products it's not for everyone, but I saw a lot of judges surprised how much they liked this seemingly novelty cheese.

7. Le Chevre Noir, Quebec. Basically this is a goat cheddar. But it's not some we'll-make-it-out-of-goat-milk-and-people-will-be-so-desperate-for-it-they-won't-care-what-it-tastes-like goat cheddar. This is the real thing, perfectly aged, sweet and sharp with a goaty tang. This cheese has been underrated for way too long. Since we're talking Quebec, there are many other French Canadian cheeses that will never make it to the Bay Area for various reasons,. Le Rebelle was my favorite this year, a pungent washed-rind oozy thing that I'll have to wait until next year's ACS to taste again. Sigh.

8. Truffle Tremor, California. This wasn't in the competition because it is only just now being sold commercially. It's from Humboldt County, made by Cypress Grove and it's basically their well-known Humboldt Fog, but instead of ash, it's truffled. It's a slightly smaller wheel too, probably to keep the per-piece price reasonable. If you've had the fog, this cheese will be just what you expect: tangy, earthy, mushroomy, and covered by a delicate brie-style rind.

9. Hope Farm Tomme de Brebis, Vermont. Seasonal and rare, we carried this for about five minutes last year. Semi-soft, earthy, nutty and rich I can't wait to get more. I wish there were ten times as many sheep dairies in the US and that they were all as good as Hope Farm, Bellwether, Vermont Shepherd, and the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Co-op.

10. Cabot Butter (salted), Vermont. So perfect that I considered for best in show. It's funny, because I love the Sierra Nevada organic vat-cultured butter (Sierra Nevada still makes the best cream cheese in the country), and the Vermont Butter and Cheese butter, but this was really perfect.

I will end with a picture that sums up the polished showmanship and pageantry that is the annual ACS awards ceremony. Why it isn't televised live on the Food Channel I'll never know.

The pageantry of the ACS awards ceremony

Current Music: CH3 - "After the lights go out"

It’s hard to describe the Festival of Cheese that ends the cheese conference every year.
One the one hand, it’s amazing. 1000 cheeses this year, all made in North America. All cheese shapes and sizes are represented. Awards were given in 86 different categories , everything from flavored cow’s milk cheese to washed rind, Italian style to American Originals. While no doubt the historic cheese making countries still have the lock on quality producers of their traditional products, some American-made cheese is right up there in taste and quality.

But it’s also a crazy display of American excess. 1000 full cheeses for 1000 people. While everything was sampled, the majority of cheese, beautiful in its display was sweating and hardening under the overmatched air conditioning of Portland’s 3rd straight 100 degree day. The ACS has started selling the leftovers at whatever local farmers market is around, and it’s a good deal at the prices they sell for, even if they are not in perfect shape by the time they get there. I still remember carrying home a suitcase full of cheese when I worked the festival one year because it was just going to get thrown out. But still, entering a ballroom filled with cheese, bread, fruit and free booze… I love these moments even as they feel a little gross. Food waste still feels immoral to me even as I enjoy the decadence.

The winner of Best in Show this year: The Cabot Clothbound Cheddar. It is an awesome cheese . It’s a traditional style cheddar. Cylindrical and wrapped in cheese cloth. The outside is dusty and sometimes moldy with a natural rind, unlike the usual American 40 LB, rindless commodity block. The real secret of this cheese? It is aged by the folks at Jasper Hill Farm. I took pictures of those cheeses aging when I visited a few months ago, then stupidly opened the back of my camera when I rewound the film. You’ll have to take my word for the fact they have a very nice home.

The Cabot is awesome but I also think that in the Central Valley, both the Fiscalini Clothbound Cheddar and the Bravo Farms Silver Mountain are its equal, depending on the wheel. The Cabot, when I tasted it at Jasper Hill, is a little sweeter and smoother, whereas the Central Valley ones are more crumbly and sharp, especially the 30 month-aged Fiscalini. All great cheese that compares to the Neal’s Yard traditional English cheddars. I would still give the nod to the Montgomery Cheddar as the best in the world, but the distance now is not quite so great.

But there were plenty of great cheeses there. I only taste cheese I haven’t tried before at events like this. So with my recommendations below, keep in mind that I didn’t taste any of the great cheese that I already know. That’s why they’re mostly not from California either.

The blues were the hit of the show for me. Big Woods Blue and the Wisconsin Farmers Union were both awesome, pungent, huge-tasting raw milk sheep blue cheeses. The obvious comparison would be Roquefort since it is also a raw sheep blue, but both of these were less salty and drippy, sweeter and . Both Carr Valley entries Virgin Pine cow and Virgin Pine sheep were terrific blue with wild molds. Instead of adding mold cultures to the milk, the cheeses are pierced upon maturation, acquiring mold from the ambient environment of the aging cave.

Indeed there is almost no Carr Valley Cheese I don’t like. The Riverbend goat cheese and the 10 year aged cheddar also stood out, but that is one company I would by almost anything from just based on the name. I’d say the same for La Maison Alexis de Portneuf. Everything they made was great. And look at that cute website!

I was also impressed with all the Blue Ledge Farm cheese I encountered, especially the soft-ripened goat Lake’s Edge. Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Co-op Dante was undoubtedly awesome too, but I forgot to write a description of it. Must’ve been all the free booze.

I always get sad when the conference ends and that’s not just the free booze. It’s a weird community that comes together over the course of three or four days. Even if a bunch of the folks I see there are from the Bay Area, the reason that conferences like this are so fun is the concentration of time spent talking about a subject that would bore our real life friends in a fraction of the time. As I’ve noted before, there’s things to hate about the conferences too. But that’s the way community goes.

The air conditioned freeze and the relentless Portland heat wave had been battling it out inside the Hilton ballroom since I arrived at the Festival at 4 PM. I can only imagine what the smell must have been like to anyone walking into the room a couple of hours in with 1000 unrefrigerated cheeses and 1000 sweaty cheese workers at the tail end of a three day conference. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was nothing like Comic-Con but it was distinct. As the hotel workers started disappearing with tubs of unconsumed beer, I felt a chill and realized that most people had left. The chill was literal because the air conditioning, with 700 less people, could finally dominate the room. The tables were littered with cheese carcasses, plucked grapevines, and cracker crumbs that weren’t already ground into the carpet. The room suddenly looked empty-ish. It was as if the remaining folks suddenly awoke from their cheese dream and realized they had to leave. Of course, that may have been because of the disappearance of the free booze. I started around the room one last time to say my good-byes. The temporary cheese autonomous zone was breaking up for another year.

( clicky clicky for the big piccies )