They Say Double Gloucester There, I’ve Said it Twice,
The BadGardens gave us a Christmas present of Wisconsin cheeses (and wines!) from Door county. YUM! And also, HARD CHEESES POST! I supplemented a couple Whole Foods cheeses because I happened to be there and who can resist the Cheese counter at Whole Foods? Not I!
The wines for tonight were a Simon Creek Untouchable Red (a Cab). It had an awesome picture of gangsters on the label. The white was Door County Peninsular White, an apple grape mix. We only had Townhouse crackers but they fit the bill for crackerage. From upper left going counter clockwise:
Robusto – Holland
This was a nice bitey cheese, like a good aged Parmesan or Asiago. It was softer in texture than either but not so soft to be considered a soft cheese. It went really well with the red, but completely dominated the white. We like us some bitey Parmesanesque cheese so this one was our favorite of the evening.
Uniekaas Reserve
This one was a nice hard cheese which was very similar to the Rubusto but darker tasting. It was bitey with a little nutty taste and was OK with the red wine. The white wine brought out the tartness and the cracker neither detracted or added to the experience. This one was our 1.5 choice.
Petit Agour
This was a sheep cheese (the first two being cow cheeses) and was a little sour/tart with a slightly fungal taste. It was also a nicely soft in a still firm but on the soft side of firm cheese. The red totally overpowered this cheese but hid any unpleasantness of flavor. The white brought out the fungal flavor but the cracker really made this cheese. I have no idea why. I also am sad about this cheese not doing so well because I had picked it up before and we loved it. Tonight? Not as much. Maybe we had a better wine selection for this cheese the previous time (I can’t remember what it might have been, sadly) or the other cheeses were not as good and the Petit Agour tasted much better because of it. Of course we ate up all the cheeses before I could get a pic of them so the world may never know why Petit Agour was so much better in the past.
Kasseri – BeGioioso
This starts the cheeses of Door County. This was a tasty cheese with a strong Parmesan character and a slight tartness. It didn’t particularly go with the red and the white brought out a fetta like quality which was strange but tasty. The cracker smoothes out the taste and made it a nice smooth cheese. This cheese came in last of the cheeses of this tasting.
Sartori – Black Pepper
Peppery! This was a smooth cheese with a nice pepper bite and a cheddary background. The red was the wine for this cheese, making it a touch sweet in a good way but the white brought out the pepperiness badly.
2009: We figured out 3 way viding (Rob, TheMan and me, Randal of the 2Ls) and spent the rest of the night chatting with tomorrow in New Zealand.
2008: Randall is hard to catch online.
2007: Friday night also included a trip to the movies! In an actual theater! With actual movie prices! That we had to put a second mortgage out on the house to afford!
2006: Rob is also a wily one to pin down.
2005: Getting both of them on at once?
2004: Without either leaving the horizontal position or exposing more than his foot and toes he proceeded to flail about in an attempt to close said window with his foot.
2003: I bet they would both come on for cheeses.