Since Cheesemonger's of SantaFe has opened, I've been a real regular there & trying cheeses I've never heard of. It's one of the best cheese shops that I've ever shopped. Was doing some bottom-feeding at TraderJoe's ystrday, so got a fresh chunk of Franklin's Teleme to have with:
1. TraderJoe's Albarino PasoRobles PetitReserve (13.5%) B by CentralCoastWineWarehouse/SantaMaria 2013: Med.light gold color; bright/zesty citric/lemony/lime/pear slight stony/earthy classic Albarino quite pretty nose; very tart/tangy/citric/grapefruity/pear light bodied bit metallic/tangy slight stony bright/zingy flavor; med. tart/tangy/bit metallic light citric/grapefruity/lemony/pear some stony/mineral/metallic finish; a pretty classic example of Albarino w/ bright/floral/citric character w/a bit of stony/mineral/chalky character; not a profound white but a very pretty white for everyday drinking when you want something lip-smacking good; a very good bargin at $7.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Whenever I see a new TJ's cheepie w/ CentralCoastWineWarehouse on the label, I always give it a try. They pump out some very good values for TJ's. My guess this was an Albarino that was made in Paso and bulked out to CentralCoast...the label suggests they did not make the wine.
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2. Teleme: Franklin (Peluso), who used to make his Teleme over in the SanJoaquinVlly, sold his businees some yrs ago and moved back East. But he missed Calif and moved to the SanLuisObispo area and resumed production. It's a large block (12"x12"x4") of soft-ripened/cow's milk cheese that's rubbed down w/ rice-flour daily during its affinage. It's not a double/triple cream, but gets, w/ age, very runny and has a very creamy flavor to it. You can eat a ton of it and still not get cardiac-arrest. And it shows a great deal of classic SanLuisObispo terroir in the flavor, an added bonus.
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3. I was reading the latest "Cheese Connoisseur" magazine, one of my favorite reads. They had an article in there on cheese raised on bio-dynamic principals. Apparently, bio-dynamics has been much/much slower to be adopted by the artisinal dairy industry than it has for grape-growing. But this BD cheese guy swore by it and claimed that raising his cows & making his cheese by BD gave a much truer expression of the terroir where his cows were raised. Hmmmmmm...does that a little familiar to us wine geeks??
Which led me to the following thoughts: We know that Riesling...err..PinotNoir...uhhhh...Nebbiolo...errr...NapaVlly Cab expresses its terroir better than any other grape. We do know that, don't we?? We've been told that by any number of authorities.
So I pose the question: Do Jersey or Gurnsey or Holstein cows express the cow's terroir more than any other cow?? Can a cow that delivers milk w/ less butterfat display its terroir better? Is it possible to find terroir in a block of Velveeta? Or is Velveeta only useful for paving your driveway?? Can we find terroir in a squirt can of Velveeta Lite? Does anybody have the definitive answer to that one?? It's OK to make something up..it's the LosAlamos way.
Tom