As you can imagine, opening a farmstead dairy and creamery is hard. From establishing abundant pastures, and a herd of healthy animals capable of providing high quality milk, to design and construction of an efficient facility for production and proper aging, to hiring good workers who can learn to produce, market, and ship your product; each of these tasks pose massive challenges, are wholly reliant upon one another, and the formula is complicated. For this week’s pairing, we’re highlighting a creamery that has not only recently opened, but did so during the pandemic. Nestled on 400 acres of farmland, and perched above the western shores of Lake Michigan, in the town of Port Washington, WI, Blakesville Creamery is beating all the odds. It was 2012 when the owner purchased the farm and began the process of transitioning the farm from a traditional cow dairy to one that cared for goats. The farm’s primary goal was to produce quality goat milk using sustainable farming practices, while concurrently, building a business that listened to the environmental and social needs of its surrounding community. Following 7+ years spent establishing the goat dairy, the creamery was slated to begin production in April of 2020. Due to the emergence of the pandemic, plans got delayed, and delayed some more. And markets evaporated overnight. But the vision on the farm was still clear, and the team at Blakesville Creamery forged ahead with their big dreams. Under the guidance of head cheesemaker, Veronica Pedraza, they begin listening, learning, and adapting to what was happening around them, and the creamery began making cheese. We’ve been lucky enough to stock Blakesville’s cheeses in our cases from the very beginning, and we’ve been delighted with them. The cheese we celebrate this week is Blakesville Creamery’s Lake Effect. A soft ripened goats milk cheese, Lake Effect delivers the perfect combination of earthy aroma and sweet and salty paste, along with ideal ratios of cream line and bloomy rind chew. Our chosen wine pairing for this cheese is, Le Havre de Paix, from the Côtes de Gascogne wine district of southwestern France, just north of the Pyrenees mountains. With vibrant notes of green apple and honeycomb, along with a faint minerality, this white blend is a wonderful partner for the Lake Effect, as the wine’s buttery structure holds its own against the cheese’s rich and creamy finish.
Blakesville Creamery
By Joe Kastner- Minneapolis Monger
I love Wisconsin cheese. Maybe I’m biased because I grew up there, but I think my home state has some of the best cheeses out there. When most people think of a classic Wisconsin cheese, they think of a big sharp Cheddar, or some fresh squeaky curds, or even Butterkäse or Brick or other dairy co-op favorites, but not so much soft-rinded goat’s cheeses. But that’s just what we’re focusing on this week, some amazing farmstead goat’s cheeses made in classic French styles right off the western shore of Lake Michigan.
Blakesville Creamery is a great example of passionate people bringing an idea to life in the face of challenging odds. In 2012, the land where the creamery currently sits- just north of Port Washington, WI, a suburb of Milwaukee- was a dairy farm, but with 300 cows. The farmer was looking to sell and retire, but didn’t want to see his land bought by a corporation and turned into condos or a shopping center. He approached his neighbor, Lynde Uihlein, with an offer to buy his farm and conglomerate it with her own. Lynde, who was involved with land preservation and restoration in the area, accepted the offer and took over the dairy, with the goal of switching the entire herd to goats and then making cheese with their milk. At the time this must have seemed like a massively daunting task, but SPOILER ALERT, she made it work!
After 8 years of selling cows to buy goats, changing the farm to fit the new herd, and building cheese-making facilities, Lynde and her team were finally ready to “curd” it up. She brought on veteran cheesemaker Veronica Pedraza to develop the recipes and oversee the production. Then in early 2020, just as the cheeses were getting ready to roll out, COVID happened. Not only did this push back the opening of the creamery due to licensing issues, it also took away a large portion of planned sales to restaurants and other vendors that were struggling at the time. Despite these hurdles, Blakesville released their first cheeses in July 2020 and they’ve been some of our more popular soft cheeses at the shop. If this teaches you anything about cheese people, it’s that we’re willing to wait for a good thing.
At France 44, we sell most of the selections that Blakesville has developed in their short time. Four of them are soft-ripened, smaller format options in easy-to-manage 5 oz. packages, perfect for Lake Effect is the cheese that we’ve carried most frequently. It’s a bloomy-rind cheese that’s ripened with the same molds you’ll find on most Camemberts, giving it that classic mushroomy, earthy flavor. The Lake Breeze, on the other hand, is ripened with Geotrichum cultures and B linens, commonly found on washed-rind cheeses. Though the Breeze isn’t washed itself, it has a bit of the funk associated with those types of cheese. Afterglow, my personal favorite of the bunch, is actually a washed-rind style, bathed in New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red, an ale made from cherries from Door County. Cheese washed in beer with Door County cherries. If that just doesn’t scream Wisconsin, I don’t know what does.
We also carry their ash-lined creation, Linedeline. Layering cheese with vegetable ash is an old practice used to protect the milk from bugs between milking sessions, particularly with goats because their yield is less. But it also just looks really cool on a cheeseboard. This cheese is nice and firm and sliceable while young, but as it ages it just becomes creamy and spreadable and even more decadent. The hard cheese option from Blakesville is called St. Germain, a very firm tomme-style with a wild rind with lots of cool growth. This cheese smells woodsy and piney, and has a lingering herbaceousness that keeps me snacking on it.
Farmstead cheeses like these are awesome to see, especially such newer, up-and-coming operations like Blakesville. The art and science of creating cheese with milk from your own herd of animals is a beautifully sustainable way to honor the land that we call our home, while providing a crucial service to your community and neighbors like us. By buying this cheese, you’re helping support small, sustainable farming and cheese-making, while also enjoying some of the best that Wisconsin has to offer! Cheers!
The Pairing: The King of Cheese
This week’s cheese selection is produced at a small dairy in the village of Benedello di Pavullo, high in the Apennine mountains, just southwest of Modena, Italy. There, at Caseificio Sociale San Pietro, some 2,500 ft above sea level, head cheesemaker, Massimo Libra, produces 8 wheels of raw cow’s milk cheese a day, 365 days a year. The cheese is Parmigiano Reggiano. Producing this cheese at such high elevation has earned Mossimo’s wheels the designation of, Produtto di Montagna, a distinction awarded by the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium to promote exceptional cheeses with unique qualities. Mountain pastures provide diverse ground cover and forage, which lend their qualities to the milk. Of over 350 producers of Parmigiano Reggiano throughout Italy, only 30 have received this mountain designation. Once produced, according to established rules of the Consortium, Mossimo’s cheeses must age at the dairy for no less than 12 months before they can travel to market. The wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano we sell in our shops have been aged for much longer, at the hands of Giorgio Cravero, a 6th generation affineur from the town of Bra, in Piedmont, about 200 miles west of the dairy. Giorgio maintains roughly 5,000 wheels of carefully selected Parmigiano Reggiano in his caves at any one time, paying close attention to temperature and humidity as he seeks his proprietary standards of taste and texture. His cave maintains his desired conditions throughout most of the year, naturally, with windows open, and air conditioning only needed during the hottest summer months of June, July and August. Giorgio believes in a process of slow maturation, with minimal handling. Wheels are not washed, and are only turned every other week as they age on decades old pine boards. The result of this approach is a cheese with a more tender, sweet and fruity paste from rind to rind. After an additional 12 months of aging in Bra, Giorgio’s cheeses are graded by delegates of the Consortium, and shipped out to the U.S., and to our shops. Crumbly, yet buttery, with notes of pineapple and toasted pecans, Cravero recommends drinking Prosecco with his cheese. We found a match in the Flora Prosecco from Col di Luna Winery, located in the Treviso region of Italy, a little north of Venice. This crisp, bubbly white wine, with notes of alpine flowers and apples, mellows the cheese’s bite, bringing sweetness top of mind. Mouthfeel is rich and balanced in flavor and texture, and bubbles top things off. Cin! Cin!
Gorgonzola Dolce
Haven’t we all at one point or another fantasized about eating cheese out of an ice cream cone? You think to yourself “It’s milk and cream just like ice cream, why wouldn’t I eat it out of a crunchy cone? And the cone is just like a sweet cracker!” Or are you telling me that I am alone in this dream?
Would it surprise you if I told you that I have eaten cheese out of a cone? Probably not. Those of you know how long I’ve been doing this for must imagine that by now I’ve probably jumped Scrooge McDuck style into a swimming pool filled with triple crème brie. So cheese in a cone feels pretty tame.
But I digress, this isn’t meant to be a love letter to the myriad ways of eating cheese. This is a post about Gorgonzola Dolce—the most unctuous, glorious of blue cheeses. To understand my love for this cheese we need to go back almost 25 years to my first encounter with this cheese—I knew nothing of blue cheese or even cheese in general. I was working in a fancy restaurant in Cape Cod and as a vegetarian there was only ever one thing on the menu I could eat for my shift meal—pasta. And more often than not it was pasta tossed with Gorgonzola dolce.
Buddy, I’m telling you, there’s nothing more awakening to a 19 year old’s palate than rich, creamy pasta with just that bit of blue funk to it. This was something novel and I really wanted to understand the magic behind it. Unfortunately it was going to be 15 more years before I really began to understand what was really going on.
Customers approach our counter and often ask for “gorgonzola” in generic terms when they’re looking for a blue cheese. It’s as recognizable a name in cheese as brie or cheddar. There are two major families of Gorgonzola—a harder aged one and the milder creamy stuff I’m on about—so we quickly direct the conversation in the appropriate direction. You’ll notice my eyes lighting up if we take off in the sweet, luscious direction of Gorgonzola Dolce.
Want to know all the fun facts about how this cheese is made and its history and where it comes from? You can ask the robot overlords. I’m here to connect you with a craving you didn’t even know you had. I am here to transform your eating expectations for cheese. Maybe I am here to indoctrinate you into a cheese eating cult that eats cheese out of a sugar cone (I refuse to acknowledge that cake cones exist).
If you’re looking to dip your toes into the world of blue cheese, this is your cheese. Are you wanting something to spread on your apples with a dollop of honey? This is your cheese. Are you burned out on the Instagram phenomenon of “jarcuterie” and want to start your own trend? Here you are. Come and indulge in the most pleasurable of cheeses and leave your food inhibitions behind.
Children in Italy know that it’s cool to eat blue cheese out of an ice cream cone
The Pairing: What Goes With Summer?
The artisan cheese movement within the United States has grown exponentially over the last few decades. Not long ago, domestic, small batch farmstead cheeses were hard to find, and when they were being made, supply was extremely tight, or quality was suboptimal. As each year has passed, more and more cheeses have hit the market, and quality continues to improve. For this week’s pairing, we’re highlighting one of the pioneers of our country’s artisan cheese movement, David Major. After graduating from Harvard in the early 80’s, David set out on a mission to save his family’s 250 acre farm, located in West Westminster, Vermont, and it’s tiny herd of sheep. His solution: Cheese. After a series of early struggles in cheesemaking of his own, David travelled to the French Pyrenees to learn from the world’s best sheep’s milk cheese producers. Today, with over 30 years of cheesemaking experience under his belt, David and his family shepherd a herd of anywhere between 300-700 sheep, on the oldest sheep dairy in the country, Vermont Shepherd Farm, milking an average of 200 ewes, twice a day, beginning each year in April. Vermont Shepherd’s flagship cheese is, Verano, which in Spanish translates to “Summer,” which points to the fact that this cheese is only produced while the herd is foraging on fresh pasture. While cows and goats may be milked all year long, sheep milk is seasonal, beginning only once lambs are weaned-off their mother’s milk in early spring, and lasting not longer than November. Because of this, production of Verano is exceedingly small, landing at somewhere between 10-30, 7 lb wheels a day. A rich, earthy cheese with a moist ivory paste, Verano exudes flavors of brown butter, salted caramel, and hearty herbs like fresh thyme and mint. For this week’s wine pairing, we’ve chosen a selection from California’s Central Coast, Union Sacre Pinot Blanc. As we paired this cheese and wine, we found fruit notes in the wine to bring out an underlying sweetness within the milk. Additionally, mouthfeel was improved for both, providing a delicate balance on the palate, as textures married perfectly. Some pairings are good, but others are great. The pairing of these two elevate one another in a way you’re sure to enjoy.
Challerhocker!
By Jared Kaufman, Minneapolis Monger
Until a few nights ago, I had never seen Lord of the Rings. I know, I know. I’d seen the online jokes — “One does not simply walk into Mordor” or “You! shall! not! pass!” — but never knew their context. As I watched Gollum scarf away his precious inside his cave, my first thought was “Wait… That reminds me of the Challerhocker Boy!”
Perhaps you’ve seen him, too: The unsettling, vaguely demonic-looking child peering out from the burgundy label in the center of our cheese case, grubby fingers gripping an edge of brick. I suppose it’s apt; the name Challerhocker translates roughly to “sitting in the cellar” or “cellar dweller.” And I see why the boy would feel protective over the cheese: It’s so delicious.
Challerhocker’s texture is fudgy, custardy, with just a little bite. Right from the get-go, you get deep notes of roasted hazelnuts and alliums and woodsy sweetness. It’s approachable but still a step up in complexity among its Alpine cheese family. It’s a gateway cheese. Even though I was reminded of the cheese from a mainstream hit, I’ve often heard Challerhocker described as more of a cult classic, like Rocky Horror or The Princess Bride. It might fly under the radar, but once you’re in, oh — you’re in.
And you can get funky with pairings, too. My classic drink recommendations are dry, nutty white wines like chardonnay and fino sherry, or reds like nero d’avola. But try switching things up and serving Challerhocker with ciders or toasty Belgian ales, or even cocktails like old-fashioneds or boulevardiers. Challerhocker is also one of my go-to cheeses for almost any sweet or savory jam pairing, since it’s unbelievably versatile.
So who is the Gollum-like Challerhocker Boy that protects this delightful cheese? Let us descend into the cellars of cheese history to explore.
The man responsible for Challerhocker, Walter Räss, started out by making Appenzeller, a traditional Swiss recipe that’s a little firmer and funkier and made from the milk of native Brown Swiss cows. In 2001, he was asked a favor: His brother-in-law had just imported a herd of Jersey cows to Switzerland, and could Walter work his cheesemaking magic with their milk?
This was not an easy ask. Jersey cows’ milk is higher in butterfat content than Brown Swiss cows’ milk is, and Walter was already skimming some fat off the Brown Swiss cows’ milk to make his Appenzeller. But he mixed the Jersey cows’ milk with rennet and yogurt-based cultures his wife, Annelies, had made; added additional cream; tossed the 15-pound test wheels into his cellar; and hoped for the best.
Three months later — it wasn’t right. Walter said the wheels were “hard, with little taste.” He left them to dwell in his basement for even longer. After another half-year, the cheese had softened and developed its trademark custardy, floral earthiness. It was perfect. Walter came up with 15 potential names for his creation and took the list to his town’s architect-slash-painter, which every good village should have, to help him decide.
It was this creative Swiss genius, apparently, who drew the wild-eyed child that graces every wheel of Challerhocker the world over. “It is a young man who works in the cellar or aging room,” Walter says. “He holds the stones from the wall and calls up: ‘The cheese is ready to eat.’”
Or, as Glenn Hills of Columbia Cheese, which imports Challerhocker, put it: “Imagine someone in their parents’ basement playing World of Warcraft. That can be a Challerhocker.”
To us, it’s the perfect cheese for this season — not only because it warms you up on cool fall days and pairs with pretty much anything you throw at it, but also because Challerhocker Boy makes for a deliciously spooky jack-o-lantern.
Photo and artwork by former F44 Monger, Alex Pears
The Pairing: 1655 Gruyere
Ask any cheesemonger, one of the most common questions we receive is, “what are you excited about right now?” We appreciate this approach, for it carves out space ideal for sharing knowledge and reinforcing our skills. But remember this: cheesemongers play favorites, just like you and me. Sure, we get super excited every time a yummy cheese hits the case, but we don’t forget the pillars of the case that are always there for us. For this week’s pairing, we’re highlighting one of those good old standby cheeses; one that always tastes delicious, was likely mentioned in a recipe you recently perused, and one you’ll find in our case all year long. Gruyère. Outside of a few seasonal Gruyère offerings that delight us once or twice a year, our workhorse Gruyère is named after the year of its first known written existence, 1655. Produced in a small dairy on the outskirts of the medieval village of Gruyère, about 30 minutes southwest of Fribourg, Switzerland, cheesemaker Jean-Marie Dunand is committed to producing the highest quality Gruyère, with precision. With only the finest milk available to him, Dunand does what he always has, transforming milk into gold. After their creation, his cheeses are aged for 3 months at the dairy, before heading north to Fromage Gruyère SA, the smallest public affineur in the region, and the only remaining affineur in Fribourg, the birthplace of Gruyère. The affineurs of Fromage Gruyère seek out only the best quality cheeses to age in their cellars, and ultimately name, 1655. Our wheels of 1655 arrive to us at around 12-14 months of age. The cheeses paste is springy and pliable to the touch, yet creamy and fudge-like on the chew. Early notes of green pasture and roasted hazelnuts give way to garlic and spring onions sautéed in butter, mixed with heavy cream, leaving you with only the slightest thought of barnyard. We were delighted to pair this European mountain classic with a red blend from Red Tail Ridge Winery, located on the northern shore of Lake Keuka, in the Finger Lakes region of New York. A 50/50 blend of Cabernet Franc and Blaufränkish, their “Frost Smoke” blend marries perfectly with this cheese. With notes of blackberry pie and ripe dates, the wine’s mid-range tannins don’t interfere with the cheese, but support its body. Meanwhile, the rich milk balances the grapes, creating a smooth mouthfeel that leaves you refreshed and wanting more.
Pasamontes Manchego
by Sophia Stern, Minneapolis Monger
It’s no secret that the cheese case at France 44 (or any cheese shop) can be overwhelming to navigate. We tend to gravitate towards cheese styles we’ve heard of or tried before: cheddar, gouda, brie, and, often, manchego. Buttery and balanced, herbaceous and tart, manchego is the perfect mix of comfort cheese and dynamic flavor. This week, we’re featuring this familiar favorite and highlighting why, out of the plethora of manchego makers, Pasamontes 3-month and 12-month raw milk manchego has a place in our case.
The reason United States consumers gravitate towards this Spanish sheep cheese is due to a successful marketing campaign by the Spanish government. While many US cheese consumers had heard of brie or parmesan, there was a hole in the market for sheep cheese, especially from Spain. Before the turn of the millennium, the United States imported minimal sheep cheese, except for pecorino from Italy. The US also lacked domestic sheep milk production until the early 1990’s when Vermont Shepard pioneered domestic sheep cheesemaking with their signature Verano. Capitalizing on this gap in the US cheese market, the Spanish government picked an ideal star with manchego. Most manchegos are buttery and accessible, with slightly nutty and grassy notes that aren’t too aggressive, ideal for the curious American palate, unused to the oddities and craveability of sheep milk.
Pasamontes, like all PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) manchegos, is made with the milk of Manchega sheeps in their native region of Spain, Castilla-La Mancha. All sheep milk is high in butterfat, but Manchega sheeps, bred to yield ideal milk over wool or meat, produce particularly tangy and fatty milk perfect for making balanced and craveable cheese. Most importantly, their milk tastes of the land they graze on. This makes the animals and land inseparable from the cheese they create. The La Mancha region is the largest natural region in Spain. Centrally located, the plains of La Mancha, 2,600 feet above sea level, have little rainfall and extreme temperatures from frost in the winter to scorching heat during the dry summer. There are few trees in this arid landscape, but a bounty of herbs, grasses and flowers, which the Manchega sheep graze upon in their pastures.
María Dolores Pérez-Guzmán Palomares is the 5th generation of the Pasamontes family to head the Pasamontes creamery. María makes her manchegos in the same place her great-grandmother started making Pasamontes in 1896. She sources her milk from five local flocks in La Mancha, keeping the shepherding and cheesemaking separate. This system allows the farmers to focus their attentions on the intense upkeep of their animals, while María and her cheesemaker can attend diligently to the tricky cheesemaking process. Pasamontes also keeps their cheesemaking milk raw, ensuring the unique qualities of the land shine in their dynamic, rich cheeses. They ladle the curds of their raw milk into natural fiber molds made of esparto, which gives the Manchego rind its district basket-weave pattern. Unlike other waxy manchego rinds, the Pasamontes rind is completely edible.
Pasamontes is not the somewhat mild and occasionally dull manchego you may have tried wrapped in plastic from the grocery store. Both ages of the Pasamontes manchego have a yogurty, lactic flavor and an herbaceous finish. Pasamontes 3-month is higher in moisture, offering a semi-firm ‘bounce’ to the cheese. At room temperature, the cheese quickly melts in your mouth. While buttery, the grassy, earthy flavors of the milk are strong in this younger cheese. Pasamontes 12-month is much firmer, the flavors far more concentrated in this low moisture form. The 12-month eats like a less-sweet Parmigiano-Reggiano, with extreme nuttiness and high acidity. Both cheeses are perfect for eating by themselves, but would also stand out in any recipe. As we head into Autumn, manchego is a great ingredient for baking dishes like quiches and pairs particularly well with potatoes and leeks. Otherwise, try using manchego instead of parmesan in a chorizo-based pasta dish. If you’re looking for a wine pairing, a fruity red is a good way to go.
The Pairing Returns: Elusive goat's milk cheese from France
After a brief summer vacation, our weekly pairings are back! This week we explore a Basque cheese produced in the central Pyrenees mountains, along France’s southern border with Spain. For over 4 decades, Pascual Beillevaire, of Fromagerie Beillevaire, has has been sharpening his skill of producing the highest quality cheeses from the highest quality milk. However, what sets Pascual apart from many of his peers, is his skill of cultivating connections between France’s best producers, and the most discerning consumers worldwide. The cheese we’ll enjoy this week is not produced by Pascual himself, but rather sourced and aged by Pascual in his own caves, to his level of perfection. Named after one of the region’s most historic mountain passes, Somport Chévre Fermier is a raw goat milk tomme-style cheese which represents all the best qualities of traditional Basque cheesemaking. Pascual sources his wheels of Somport from the 4 local dairies that he believes use the tastiest milk. Sweet and nutty, with a fine acidity and medium-firm paste, Somport melts creamy on the palette. Typical of most tomme-style cheeses, its rind is rustic in color, and smells of damp earth.
For a wine pairing, we’ve chosen Broc Cellar’s, Got Grapes, a red blend from northern California which comes to us through the careful marriage of select recent vintages from their cellars. The wine is lighter bodied, and tastes of cherry pie, yet floral notes within the grapes elevate flavors in the cheese, and mutual levels of acidity balance nicely together. Just the perfect amount of fruit bounces from the wine to leave you smiling
Pitchfork Cheddar
Photo courtesy of Neals Yard Dairy
by Sam Schonberg, Minneapolis Monger
In a nation whose cheesemaking is dominated by the word “tradition,” it is rare for something new to break through. Seven years ago, the Trethowan brothers did just that.
In the English county of Somerset, cheddar reigns. The town of Cheddar itself is rather small, but its namesake can be found across the area. There is even a specific style of cheddar that is name protected by the British government, called “West County Farmhouse Cheddar” style. These cheeses must be made in this small region of England, and they must be made using traditional production and aging techniques, all of which must occur on the farm itself. Today, there are less than a dozen creators whose cheddars fall in this category. Some of the Trethowan’s most prominent cheddar-making neighbors, the Montgomery, Westcombe, and Keen families, have all been making cheddar since the late 19th or early 20th centuries on their ancestral farms. That two brothers, Welsh ones at that, inserted themselves into this hive of tradition and began making a cheddar that rivals the others, is a small miracle.
Pitchfork cheddar was immediately a hit. Like all other West County Farmhouse Cheddars, it’s bandaged in cloth and aged in a cave to mature. The wheels weigh around 50 pounds, and provide rich aromas of turned earth and broth upon opening. The texture is delicate, for a clothbound cheddar. There are no sharp corners or tyrosine crystals to be found. It simply sinks into your teeth, like fudge on a hot day. The flavor is immediately bright, brighter than most clothbounds. The earthiness is still there, but it is supplemented by big buttercream notes. The savoriness of a spring onion is present, as well as the occasional hint of vanilla.
I would encourage all to enjoy this with a crisp cider, or a more delicate pale ale. My favorite food pairings are apple slices, rye crackers, or maybe even a drop of maple syrup.