Canadian Cheese Tasting
Monday, September 15th, 2008 On Tuesday night I was subjected to one of the most rigorous cheese tasting events I have ever experienced, perhaps aside from my first days at this little shop when I was forced to eat one of everything. Yes, forced. A French Canadian marketing group came down from Montreal to give us a tasting of sixteen different cow’s milk cheeses. These were not small pieces of cheese, and after the hour of official cheese business and marketing questions I was very hungry. When each eighth of a pound came around I think I ate just a bit too much, by the end I wasn’t feeling so great. This was a rather formal event and at least a quorum was needed to make the results official. The marketing company reps knew very very little about cheese, and although they had the best of intentions their questions were confusing and redundant. I think all of us sitting there, from retail, wholesale, restaurant and importing outfits were in the end a big help for them at least in terms of general cheese knowledge.
I have never participated in a tasting of this sort. Each cheese had a series of questions, reflecting both taste and marketability. We were asked about color, texture, flavor, quality, uniqueness and more. I was grateful for my wine at the end of the cheese dinner, serving more as a digestive than a refreshment. There were in fact a couple of remarkable cheeses, although since it was a blind tasting I have no real way of knowing what exactly they were. There was one cheese that reminded me of a Roblechon Fermier- but not too much. This was important to me because it felt as if a lot of the cheeses were aiming to be too close to their French models. The second was a bloomy rind cheese with a thick pate and a lovely grassy flavor. It was actually like nothing else I’ve tasted. Fortunately this lovely book about cheese was included in our lavish gift bag so perhaps with some deductive reasoning I will figure out which cheese it is…but out of hundreds of entries this is doubtful.
I was impressed with the knowledge and enthusiasm of the other participants and how cheese was discussed with such seriousness. Everyone there really knew the American cheese market and had strong opinions about agriculture and food. The event was held at the Artisanal Cheese Center on the west side. After speaking with the Director of Affinage, Denis Cottin, (for a minute I did think his last name was, in fact, Crottin) he invited me to see their caves. He opened some small goat cheeses for me, explained different washes he uses on some of the cheese and so on. Now, since the other night, I am dreaming of schemes to make caves underneath our shop; I think it will be a while.
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