This Week's Tasting: January 23, 2018

Every week at Dairymaids we select six cheeses to include in our free cheese tasting. Whenever we are open, we are tasting cheese. We stock over 150!

Young Chrissy Omo of CKC Farms in Blanco, Texas created Baby Caprino to emulate the soft-ripened goat's cheeses she had in Italy. Made with the goat's milk from her own farm and ash-ripened, Baby Caprino is delicate with a flavorful kick.

Estive is a special version of Ossau-Iraty and is made only when the sheep are grazing at high altitudes in the Bearnaise mountains from June to August. It's production is very small, comprising only 2% of overall Ossau-Iraty production. The mountain forage includes summer grasses like the Gentian (used to make Angostura bitters) and Sweet Vernal grasses (a vanilla-scented wild grass), flowers and stems and roots of licorice, thyme and blue thistle. This unusual feed combined with rich, late-cylce sheep's milk makes for a uniquely delicious cheese.

Valley Ford Cheese Co.'s farm has been dairy farming in Marin and Sonoma counties since the early 1900s. They currently milk a herd of about 400 Jersey cows. In 2008 Karen Bianchi, the fourth generation on the farm, decided to add cheesemaking to the dairy operations. Estero Gold Reserve is an extra-aged version of their Estero Gold, which is based on an Italian Montasio recipe. Aged for 16 months, the texture and flavors become Parmigiano-like.

A husband and wife team, Marieke and Rolf moved to Wisconsin to start a small dairy farm like the ones they grew up on in Holland. Marieke trained with Dutch cheesemakers to make true farmhouse gouda. Her first batches were released in 2006, and started winning awards in 2007. It's a testament to their high quality milk that Marieke is able to get such robust flavor from her cheeses. She uses only raw milk, and ages the cheese on Dutch wooden shelves within their cellar. This Smoked Gouda is aged 2-4 months and lightly smoked.

Barely Buzzed is a cheddar rubbed with a mix of ground coffee beans and French lavender by the Beehive Cheese Company in Utah. Sounds bizarre, we know, but it works! The coffee/lavender rub brings out rich nutty, caramel-like flavors in the cheese. The edible rind makes Barely Buzzed a standout on the cheese plate. This particular batch is aged two years in instead of the standard nine months and is even more complex!

In 2000, the four Giacomini daughters decided to take their father’s 50-year-old dairy business to a new level: they started making blue cheese. With the fine Grade A milk from his herd of Holsteins, they created a rindless blue that crumbles despite its creamy mouthfeel. They credit a lot of the great flavor in Pt. Reyes Blue to their climate. Salty coastal air blows over from Tamales Bay that impacts the cheese’s ripening and the composition of the local soil. Their cows feed year-round on certified organic pasture .This is surely happy cow habitat.

Our wine of the week is Les Copains, a white blend from McPherson Cellars. It is a blend of Rhone varietals and is bright and clean with notes of lemon and honeysuckle. We taste wine from 10am to 2pm on Saturdays.

Our pairing of the week are cookies from Wackym's Kitchen in Dallas, Texas.