Featured Local Cheese: Arethusa Farm Tapping Reeve

TAPPING REEVE by Arethusa Farm in Litchfield, CT

Local lawyer Tapping Reeve formed the Litchfield Law School in the late 18th century, educating scores of politicians and justices who would go on to shape a fledgling nation. What better way to honor that legacy than with a cheese? We hit the history books and developed a savory Colonial-style cheese to please the most discerning connoisseur – past or present. Our Tapping Reeve is both sharp and refined, not unlike its namesake.
AGE: 16-24 months
PAIRINGS: SEMI-DRY HARD CIDER,  IPA’S (ALSO DOUBLE AND IMPERIAL IPA’S)

Featured Farmstead Cheese: Thistle Hill Farm Tarentaise

The award winning organic Tarentaise from Thistle Hill Farm is an aged, raw milk, farmstead organic cheese which is handmade by John and Janine Putnam on their family farm in North Pomfret, Vermont from the certified organic milk of their grass-fed Jersey cows.
Tarentaise is unique to Pomfret, Vermont – its soil, geography, climate and flora, all of which combine to give Tarentaise its characteristic smooth, subtle nut flavor and complex finish, which chamges subtly with the seasons and weather. Tarentaise is made in a copper vat, the first in Vermont, in the tradition of the Savoie region of the French Alsp. The copper vat which is essential to the development of the proper flavor, is one of only a few in the United States and was custom built for Thistle Hill Farm in Switzerland.
Following the traditions of the Savoie, the Putnams use cultures imported from France and make their own rennet using whey from the previous cheese making. Much in the same way bakers use sourdough starter, this traditional rennet gives a complexity of flavor to the cheese which cannot otherwise be created.

Parish Hill Creamery Cheeses

parishhill_humbleherdsman• Humble Herdsman
(Raw Cow’s Milk Cheese | Westminster West, VT )
Whole milk semi-soft Tomme, aged 3 to 5 months. When young, Humble has a mild, nutty flavor and a golden-hued, edible rind formed by brushing the outside with local hard cider. Humble gains earthy, vegetal notes as it ripens.
pair with Giné Giné Priorat (2012, Buil & Giné)
• West West Blue
(Raw Cow’s Milk Cheese | Westminster West, VT )
Traditional aged, two-curd Gorgonzola, West West Blue is made with whole, raw milk from Elm Lea Farm and aged 90 – 180 days. The edible rind surrounds an interior with openings filled with streaks of blue mold, a creamy texture and a spicy, earthy flavor.
pair with Chateau du Taillan Haut Medoc (2010)
parishhill_westwestblue

Farmstead Cheese & Artisanal Wine Tasting

cheese and wineAnniversary Cheese & Wine Tasting
Saturday November 1st, 2 – 5 pm
At the entrance of Walter Stewart’s

Join us for a special Farmstead Cheese & Artisanal Wine Tasting featuring some of New England’s finest cheeses paired with fantastic wines from around the world. You will not want to miss this line-up:
Featured Cheeses
Thistle Hill Farm Organic Tarentaise Vermont Alpine Cheese (North Pomfret, VT)
Cato Corner Farm Bloomsday Aged Raw Cow’s Milk Cheese (Colchester, CT)
Blue Ledge Farm Camembrie Ayrshire Cow’s Milk Camembert/Brie hybrid (Salisbury, VT)
Blue Ledge Farm Lakes Edge Aged Goat’s Milk Cheese(Salisbury, VT)
Green Mountain Blue Cheese Goredawnzola Gorgonzola style cheese (Highgate Center, VT)
Featured Wines
Charles Gonnet – Roussette de Savoie Altesse 2012 (Savoie, France)
Patton Valley Vineyard – Estate Bottled Pinot Noir 2011 (Willamette Valley, OR)
Dominique Piron – Chenas Quartz Beaujolais Villages 2010(France)
Stefan Breuer – R2 Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2012 (Rheingau, Germany)
Mazzocco Vineyards – Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2010 (Sonoma, CA)

Spring is Goat Cheese Season!

blueledgefarmSpring is the season of  many things . . . renewal, new beginnings, baseball, blooming flowers . . . and of course, spring is the start of the cheese season! That’s right, now is the time when “dairy goats in particular tend to breed and freshen more seasonally than cows, and begin producing their milk in the late winter and early spring.”  Arguably, the most delicious and intriguing cheeses of the new season are aged goat cheeses. And in one in particular stands out, our cheese of the month, the award-winning Crottina from Blue Ledge Farm in Leicester, Vermont. Blue Ledge Farm, found in the southern portion of the beautiful Champlain Valley of Vermont, is a family owned and operated goat dairy. This is the cheese that “put them on the map” when it took a first place award in the American Cheese Society competition in 2006. Since then it has won loyal goaty fans for it’s classic simplicity. Aged for three weeks, the texture of this pasteurized cheese is velvety and smooth, with a white mold exterior. It should pair  well with a Pinot Grigio (try Kris Pinot Grigio from Stewart’s Spirits) or Sauvignon Blanc (try Sterling Napa County Sauvignon Blanc) wine. We love this cheese with a dollop of local CT honey (’tis the season for that too)!
crottina