There’s nothing quite like a farmstead cheese made close to home. They are handcrafted gems, standing in the spotlight of the foodie’s delight, in a world filled with processed. They use the milk produced on their own farms, and the unique character of the herd’s milk comes out in the cheese. Just say yum. Here’s a little blurb about one of my favorites, right here in Virginia:

Meadow Creek Dairy (from their website)
“Meadow Creek Dairy is a family farm in the mountains of southwest Virginia. At an elevation of 2800ft, the combination of pure water, clean air and deep soils produce an ideal environment for growing diverse, mineral-rich pastures.

Since 1980, farming has been our craft. We have worked closely with our Jersey herd to give them the best care, develop the genetics best adapted to our farm, and in the process produce the highest quality milk. Now we take our craft to its next level, providing you with a full flavored, healthy, ecologically friendly cheese.
We practice sustainable farming methods, managing the land and cattle for health rather than high production. Our primary tool to achieve this goal is intensive grazing management. This involves giving our cattle fresh grass every day; they are not allowed back on the pasture already grazed, allowing the grass to re-grow and preventing overgrazing. We use no herbicides or pesticides on our land. Our only crop is grass. We are therefore able to provide excellent nutrition for the dairy herd while improving the health and fertility of our land.
Our milking season begins in late March when all calves are born coinciding with the grass growth. The cattle are never confined, but instead are born and raised on pasture. The cows graze a diverse mixture of perennial grasses and legumes supplemented with some grains, salt and Norwegian kelp. In the fall, when the grass growth wanes, the cows begin to wind down their milk production. Christmas Eve is the last day of the milking season and the beginning of a two month rest for the cows and our family. We avoid routine use of hormones or antibiotics by constantly monitoring our herd’s health. We work toward developing and selecting cows with a healthy immune system.

The taste of our cheeses reflects the diverse pastures and soils of our region. We have created a variety of unique cheeses to showcase our herd’s quality milk. We use only fresh, unpasteurized milk from our own Grade A dairy. Starter culture and rennet are added to form a curd. The curd is cut and manipulated according to the variety, then moves on to the pressing table. Our craft continues in the aging rooms where our cheeses are hand tended. We carefully pick cheese for sale only when flavor has reached its peak.”
In stock now at William Street: Meadow Creek Dairy’s Appalachian

“Supple, straw color paste and a white mould rind with glimpses of pink showing through. The flavor is mild and buttery with a spicy finish and a hint of mushroom.”

Try pairing this rich, gloriously delicious semi-hard cheese with a Pinot Grigio. Lovely on its own, but use a sliced baguette and make yourself an amazing grilled cheese sandwich, gourmet-style.

I just received an email from UMW informing us of the start of the intramural flag footballseason. Games will be played on the newly resurfaced “Goolrick Field” at the end of Sunken Road, with the season beginning October 18th and ending by the Thanks…

Continuing on the theme of Rebecca’s post about wines we really love, I just tasted this wine for the first time about 30 minutes ago and wanted to tell everybody about it because it’s so unusual and so good. This is a Monastrell from Alicante, a region in southeastern Spain. You’ve probably had Monastrell before, the Juan Gil and Castano are well known examples. This one is on a different level. It’s from Primitivo Quiles, the oldes Bodega (winery) in Alicante. They make their wines old school style – this is Spanish wine for Spain, not Americanized. You can tell even by the label that they are traditional. It is slightly oxidized which gives it a sort of dried fruit flavor – it reminded me of prunes and dried blackberries with a woodsy and nutty quality as well.

We’ll have this in stock starting Friday and it will sell for $19.99. The impression I got of this wine is that it would be fantastic with food and I can’t wait to take one home and have it with some lamb. If you decide to try this wine do not expect a fruity, California style wine. But you can expect a true hand crafted wine in the old world style. Wines like this are why I love being in the wine business.

If you really like Belgian Ales, you probably already know that we have a very good selection. Not just the normal brands like Chimay or Delirium Tremens either, but hard to find stuff. We just got in a batch of small production Belgian ales that you might be interested to check out. We have two new Gueuze beers (click here to read about this style, which many consider to be the best) including the Girardin unfiltered Gueuze. We have a new Belgian Amber Ale called Rader, a new Flemish Sour Ale and a French ale with a huge 13% abv. Come check it out, these are the sorts of beers you will never find in chain stores no matter how big their selection looks.

Take a look at this recipe for Potato Gnocchi in Food and Wine Magazine. They recommend you pair it with the Roagna Dolcetto d’Alba, which we have available at both stores. I tasted this wine out a couple of weeks ago and it is delicious – fruity but food friendly at the same time.

It’s nice to see a wine magazine not recommending wines that you can buy anywhere, i.e. uninteresting wines, which they have an unfortunate tendency to do. You will not find the Roagna Dolcetto in any chain store.

Reading this review of a wine bar in New York it reminded me of one reason why I like wine so much – the mystery. I taste between twenty and forty wines each week (and sometimes much more), so I’ve had more Chardonnays and Shiraz than I can count. That’s why I get really excited when something new comes around. The great thing about wine is that no matter how much you have tried there are always new discoveries to be made and new flavors you’ve never experienced.

Unfortunately the big wine brands have spent a fortune convincing people that mystery is a bad thing – what you want is consistency. It’s true that when you buy different wines each time occasionally you’ll get something you don’t like, but that’s true of life in general, isn’t it? If you stick to what you know you won’t be disappointed but you won’t experience the thrill of a great discovery either. I’m always amazed at how many people tell me they just want to find one wine they really like and stick with that. I don’t think most people make that judgment on their own, but that it’s the product of marketing for both food and wine. If you want to make big money in the wine business, you convince people to stick to your brand. In the end a few people get rich and the real artists and farmers lose out. And so do you, the consumer. And the biggest scam of all is that these big brand wines aren’t even cheaper, but so many people think they are through the power of suggestion.

I’ll stop myself before I really get going and get back to why I brought this up in the first place. Right now I am very excited about a wine that is sitting in the fridge at our Plank Road store. The wine is the La Ferme de la Sansonniere Rose d’un Jour from Marc Angeli. Made from the obscure Grolleau grape variety in France’s Loire Valley, this wine is one of the finest roses I’ve ever tasted, and definitely the most original. Rebecca and I had this at an industry event a few months ago and loved it. It’s a bit expensive to sell in stores (it would have retailed for about $40, more than most people are willing to pay for rose although this wine is more than worth it). It’s completely unfiltered so it’s actually opaque. It’s also completely naturally made and has no added sulfites, which is very unusual for a rose. Even more unusual, it’s semi-sweet (I jokingly referred to this wine as the world’s best white Zinfandel). This is the sort of wine that most people wouldn’t even try let alone buy, and that’s what makes it so great. It’s like discovering a wonderful vacation destination that nobody knows or cares about and so becomes your own special thing. This wine doesn’t travel well so the importer gave me one bottle to try to make sure it’s still drinking well. If it is Rebecca and I have a case coming our way. If you ask nicely we might be willing to sell you a bottle.

Ok, so I made an embarrassing wine pairing discovery last night. It had been a LONG day (for those of you who shopped with us yesterday, you may have been aware of our credit card processing woes) and when I got home I was a little hungry…..but feeling way too lazy to bother cooking anything. So I ended up munching on some Fritos with a glass of Dominio de Eguron Protocolo (one of my favorite tempranillos for $6.99.) And it was DELICIOUS.

Let’s face it….we ALL have a dirty little junk food secret. Hopefully (for health reasons) we do not indulge in it often. But when we do, we revel in blissful naughtiness.

So let’s hear it folks…it’s Double Secret Confession time! What’s your naughty indulgence? Twinkies? Cheesy Poofs? Pop Tarts?! And what wines have you paired them with and how did they work? (And don’t tell me you’ve never tried it.)

please excuse our dust, as we are in the process of re-vamping our lovely cheese areas. Don’t hesitate to ask if you have trouble finding something…our friendly and knowledgeable staff is always happy to assist. Thank you for your patience, while we work hard to make our gourmet cheese displays look smashing!

please excuse our dust, as we are in the process of re-vamping our lovely cheese areas. Don’t hesitate to ask if you have trouble finding something…our friendly and knowledgeable staff is always happy to assist. Thank you for your patience, while we work hard to make our gourmet cheese displays look smashing!