Wine Terroirs does Epoisses

When I lived in the LA area we would go to a cheese shop in Beverly Hills tell the manager "JOE" sent me and they would bring some great Epoisses from the back room that was really expensive but worth the journey. Never did drugs on the West side but did do cheese.
 
originally posted by robert ames:
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I'm not sure pasteurization is the reason, or at least not the only reason, Epoisses is so bad here. Langres is a pasteurized cheese, and I find it more reminiscent of real Epoisses than the Epoisses we get here. I get the sense that a lot of Epoisses here is long past its sell-by date.
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the sell-by date is stamped on the bottom of the container.
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My reference to "sell-by date" there was intended to refer to its actual best-consumed-by date, not the physically stamped sell-by date, although I do see a ton of Epoisses sold past the latter date as well.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:

Anyone had artisanal Livarot lately? There used to be some from Herve Mons, but I haven't seen it in years.
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Had a Mons époisses fermier last week. Impeccable! No idea what his source is though.

BTW with a joyful bottle of Clos Saron 2010 Out of the Blue!
I'd like to drink more of these... But not at the price of Fonsalette or MG Chaignots. Thanks for the education, Joe!
 
Thanks, Eric. I wish the lesson didn't come with the bitter pricing truth about good California wine....
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Thanks, Eric. I wish the lesson didn't come with the bitter pricing truth about good California wine....
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Out of the Blue is about $35. I doubt you'd find MG Chaignots for that in France. Perhaps to their mailing list, I don't know. Retail in the U.S. is triple the price of the Clos Saron.

In this case, at least by those comparisons, the California wine delivers value. (Note that I'm not claiming Out of the Blue is the equal of a MG Chaignots!)
 
The wines SFJoe made me taste were not the Out of the blue, though all rhone varietals, and their prices were way abobe the $35 price point and the price I have to pay for any MG 1er Cru, even retail, in France.
Like I said, I really enjoyed these wines a lot, and as a grower of the same grapes, feel allowed to be a little jalous of the price your local growers can ask for their wines...

Cheers
 
To return for a moment to the theme of unpasteurized cheese ---- Jasper Hill's Winnimere is a near equivalent of Vacherin. It is unpasteurized, aged 60 days, wrapped in spruce bark and washed with Iambic. Usually it is as runny as you can imagine, but the last batch from early in December was under ripe. Good, but not great was my family's assessment. Next batch should be released in early January. My local WholeFoods carries both Rush Creek and Winnimere, though they don't always check for quality before setting the stuff out for unsuspecting customers.

Winnimere at Jasper Hill Farm
 
originally posted by Brézème:
The wines SFJoe made me taste were not the Out of the blue, though all rhone varietals, and their prices were way abobe the $35 price point and the price I have to pay for any MG 1er Cru, even retail, in France.
Like I said, I really enjoyed these wines a lot, and as a grower of the same grapes, feel allowed to be a little jalous of the price your local growers can ask for their wines...

Cheers
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All of the current release Clos Saron Rhone wines are under $50 in the U.S. That said, Eric, I agree that your various wines all represent great value -- no argument there! I've got a lot more Texier than Clos Saron in my cellar.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I'm not sure pasteurization is the reason, or at least not the only reason, Epoisses is so bad here. Langres is a pasteurized cheese, and I find it more reminiscent of real Epoisses than the Epoisses we get here. I get the sense that a lot of Epoisses here is long past its sell-by date.
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To pick up on Keith's point, I think it is pretty clear that pasteurization is not the primary problem causing the sorry state of most imported cheeses here. Murrays used to import a wide variety of Herve Mons cheeses, including Epoisses, and when you got any of those cheeses (including Epoisses) on the right day at peak ripeness, they were great.

The problem with most of the Berthaut Epoisses you get at a place like Zabars or Fairway is that it smells ammoniated---I think that is a function of the cheese not being stored properly or being on the shelf too long, not a byproduct of being pasteurized.

I don't know why Murrays stopped importing all the Mons cheeses, but one of the guys behind the counter told me some time ago that it was because the quality was becoming inconsistent.
 
I adore the Jasper Hill stuff, pretty much down the whole line. The Moses Sleeper reminds me of the oozy, real raw-milk brie you can only get in France. And Oma is a great Reblechon substitute.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I adore the Jasper Hill stuff, pretty much down the whole line. The Moses Sleeper reminds me of the oozy, real raw-milk brie you can only get in France. And Oma is a great Reblechon substitute.
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Had a nibble of the Moses Sleeper this evening. Real tasty!
 
Winnimere is great, I don't want to knock it in any way.

Though it reminds me much more of Forsterkase than Vacherin, personally.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Winnimere is great, I don't want to knock it in any way.

Though it reminds me much more of Forsterkase than Vacherin, personally.
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this (vaguely) interesting point relates to cheese.

cheese is actually a hard pair, assuming you like wine, like cheese, and are not too far gone at this point to care.

fb. (aka teh notorious d.o.u.c.h.e.)[/quote]
 
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