Avez-vous du fromage?

After a quiet but enjoyable run to Trader Joe's with my eldest, I returned with some new wines and a couple of new cheeses. Not to put on any airs, but I hoped to enjoy my purchases as much as the man who spent 10 times what I did on the same amount of supplies. Once the chillun gots to bed, and all was quieted down, I uncorked my current bottle of imbibements, a 2007 FIFE Petite Sirah, and pulled out my cheeses. I feel I captured three cheeses with three different tastes and textures, yet all to my liking; id est, no Stilton, Roquefort, Limburger, etc....

The first cheese I cut into was an small wedge of Brie. Now, I have heard of brie, and had a sample of it from Kirsten's offerings a couple of Christmases ago, but decided to revisit it with some wine and crackers. Although my cracker choice could have been a tad less salty, the Brie was definitely up to the task of inviting something. I had heard Brie was creamy, rich and light in flavour; with all of these I agree. In fact, the flavour is so mild, it's almost invisible. A harsher wine may have covered it up all together. Luckily, my unassuming wine cleansed the palate as it comingled with said cheese nicely, though they did sort of blend together a bit too much. My second cheese I dove into was a 18mo-2yr aged Gouda. Now, if you have yet to sample a Gouda of this age, I might ask you if you like Parmesan. This cheese was hard, with a slight candied crisp where it met the wax, but could have passed as a close relative to Parmesan had I not known it for what it was. Tasty, but could have used a more full bodied wine, like a good Cabernet, or Zinfandel to complement it accordingly. The third cheese was a one year old aged Gouda. This was firm, but not hard, rich, but not pasty, flavourful, but not overpowering. It posed a slight contrast to my wine without getting lost in it. This, of course, was my favourite, but I will let mother make her own judgements when I offer them up to her today...along with some wine I bought for her. Wish you all could join us, but in the heart is just as well. Love to all.