Nothing Could Be Finer

Posted 01/20/2008 at 10:25 AM by Carolyn

When I lived in California, the room that I rented was right around the corner from one of the most famous cheese shops in the world. At the time, I was an unpaid intern at one of the most famous restaurants in the world, so I didn’t exactly have a huge budget for luxuries like cheese. I was never really a big cheese fan anyway, so this didn’t faze me much. But, sometimes I would leave the farmer’s market with my sixty cents worth of organic greens and some random vegetable, and I’d decide to get a cheese for my salad. I could go into that cheese store and wait (often for quite a while) and be sure that whenever the cheese monger got around to me, he or she would be able to provide me with a perfect pairing for whatever vegetable I’d selected.

One day, I had bought eggplant, and the cheese that was recommended was a locally made fromage blanc. I don’t know if I had ever had fromage blanc before, but I instantly fell in love with it. Like cream cheese but with more flavor and fewer calories (bonus!), it was a revelation. At home, I caught myself standing in front of the open refrigerator eating the cheese out of the container with my bare hands. I once even cut myself pretty badly on the plastic lid in my fervor to get to the cheese. The point is: I was hooked.

After my happy months in California came to an end, I resigned myself to a life without knowledgeable cheese mongers (and mongers of any sort, to some extent). Then, cruising the internet one day, I happened upon a newspaper article announcing the arrival of a cheese boutique featuring the producer of my beloved fromage blanc. Naturally, I scurried down there. What I found was a cheese haven, staffed by incredibly knowledgeable and passionate women about the same age as me. (Shout out to the Cowgirls!) The boutique was just blocks away from my restaurant job, and I began going there frequently to sample all the cheeses and chat with the girls. What bliss!

I had to go in there today after a bad day of shopping. I’d been struggling to find a birthday gift for my younger sister, and I needed a cheese pick-up! I selected one mild, buttery triple crème and one washed rind, smelly triple crème. Next stop: the great wine shop next door. How convenient!

The attendant asked what kind of cheese I had bought (he must have smelled me coming) and offered to pair a wine for me. For the smelly washed rind, he recommended a 2005 Tuscan wine from the producer Poggio al Tufo. With 60% sangiovese and 40% cabernet sauvignon, this was going to be considerably more robust than my usual Burgundy. But, with an assertive cheese, no doubt you need an assertive wine. And, it was on sale.

Lugging the wine and cheese home on the bus was no picnic, but I certainly had something to look forward to! When I got home, I couldn’t wait to try the pair. Cheese is infinitely better when it’s at room temperature, and my washed rind cheese was nice and soft from the warm ride home. The cheese was pungent, earthy, tangy, creamy…so good!

The wine was a wake up call for my senses. After a couple months of intense Burgundy fidelity, this young Tuscan was like a whole new world. It was so fruity and full bodied, and what was that other flavor? Oh yeah, tannins. After all that time with pinot noir, I’d forgotten all about that stuff! My boyfriend and roommate were completely caught off guard, and Mr. Chicken has declared that he certainly prefers the silkiness of a low-tannin pinot noir.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m still devoted to my Burgundies. But, it sure was nice to travel to Tuscany for an evening with my beloved California cheese.

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