This week I thought for Marriage Mondays, I would focus on my favorite, go-to, weeknight, drinking grape varietal -- Gruner Veltliner. Grown mainly in Austria and the Czech Republic, you occasionally see this wine produced in Hungary and as of very recent, in a select few US wineries. Generally a crisp dry young white wine, sometimes found sparkling, it is considered a fantastic food wine! You tend to find very good value in Gruners which is an important characteristic for me for a weeknight wine, nothing too fancy, but something delish and satisfying and easily adaptable flavorwise to the food that I decide to prepare on a given evening.
One of my favorite Gruner's is Franz Etz's Gruner from the Kampal Region of Austria. It is a fresh, crisp, floral white wine, not nearly as acidic as say a Sauvignon Blanc but on the level of lightness and body of one.
Let's get going with our cheese contestants of the week! I decided to suggest three different goat's milk cheeses to pair with the Gruner, as goat's milk based cheeses tend to be my favorite. As I've told you previously, Gruners are great food wines, so the contestants should have fun this week with the flexibility of the wine.
Contestant Number # 1 : Vermont Butter and Cheese Coupole - Hailing from the pastures of Vermont, this young goat's milk cheese is lightly dusted with vegetable ash to give it a very thin edible rind. Creamy, pasty, tangy, and light, a delicate mouth feel full of nuances. Modeled on the great Loire Valley Goat's milk cheeses, this cheese is an excellent example of the American artisanal movement and one of the first of its kind, having been in production for over a quarter of a century. Most other American artisanal cheeses have maybe half that life span of our Contestant numero uno.
Contestant Number # 2 : Monte Enebro - We cross the pond to Avila, Spain for this contestant, made with love and care by cheesemaker Rafael Baez and his daughter Paloma. Consisting of pasteurized goat's milk and inoculated with Pencilium Roqueforti (the mold utilized to make Roquefort), this is a complex, dynamic, and exceptionally unique contestant. Piquant like a blue but tangy, lactic, and citrusy like a goat, an interesting mixture of flavors.
Contestant Number #3 : Achadinha's Capricious - Returning stateside, we land here in Petaluma, CA. Made of pasteurized goat's milk, this is a cheese that has been aged naturally with the Pacific Ocean air for six months and rolled into an almost square like shape utilizing traditional European techniques. One of the most unique goat cheese's out there, this has the crumbly, caramelly, butterscotchy tastes of say an aged Parmesan, yet it maintains its integrity as an aged goat cheese with the tangy, fresh flavors of the younger goat's milk cheeses we know and love.
So which contestant do you think is going to triumph? Young, middle-aged, or the old guy?
Check back tomorrow to find out who has taken the cake!
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