Left Coast Cheese

January 2006 marked my second pilgrimage as Buyer for Artisanal Premium Cheese to the annual Fancy Food Show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. My quest, as always, is to explore the world of new and existing fermented dairy products in America, and to examine the ever-expanding trends in the fanciest of foods.

This year, I decided to venture out beyond the convention center and visit a few producers. I hoped to further comprehend the diverse landscape of cheesemakers, farmers, and agriculturists that makes California such a valuable natural resource. In the end, though, my aim is to share that richness and diversity with our customers. Today, I’ll share with you three of my excursions into the Golden State wilds: Fiscalini Farms and their superb, English clothbound cheddar, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company with their Original Blue™, and Cypress Grove Chèvre whose Fog Light is a new riff on a tried-and-true classic.

Fiscalini Farmstead Cheese

Fiscalini Farms in Modesto, CA is a relative newcomer to the cheesemaking business, having only been curdling milk for the last five years. They are known throughout the industry, however, for their extraordinary efficiency and innovation in the field of animal husbandry and milk production. Head cheesemaker Mariano Gonzalez produces a traditional, bandaged-wrapped raw milk cheddar that he matures for 18 to 30 months. We have gone out of our way to hand-select each wheel that we offer to our customers – and after tasting wheels of several age profiles, we have settled on the 18-month variety. We’re sure you’ll enjoy its balance, complexity and clean round finish.

I arrived at Fiscalini and was privileged enough to find them in the midst of the day’s cheesemaking duties. I entered just as the whey was being drained from the vat and the curd was ready to be cut and stacked. This process is called cheddaring, and lends its name to a widely available and popular style of cheese. While we were waiting for the curd to attain the proper acidity level before milling we toured the rest of their facility. Fiscalini Farms is by far the largest farmstead cheese operation that I have witnessed, with over 1,500 Holstein cows. That said, on the way to and from the farm, we passed other dairies with as many as or more than 5,000 animals. That’s a lot of milk!

Following our tour of the production area, I found myself in the Fiscalini’s aging room. This room holds more than 3,000 wheels of Bandaged cheddar with each wheel at a different point in the maturation process. Every wheel of artisan cheese is unique, and needs constant attention in the form of turning, brushing, and coring. A watchful eye early on in the aging process yields an end product of exceedingly high quality.

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese

As we drove up the driveway to Point Reyes we were greeted by a herd of happy Holstein cows grazing on pasture. From their pointed gazes, they seemed to be monitoring all the goings-on at this placid bay-side plot. Point Reyes Cheese Company produces a raw blue cheese from the Grade A milk of their lucky closed herd, with a breathtaking view overlooking Tomales Bay. The coastal fog and the salty Pacific breeze leave their indelible stamp of terroir on a cheese that expresses the utter freshness of its birthplace.

Point Reyes is graced with the talents of master cheesemaker Monte McIntyre, who worked for Maytag Dairy Farms in Iowa for over fifteen years, and has brought with him the experience, consistency, and passion for making blue cheese. The Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, which saw its inception only six years ago, was born from the seed that Bob Giacomini planted when he started the Point Reyes Dairy in 1959. It is now a dynamic, family-run operation, with his wife Dean and their four daughters still in the fold.

Cypress Grove Chevre

The night before my final stop I joined, Mateo Kehler, cheesemaker at Jasper Hill Farm and Wendy Hallgren and Christopher Wainhouse from Provisions International for an exquisite dinner at San Francisco’s Aqua restaurant. The meal served as the perfect prelude to our six hour journey up to Cypress Grove Chèvre. The trip took us to Arcata via the Avenue of the Giants, the indescribable forest of Redwood trees.

Mary Keehn has been making cheese in Humboldt Country since 1984, and she has built a very loyal following through her pioneering line of goat cheeses. Cypress Grove recently transitioned into a new facility in November of 2004 to keep up with growing demand. Though their new digs are almost triple the size of their former home, it still feel quite small given the remarkable amount of cheese being created in this veritable stadium of goat cheese. We suited up into our food production-grade uniforms and found ourselves un-molding fresh chèvre and sprinkling that magical combination of lavender and fennel pollen which makes an ordinary goat round into the signature Purple Haze.

Humboldt Fog takes its name from the rolling, milk-thick mist that settles in over Humboldt County every morning, only to be vanquished by the sun each afternoon. Known by the informal “Humbo Jumbo” among industry professionals, it is perhaps the most popular American Artisanal cheese. Humboldt Fog is much loved for its light and creamy texture, creeping complexity, and unique presentation. It is whimsically adorned with a line of vegetable ash through the center and another layer of ash and white bloomy mold on the exterior. The overwhelmingly positive market reception of Humboldt Fog has spawned a sibling cheese, the Fog Light. We have selected this cheese as supreme representative of the goat’s of California. its popularity has spawned the Humboldt Fog Mini (nickname TBD) and the Fog Light, an even smaller cousin.

After Cypress Grove, we turned due South, winding our way through the brilliant wine country of Napa and Alexander Valley .  Our goal was to select the most successful local wine pairings for our Left Coast Selection, and we completed this task with style.  Fiscalini Bandaged Cheddar calls for the buoyant El Molino Pinot Noir.  The salty, citrus notes of Point Reyes Classic Blue are a wonderful foil to the honeyed sweetness of the 2004 Belmuscato California Dessert Wine.  Finally, a glass of crisp Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc goes hand-in-hand with the Fog Light’s bright and tangy goat’s milk.

I hope you all enjoy these cheeses in a California State of Mind.

Best,

Tyler