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Featured Cheese of the Week: Tarentaise

3/19/2012

One of the things we love most about Vermont-made cheese is the diversity of options available to us!  For such a small state, there is truly a bounty of cheeses, and we would be hard-pressed to find a cheese this week more different from the one we highlighted last week… yet they’re both local farmstead cheeses!  Thistle Hill Farm’s Tarentaise is in the spotlight this week and if you don’t know this cheese already, you’re in for a treat.  Made from John and Janine Putnam’s organic-certified raw Jersey milk sourced right from their North Pomfret, VT farm, it is an alpine-style cheese made in the tradition of the Savoie region of  France.  The curds are cooked to high temperatures in a copper pot and after being pressed into molds imported from France, they are aged for at least five months in a predominantly stone cave, being turned and rubbed regularly to develop their distinctly smooth and beautiful natural rind.  Inside the rind, the paste is smooth as well, with a firm, closed texture and initially sweet tones which give way to a unique nuttiness and fruitiness, and a pleasantly piquant, acidic flavor to finish.  We recommend enjoying this award-winning cheese at room temperature with a medium-bodied red wine such as a Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon.