Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise

We've kidnapped cheesemaker Jeremy Stephenson for the day. At the ACS conference last month Tarentaise, made on Spring Brook Farm won first place in the farmstead cheese category and third place in the all-around Best of Show competition. For your tasting pleasure, we've kidnapped cheesemaker Jeremy Stephenson for the day. Starting at noon today you can stop by the shops, meet Jeremy, taste his cheese, and pepper him with as may questions as you can imagine.

Lake St. from 12-1:30
French Market from 4-5:30
Broadway from 6:30-8

Shockingly, the Tarentaise is our cheese of the week. Tarentaise is a washed rind, semi-hard, raw milk, cooked curd, farmstead cheese. What's farmstead cheese? It means that the cheese is made on the same land where the animals are raised. Having the cows and the cheese at the same location allows the cheesemaker and the herdsperson to work closely together in producing a truly unique and distinctive artisinal cheese.

Nutty, grassy and slightly sweet with a nice buttery mouth feel this cheese is one of two Vermont farms making Tarentaise. Spring Brook Farm isn't just about making delicious cheese, they're also giving back to the community as a part of the Farms for City Kids charity. This program takes city kids and their teachers and gives them an educational week on the farm. The kids learn how to apply their school work to life outside of the classroom and they get a great education in where food comes from. They help take care of the animals, help turn cheese, garden and have a fantastic learning experience in the process. We are very excited and proud to help support this great organization.

Xian suggests the Ommegang Tripel Perfection to sip alongside this fantastic cheese. In it's traditional style, tripels are fruity, malty beers with well-hidden warming alcohol notes. It's kind of conjecture, but the story goes that these beers are called "tripels" because the monks brewing the beer indicated the high alcohol level (8-10%) by marking "XXX" on the jugs.

The makers at Brewery Ommegang in upstate New York took three years to formulate the "perfect" recipe in the style of a traditional tripel, but with a touch of spice here and there to add complexity. the Tripel has notes of vanilla bean, tropical fruit, banana bread and just a hint of bubblegum. This is a one-time-only beer, and they only brewed 2,000 cases total. Although very tasty now, this beer can be aged for two or three years.

This is a great example of a truly harmonious pairing. The cheese serves to emphasize the sweet, yeasty nature of the beer, and the naturally produced bubbles in the beer soften the mouth feel of the cheese, creating a wonderfully buttery flavor and texture.

New Weekly Pairing

We had the blues for the past two weeks, but this week we've got the greens. One of the superstars of the Green Mountain State is Tarentaise from Spring Brook Farm in Reading, Vermont. Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise won 1st place for Open Category Cow's Milk Cheeses (aged 60 days or more) in the farmstead cheese category a few weeks ago at ACS.

Please go to their website and read about the program that's helping kids get in touch with the land and their food. Learning lessons that can be taught in the classroom, but stay with you longer and mean more after "doing" instead of just reading.

Although made from the milk of the Jersey cow, this cheese is inspired by the traditional cheese of the French Alps. Complex rich, nutty, acidic and reminiscent of the pastures, this farmstead cheese has a lingering finish that changes in each wheel with the seasons.

Wine this week is 2007 Saladini Pilastri Rosso Piceno from Le Marche, Italy (SE of Tuscany). It is made from a traditional blend of Sangiovese and Montepulciano. The grapes are fermented in stainless steel tanks and then aged in oak.

Earthy mushroom, ripe cherry, pepper and nutmeg are all well-represented in this classic and traditional blend wine from Italy.



Come and join us at our Lakeview Location this coming Saturday for another installment in our ongoing "Meet the Maker" series. This time it's the wonderful people of McKinley Springs from Washington State.

From 4pm-6pm you'll have the great opportunity to meet one of our favorite producers try some lovely wines, and ask them questions about grapes, vintage, soil, or anything else that you'd like an expert opinion on.

Come join us!