Staff Favorite Cheeses

Sandy’s Pick: Rogue River Blue

Rogue River Blue is made from “Single Source” milk from Brown Swiss and Holstein cow’s, which graze in pastures at 1650 ft elevation along the Rogue River in Oregon. They eat a variety of natural grasses, wild herbs, and wild flowers supplemented with grass, hay, alfalfa and grains grown on the ranch.

The five pound wheels are made by hand only in Sept. and Oct. and early Nov. They’re inoculated with Tom Vella’s original cultures and aged in specially constructed caves designed to emulate the ancient caves of Roquefort. Once aged for 8-12 months they wrap each wheel in grape leaves macerated in pear brandy and tie with raffia.

This cheese was the first American Blue Cheese to win the coveted “Overall Best Blue Cheese Award” at the world cheese awards in London in 2003. Other titles include Gold Medal in 2004 and Silver Medal in 2006.

I love this cheese. Although a bit more expensive than some other Blues, once you taste its creamy goodness you’ll understand why. I like to enjoy Rogue River Blue alone or with a semi sweet sparkling wine to bring out its rich earthy aroma, moist creamy texture and hint of berries, hazelnuts and pears.

Bon Appetit!

Andrea’s Pick: P`tit Pyrenees (P`tit Basque)

The natural border dividing France and Spain is the Pyrenees mountain range and the home of P`tit Basque. In this region are hundreds of small mountain cheese makers who stick to the old, traditional methods established by their ancestors centuries ago. P`tit Basque is a labor-intensive cheese. The curd is cut by hand. The cheese makers reach an arm into their kettle of warm curd and ever so slowly, break it by hand into small pieces from which the final cheese will be formed. This ancient technique protects the gentle flavor of the finished cheese.

This semi-soft, sheep and cow’s milk cheese develops its tan rind and aromatic taste during the ripening process. This cheese would be wonderful as a buffet or picnic cheese served with apples, pears, prosciutto, and salami. At my house we serve it with a nice red wine.

Brenda’s Pick: Carles Roquefort

The birthplace of Roquefort lies in the south of France in the mountainous region of Combalou. Like many French cheeses, Roquefort’s origin is tied to a quaint little story involving a shepherd and a lady. The young shepherd, so the story goes, sits down at the mouth of a cave to eat his lunch of rye bread, ewe's milk, and presumably wine of some kind. Between bites, he spies a beautiful girl off in the fields. He runs off leaving his lunch to the elements, which over time somehow combined mold from his bread with the fresh sheep's milk and three months later, the shepherd returned to find a delicious blue-marbled cheese.

My favorite blue is hand made by the second smallest Roquefort collective in France. The beautiful blue that veins this white cheese is the naturally occurring mold from the caves of Roquefort and grown on rye bread, unlike the lab cultured mold used by every other Roquefort producer.

Carles is widely known as the best Roquefort available outside of France. The taste ranges from sweet and supple, to smokey, to sour, with a long salted butter finish. Unlike most other blues from around the world, Carles Roquefort's power lies in its perfect balance between strength and subtlety.

This cheese pairs well with nuts and figs, Italian grape jam, warm baguette, or crumbled atop a seared New York strip steak (my favorite!) and with sweet wines such as Muscat, Port or Sauternes.

Enjoy my favorite blue - Carles Roquefort!