Day 448 : SCS Version # 3, Dispatch 4, Rounding Out the Cheese Plate

For our last Big Guns post I thought we should round out our cheese plate, we have a firm classic cheese, a stinky cheese, a raw goat's milk firm cheese and the last cheese should probably be a blue cheese. However a fresh cheese from each would have also have been a nice way to round things up but I think a blue offering would be best for today and both the Vermont and French cheesemakers certainly wow when it comes to blue cheeses.

Lady in Blue will represent the new world blue cheeses of Vermont crafted by Laini Fondiller and Lazy Lady Farm in Westfield, Vermont. Laini is constantly experimenting and expanding her cheese repertoire to include new and distinct cheeses. Her cheese names have a fanciful and fun sense of humor to them and are light on their feet and uniquely flavorful. Lady in Blue surely doesn't disappoint -- produced with raw cow's milk and aged just for sixty days, best in the summertime months when the cows are fed fresh and alive grasses. It is soft and creamy with a roundness of flavor that coats every crevice of your mouth in just the right ways. It does a grassy piquant dance on your tongue with that classic blue tang but with a raw freshness to it that delights!

And what of its French counterparts, there are so many it is tough to choose -- Roquefort, Fourme D'Ambert, Bleu d'Auvergne, Bleu d' Lacqueville, I could go on and on but I thought instead of choosing the quintessential and yes totally fabulous Roquefort that I imagine a lot of you know, I thought I would introduce you to a favorite of mine -- Bleu des Basques Brebis. Crafted in the Pyrenees where firm sheep's milk cheeses such as Ossau-Iraty and the more well-known Pyrenees Brebis are produced, this is a firm sheep's milk blue cheese that I think combines the perfect nutty, butterscotchy, earthy and rustic notes of the classic firm sheep's milk cheeses of the region with the punch and spiciness of the blue mold, there's a depth of flavor here with a lightness on the palate -- an excellent cheese that is perfect with a glass of Port.