WineDineWith.us

  Occasionally I find a cheese that should be served alone – a singular cheese which merits undivided attention and appreciation. “Winnimere” from Jasper Hill Farm  is such a cheese. Made only in winter when the milk from the farm’s Ayrshire cows achieves its highest fat content, the cheese is washed in beer from the neighboring Hill Farmstead [...]

Imagine – a lush meadow high in the Swiss Alps where contented brown cows feast upon the verdant carpet of lush grasses, herbs and delicate alpine wildflowers; from afar comes the sound of yodeling. (On second thought, get rid of the yodeling.) It is a scene such as this that provides a snapshot of the genesis [...]

When  first visiting Belly Wine Bar,  I relized that I would have to bring the other three Wineaux here. However, rounding up the gang of four – Eleni, Katrin, Rodney and myself –  is not a simple task since we’ve all dispersed – with the exception of myself – from the Hub. Yet, the holidays [...]

I was in Central Bottle + Provisions to do a little wine shopping but no visit to the shop is complete without some cheese tasting. Cheesemonger Stephanie Santos offered me sample tastes of cheeses she had recently added to the inventory. As soon as I tasted “Kinsman Ridge” from Landaff Creamery, I knew I’d be leaving [...]

From the left – Cantal, Black Madonna, Black Ledge Blue An autumn dinner party – the menu, Julia’s “Gigot à la Moutarde” from Mastering the Art. For the most part, the wines would be single-vineyard Argentine Malbecs. My contribution to dinner, as it most often is, would be the cheese course. I was looking for [...]

Late August in Northfield – warm bright days, cool nights. The Connecticut flows low and lazy. In The Valley, the yearly glut of corn and tomatoes. What more could one want? Why cheese, of course. Where once the adage “Things go better with bacon” was au courant,“Things go better with cheese” is timeless. In preparing [...]

Customarily, I finish a pasta or even a risotto with a generous grating of Pecorino Romano rather than Parmesan. I love the earthy dimension this cheese adds to these dishes. However, Romano, my simple grating cheese, is only one style of Pecorino, a family of cheeses though differing in style are all made with sheep’s milk. Central Bottle Wine + Provisions recently offered a [...]

The impetus for this cheese plate came from a class – and the ensuing discussion –  at Central Bottle + Provisions, “Old World vs. New World”, presented by cheesemonger Stephanie Santos. The question – just how do American cheeses compare to European cheeses? Not so long ago, my opinion was that on the whole European cheeses were superior [...]

 Time for the yearly mid-winter birthday bash – my contribution the cheese course; so off to Central Bottle+Provision to confer with cheesemonger Stephanie Santos about which cheeses were showing well. I did have a rough outline of my cheese plate: it would be somewhat traditionalist –  structured around the trinity – cow, sheep, goat – while encompassing  a [...]

For me, this was the perfect evening (but then, I’m hardly typical) - comparing and contrasting ten cheeses, five Old World classics with five New World cheeses derived from those classics, all under the tutelage of Stephanie Santos, cheesemonger at Central Bottle. The theme of the class had intrigued me; my thoughts concerning European versus American cheeses [...]