Le Tastevin - Notes on Cheeses – October 16, 2024

The cheeses are from Zingerman's Cremery in Ann Arbor. One cheese is new to our club, the makes a return from a tasting from over 10 years ago. Both are aged cheeses with a high fat content, and should pair with our Cabernet Sauvignon wines that show fruit aged in new French oak. Tannins give wine dryness, and after drinking a few sips of a dry wine, you’ll start to notice your mouth and tongue feeling “rough”; that’s where the fat in the cheese comes in. The high fat content in the cheese will cause the tannins in the wines to bond with it instead of with our mouths, thus cutting back on the dry feeling you get when drinking the wine. The cheese can also enhance the different flavors that you’ll find in the wine, which leads to a better overall tasting experience.

Pleasant Ridge Reserve (raw cow's milk) from Uplands Cheese, located 37 miles due west of Madison, Wisconsin, is an aged, alpine-style cheese.  Like the coveted, alpage versions of Beaufort and Gruyere, Pleasant Ridge is made only in the summer months, while our cows are grazing fresh pasture. The sweetness born from the grass-fed milk combines with the savory flavors developed by the cheese’s natural, washed rind.  The resulting complexity – rich and salty, with a long, fruity finish – has made Pleasant Ridge one of the most distinctive and celebrated cheeses in the country. In fact, Pleasant Ridge is the most-awarded cheese in American history, having won Best of Show in the American Cheese Society’s annual competition three times (2001, 2005 and 2010), and having also won the US Cheese Championships in 2003. It is the only cheese to have won ACS Best of Show three times, and the only cheese to have ever won both of the major, national cheese competitions.

Pecora Nocciola (pasteurized sheep's milk) hails from Landmark Cremery in Belleville, Wisconsin. This medium-aged sheep has the nutty, fatty richness, palate-activating wooliness, and salinity blending well for this aged sheep’s milk. It is firm, nutty, and aged 3-6 months. One tastes a salty attack followed by browned butter and toasted macadamia nuts. This cheese has been made at the Cremery since 2014 by owner and Head Cheesemaker Anna Landmark.

Page last updated: October 19, 2024 (EB)

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