Got Milk Or Wine?

Have you heard the buzz about these five types of milk?

• Testun al Barolo
• Quadrello Di Bufala
• Cypress Grove Midnight Moon California Goat
• Taleggio
• Oregon Blue Vein

Today is National Milk Day. It was created to celebrate the first time milk was delivered in glass bottles. Prior to this, conditions for milk delivery were fairly unsanitary but the new bottles enabled safe and clean storage.

However, Milk Day soon became dedicated to all aspects of milk. Whether it is the health benefits of drinking it or the farming industry that produces it, the day celebrates the wonders of milk, including various ways milk can be used to create different foods like cheese.

Most people may be more familiar with the five types of milk listed if I had said that it is a product made from milk—cheese. The flavors of the cheeses listed are robust so that they complement Malbec, an Argentine wine. Below is a short description of each cheese.

Testun al Barolo

The word "testun" means stubborn in Cuneo dialect. This cheese is aptly named, as it is the most difficult to produce among all cheeses from Mondovi and it is the one which requires the longest time to ripen (twelve months on average). Cow's milk comes from animals that graze freely on alpine pastures, lending the cheese the perfumes of wildflowers and grass. Depending on the meadows and the season, the cheese can take on the aromas of thyme, chamomile, mint, licorice, or caramel.

Quadrello Di Bufala

Water buffalo captured the hearts of 7th century Italian cheesemakers and continue to do so even today. And for good reason. The unusually rich and flavorful milk is high in fat and protein—creamy, sweet, and robustly pungent.

The cheese's seductive aroma, a merging of cave and mushroom scents with the frank fermentation smell of cultured milk. On the tongue, it is supple, creamy and coating, with plentiful salt and a vigorous tang. It has a compelling fragrance, a pleasing texture, flavor balance and a long finish.

Cypress Grove Midnight Moon California goat

Situated where the giant redwoods kiss the Pacific Ocean in the rugged northernmost reaches of Humboldt County, California, Cypress Grove Creamery gets unique inspiration from the salt-etched voluminous fog that coolly rolls in nearly every day.

Dense and chewy, Midnight Moon is aged for at least one year, during which time it develops a lovely brown butter flavor with intense caramel undertones. Aged six months or more, this blushing, ivory-colored cheese is dense and smooth with a slight crunch of protein crystals that form naturally with aging. Midnight Moon is nutty and brown buttery up front with a long caramel finish.

Taleggio

Taleggio is a semi-soft, washed-rind cheese. It is characteristically aromatic yet mild in flavor and features tangy, meaty notes with a fruity finish. The texture of the cheese is moist-to-oozy with a very pleasant melt-in-the-mouth feel. The combination of the soft texture, pungent aroma, and buttery flavors has proven to be especially addictive when spread on fresh crusty bread. The cheese has a thin crust and a strong aroma, but its flavor is comparatively mild with an unusual fruity tang.

Oregon Blue Vein

Created more than 55 years ago by Rogue Creamery's founder, Thomas Vella, Oregon Blue Vein was the first blue cheese made on the West Coast. This is the cheese that sparked Rogue Creamery’s enduring passion for blue cheese. It is a raw milk blue cheese that is aged at least 90 days in caves.

This signature blue is approachable in flavor with a firm but buttery paste and a bouquet of flavors to satisfy a range of palettes. Bite into Oregon blue and find a clean, briney flavor, with notes of sweet cream and veins of mellow, earthy blue molds blooming throughout.

Today’s gift was to purchase these cheeses at the Rogue Valley Creamery in Medford, Oregon, to take to our monthly wine dinner. The host and guests will be delighted that the cheese list will have colorful descriptions just like the flavors of Malbec wine that we will taste. I doubt there will be any whining because, yes, we “got milk!”

In Giving,

Robin