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Cheese Expert
Mark Todd
Cheeses of the Alps
Most of the known world has heard of Swiss cheese. Cheap versions of this ubiquitous staple are found melted on every hash-house Reuben, topping tons of badly made submarine sandwich imitators, and whipped with toasted almonds for cold pack. Many people have a passing familiarity with gruyere, whether melted on a French onion soup, in a quiche lorraine or in that 60’s standard (making a comeback!), fondue. Some are even aware that the original fontina (fontina Valle d’ Aosta), is a semi-soft cheese from the Italian side of the mountains. Raclette is the name of both a cheese and the après ski dish it’s most closely associated with in the French Alps.
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Cheese and Beer
Pairing #1
Chiantino Cheese and Altbier Beer
The Cheese
Chiantino is an artisan cheese from the mountainous section of southern Germany known as the Allgäu. This is Germany’s premiere dairy region, with thousands of years of tradition in cheese making craftsmanship. Chiantino is one of the fine washed-rind cheeses that are prevalent in the Alps. Washed with red wine (lightly salted to keep the cheese makers from nipping at it!) imported from Italy, this cheese develops a more distinctive aroma and full-bodied flavor as it matures. It starts out semi-soft, with mild aromas and creamy, buttery flavor. Within a few months, the rind develops its characteristic “earthy” aroma and flavor. Chiantino is made exclusively from pasteurized cows milk from tiny herds that graze the old fashioned way, eating only natural grasses and alpine flora. This diet results in milk unlike that found anywhere else on earth. Chiantino is made in 15-pound wheels, and is typically aged around 4 months
Chiantino is at home as a table cheese, as demonstrated in this pairing, or in cooking as an ingredient in anything from fondue to gratin to polenta—basically anywhere creamy melting is desired.
The Beer
Altbier or “old beer,” refers to the beers produced in Germany and central Europe prior to the development of lagers. While most of Germany was in the throes of pilsner ecstasy in the mid 1800’s, a few towns stuck by their traditional beers. Of those, Düsseldorf, Hanover and Münster continued to make the copper-amber ales prized by the working class. These ales are brewed with a moderate to restrained amount of hops, balanced by hearty malt flavors.
While somewhat similar to the ales of Britain and Belgium, these German versions possess unique qualities that stem from the obsessively clean and precise brewing processes typical of that country. Unlike their British and Belgian counterparts, altbier have very little fruitiness. They are also aged for a longer time and at a lower temperature than traditional ales, with a softer, smoother result. This smoothness, combined with a relatively low 5% alcohol content, makes altbier quite drinkable.
There are not many altbiers found in the American market, but two of my favorites are Grolsch amber ale (NOT the stuff in the ubiquitous green flip-top-stoppered bottle!) and domestically, Alaskan Amber out of Juneau. It’s sometimes hard to find, but worth the effort.
The Extras
This pair can be accompanied by any assortment of pickled vegetables. I am particularly fond of pickled okra and watermelon rinds with this cheese. The okra is tangy and crunchy; the watermelon is chewy and sweet-tart. Team this with a real German sourough rye black bread, whole grain mustard and haved Bermuda onions, and you have a feast fit for a king.
Why it Works
Cheese and beer grew up together on the farms in Europe. Washed-rind cheeses, also referred to as “monastery cheeses” due to the large number developed by the monks in the Middle Ages, are earthy and full-flavored. The monks had to replace meat in their diets from time to time, due to fasting. Meats were usually gamey (at best) and spices were extremely expensive, so the monks looked for inexpensive ways to make their cheeses more like the meats they were accustomed to eating. Hence, washed-rind cheeses were born.
Cheese makers used to wash their cheeses in all sorts of liquids, from the whey separated from the curd, to green (unripe) beer, to the lees of wines to things better left unsaid. The resulting cheeses range from mildly earthy to pungent, and are often beer’s finest partners. Wines lack the one flavor necessary to tame these cheeses—malt. While sweeter wines can deal with the intense flavors of blue cheeses, only beers can accompany these pungent cheeses and hope to hold their own. In this specific pairing, the malt flavors in the altbier stand up to the earthy flavors in the Chiantino, while the hops help cut its smooth, buttery, taste-bud-plugging richness.
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Cheese and Wine
Pairing #2
Hirtenkäse Cheese and Gewürztraminer Wine
The Cheese
Hirtenkäse (HEER - tan – kay - sa) translates to “herdsman’s cheese.” This is a dense-bodied, medium-aged mountain cheese with a firm texture that is easily shaved, shredded or chunked and served in any dish calling for asiago, parmesan, or even aged Swiss. The flavor is reminiscent of all three, yet distinctive.
Produced exclusively from the milk of small herds naturally grazed at over 2600 feet elevation, this is truly a mountain cheese. Buttery yellow in color, it is aged around eight months to develop a hard, natural rind and intense nuttiness. It’s excellent shaved on salads, over pasta, shredded into risotto or polenta, topping gratins or melted in fondue. Hirtenkäse is extremely versatile for cooking applications, as is also a great table cheese, paired as shown below.
The Wine
Gewürztraminer translates to “spicy traminer” or spicy grape and refers to the somewhat racy flavors in this wine. Considered one of the great grapes of the Alsace and Germany, gewürztraminer can produce wines in a breathtaking array of sweetness. Alsatian versions are bone dry, with their spicy character accentuated by bracing acidity. German versions range from dry (kabinett) through off-dry (spätlese) to sweet (auslese), sweeter (beerenauslese) and sweetest (eiswein and trockenbeerenauslese).
A lover of cool weather growing areas, this grape does best in America in Washington, Oregon and the cooler regions of California, like the Carneros, the Anderson Valley and the Monterey coast and hills. When grown properly, gewürztraminer displays amazing aromas of clove, nutmeg, flowers and litchis. It has more color than most white wine grapes and can be a bit peachy or melon-colored. This wine is at home as an aperitif with light hors d’oeuvres, or as an accompaniment to heavily spiced Thai, Indian and Southeast Asian dishes.
The Extras
This pair can be accompanied by a variety of fruits (consider dried tropical fruits like pineapple, mango, coconut and papaya), toasted hazelnuts, and butter crackers such Bretons, Club and Ritz. Keep it simple, to complement rather than overwhelm the subtleties of this pairing.
Why it Works
This is a subdued version of the “Italian Roller-coaster” —a dessert course featuring Parmesan, dried apricots, salted, buttered & toasted walnuts and Vin Santo. The richness and mild saltiness in this mountain cheese is balanced by the combination of sweetness and tartness in this wine. While fermented technically “dry,” this grape has so much fruit flavor and aroma that it tastes sweet, even when it isn’t. The hazelnuts accentuate the nuttiness in this cheese, and the dried fruit reinforces the flavors in the wine.
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