Wine Pairing Story (20)

setting off a home-made affinageDo-it-yourself cheese affinage in the Loire
This story begins by sad news : the farmer to whom I used to buy 5-month-old goat cheese (see story) on the market in Saint-Aignan is gone. She passed away unexpectedly last august, and as I hadn't seen her on two consecutive saturdays in september, I asked to the bartender at Chez Armand (the cafe on the marketplace) and he told me the hard news. Late august, he told me, all the market sellers paid tribute to her. She was a familiar figure on this small weekly market and her cheeses were great. I didn't pay a visit to her farm since then and as I didn't see anyone of her family follow suit on the market, I'm afraid that the heirs just stopped the cheese farm.
When I learned that, I decided that I'd make my aged goat-cheeses myself on the following winter because of both my love for this weird and strong-type cheese and because that was a way to perpetuate her legacy. As I wrote then, the French food administration doesn't like to see these aged cheeses on the markets and other cheese-makers told me that the traditional aging of these cheeses in clay pots set in non-airconditionned, ventilated outbuildings was virtually forbidden. That's one of the reasons you rarely see some in the stalls, the other reason being that goat cheese sells well, so most cheese makers don't bother setting some aside for aging.

The cool storage for the cheese potI remembered about everything I saw at the cheese farm last year and everything the old woman told me and I tried to reproduce the aging process. There's only the plane-tree leaves question that I passed as I didn't know (or really looked hard) where to find plane trees in the region. So, last october, I went to the saturday market in Saint-Aignan and bought a dozen cheeses at one of the other cheese stands. After putting them in a clay pot, I placed it in an outbuilding which stays cool most of the year. It's of course non-aircon and the door is not tight, so insects actually come and go but I never noticed insects invasions there. And this clay pot had a lid and I began to use it instead of the thin plastic bag used by the farmer. I still chose to place the pot up high, on top of metal tubes that mice wouldn't climb. Now I thought I would just do nothing for several months and wait till, say, january or february before looking at the cheeses... November emergency adjustmentsThe autumn of 2009 was exceptionnally mild and I began to worry about my experiment, I was thinking about my cheese that I imagined rotting in the pot. It felt more like late summer than october and instead of cold nights we had almost summer-nights temperature then. By early november I took the pot outside for a look and could see even without taking the paper off that the cheese was running rapidly [see pic on left - click to enlarge]. Most cheeses had lost their original shape and under the finger they were worringly soft. I had to take out three of them and replace them with three other cheeses bought on the market. I also took down the lid which I felt let too little air in and out and put in its place a loose plastic bag with a hole. Also, I pust a layer of twigs between the cheeses to ease the natural ventilation inside the pot. 15 days later again, I replaced three more cheeses, which was actually not so bad as it gave me the excuse to eat those deliciously stinky runny cheeses. See one of them on the right, B. was shocked and didn't compete for the prize and I gulped them all by myself. I was obliged to keep them inside several layers of plastic in the fridge to preserve the rest of our food. The mild weather and lack of ventilation had just accelerated the process, otherwise they were beautifully onctuous, very strong of course with notes of ammonia but I liked that. I didn't look for a wine at the time, being concentrated on this exclusive but arduous dish.New wrapping for the affinage (november)Plus, the fact that I left the wrapping paper proved to be a bad choice, the paper was almost melting into the rind. Better late than never, I rushed to find a plane tree and happily I was tipped about a few of them near a pond in a quiet area. The fallen leaves were still in perfect condition and I picked a pile of them before heading back to my improvised cheese lab. This dramatic change of direction obliged me to strip the cheese from the paper, which wasn't always easy as you couldn't always separate the paper from the soft rind, but I could do it at last. I also briefly brushed the leaves before use with a clean paper napkin because there may be microscopic eggs on the leaves that were left by insects before I picked them. These things may develop later into insects who then feed off the cheese. I can tell it to you now : I got this thing [picture on right - click to enlarge] once last year on an aged cheese that I bought on the market. I was prepared for this sort of thing as we all heard stories in France of old cheese with worms in it, some country people like to say that to city folks to shock them. Beyond the first move of disgust, that's not a lethal sign and that's the way real food can be, you know, worms in apples, worms in cheese, what the heck ? But still, I prefered not to face that and even if these red cocoons were harmless and had not yet transformed into a worm or an insects, I prefered not to see them again on my own aged cheeses. And till this day (I still have quite a number of cheeses in the pot) I didn't see any intruder in my plate.
Whatever, I wrapped each cheese in one or two leaves depending of the size of the leaves and put a string around each to keep the leaf reasonably tight. The result was very beautiful, with the only down side that I couldn't see as well as before how the cheese was evolving, I could just guess the softness with the fingers.Time to eat...At about the time of the second three-cheeses replacement (the ones which were already too runny) last november, the weather turned colder at last. I could leave all my cheeses rest and hibernate so that the precious alchemy could unfold, the one no additive or shortcut technology can achieve (at least as far as I know). Then by mid february I decided that the time was right to begin test the cheese. The first good surprise was that after I took off the plastic bag that covered loosely the top of the clay pot, I didn't see a big mass of swarming worms in the bottom. The wrapping leaves had lost their bright colors and there was a bit of mold here and there but under my fingers the cheeses seemed to be relatively firm.
An old Cabernet to go with aged goat cheeseThis time I didn't want to drink a white, be it old Sancerre (I'll do if you pay the bottle...) or an atypical oxydized wine like I did once, or a Rancio which I'm not a huge fan of. I wanted a red because one must be able to drink red wine with old goat cheese without breaking a wine pairing law. I happened to visit André Fouassier in the Loire and brought one of my cheeses with me. He told me that he might have something to go with it :
__He came back from his cellar with a Cabernet Sauvignon 1994 that he never commercialized and that he kept for himself and friends. We had the cheese & the wine in front of his stove and liked the treat. The cheese had the nice civilized bitterness of a several-months-old goat cheese, the ammonia side being more discreet that what I got several times. It was soft but firm, with a good intensity in the palate.
The wine had a lot of fruit in spite of its age with plum notes, ripe plum and raspberry. Also cooked-cherries notes like the ones in clafoutis cake. The vinification was made with whole clusters he said. In 1994 there had been some frost and this (I don't remember the exact reason of this) yielded some reduction notes in the wine.
That was a good match even if I must say that the cheese was probably a replacement cheese that I put in the clay pot in mid november. I'm wondering if the age of the wine is the factor for going well with a long-affinage goat cheese. All these wines that are supposed to go well with this type of cheese share a common point : the age.
See on the left a picture of a just-unwrapped cheese. On the right, this picture was shot at the goat cheese farm from which these delicacies originated.
__Then André Fouassier brought a bottle of his Cot 2007. The wine is fruity with cherry notes, very fresh, less tannins here. The cheese takes over with this wine.
__Then (this is now an improvised tasting of different wines) he brings a Cabernet 2008 (50% C.S./C.F.) that he plans to blend with Gamay. I warm it up in my hands because it is cold. Refined wine with spices. Fruit too. Once warmed up, very nice wine, gourmand. This is a sample, unfiltered and unfined.
__Another red, the Rolls, he says : the nose gives lots of complexity and fineness. He says it's been made from a small surface of Côt Garnon that he owns, he made 33 hectoliters of this. Very, very nice, I like that, it glides in the mouth and is a treat to swallow. Liquorice notes. Machine harvested, so few wholeclusters came in. I want two cases of this one, André, when it's bottled (not bottled yet).
__We taste now the red Valençay 2009 blend : Pinot Noir, Gamay, Côt. Very nice wine too, peppery notes. Will be named Vieilles Vignes.
__Valençay Chabris 2009 (from his vineyards in Chabris which grow on a sandy soil). Pinot Noir, Côt and a little bit of Gamay. Cuvée Saint Phallier. He thinks that this blend is a bit harsh, so he may change the blend before putting the wine on the market. Fruity nose. Cooked fruits. Silky feel, this is brought by the sandy soil, he says. Reasonable length, thin tannins. Now, this is aged goat cheese...Just looking at these picture makes me salivate. here are a few pics of these self-made aged cheeses. This one was really very soft, onctuous and strooooong... When you eat that type of cheese, there is a powerfull feel akin to the one you have when you drink strong alcohol : you feel that if you put a lighter in front of your mouth, your breath would take fire and you would just implode...
I didn't eat the rind here of course, and I don't think a wine would have fit, except a dry Rancio maybe. This one was certainly from the first, early batch, the ones that I put in the pot in mid october, when the weather was unusually mild. Old goat cheese with firm textureDoing the affinage yourself allows you to get many different styles of aging, depending on when you put your cheese in the pot. I think that having had to replace several runny cheeses at the beginning was actually a good thing : In fevruary or march, it allows me to tap into a diverse pool of cheeses, the texture varrying sometimes abruptly from one cheese to the other. The thing I'll do next time is to put a small note on each wrapping leaf saying when it was put into the pot, because just touching the cheese with the finger doesn't always reveal to which batch it belongs. Beautiful, colored-mold rindThis one was another great and strong cheese, with a particularly creamy inside. The outside was particularly brightly colored, but I didn't eat the rind of course and as I survived the treat (I'm alone to eat this, B. snubs these stinky things) I guess this wasn't the symptom of some wild bacteria infection. Anyway, I think that you don't risk anything with such real cheese. These are raw-milk goat cheese and there's a natural balance in these kind of products that allows them to mature naturally and still be safe (my opinion here, I may post one day from a hospital bed to make some corrections...).
As a conclusion I would say that making one's own affinage is fun and easy, the room where this clay pot was stored was an old side building with no aircon, the old door wasn't even tight, which is actually better because the air must circulate.
For a very affordable investment (2,2 € apiece) you get what no shop (even in France) will sell you : unique aged goat-cheese that you unwrap with nearly the same excitement as when you open a long-desired bottle of old-vintage wine. THEY are the real heroes of this story...Now I promise that Wineterroirs Videos (nice name, I should register the TM...) will not be specialized in farm animals even though I'm discovering that I have a crush on those cute and peaceful living beings... I shot this video at the goat-cheese farm from which I bought these cheeses : I use to buy the cheese of Iwona and Vincent Groussin on the market place in Saint-Aignan on saturdays. Iwona speaks French with a light accent, she's from Poland. They sell most of their cheese in the farm shop and on the market, a wholesaler buying the rest. The cheese farm is some 25 kilometers east of Saint Aignan. There is the new shed (this video above) and an other, older shed where the baby goats stay at the beginning of their life.
Groussin goat cheese is not exported but a Japanese cheese-lover (and wine lover) seems to have visited the farm (how did she find the farm ? I can tell you it's out of the beaten path...) and wrote this story (you'll find the contact info for the farm at the bottom of the page).

Comments

[ben wood]

Bert,
Great post! I wonder if anything like that is available in the city?? it's seems like it would be fun to make some!
Cheers,
Ben

[Iris]

So sorry for your ancient cheese farmer - I remembered immediately the story you had written about her.

But very pleased, that her disparation inspired you to do your own "affinage" - I had some involuntary experiences with that - as I love all sorts of old cheeses, which go well with my aged wines:-).

But as we don't have a fridge or anything like that, it's difficult to practise - the best climate would be in the barrel cellar, but I don't dare to add goat-cheese yeasts to my natural ones in the cellar...

So once again thanks for this beautiful post - I would have liked to join in for the tasting at the cosy fire-place. And like last time: watering mouth while looking at some of your final refined products:-)!

[hikalu]

I'm sorry to hear that. At first, Initially, I remember that you've reported about the cheese she made when I see this post. I've never imaged to make aged cheese by myself. That's great!

[Chris Kissack]

A wonderful account of your affinage adventure Bernard, thanks for writing it.

[mark thomasseau]

Great story. I enjoy your posts! Thanks.

[Steph]

I am opening a cheese and charcuterie business and would love to find a clay cheese pot similar to what is shown in the article? Are they fairly common and easy to find?

[Bertrand]

That's a traditional clay pot with lid that you can find relatively easily in antique shops, on flea markets (at least all over the Loire region) and it's still made here and there like you can see on this page :

http://users.skynet.be/audivin/b6.html

[Steph]

Thank you so much for the feedback and the link for the clay pot!

[Jack Everitt]

Once again, you are the man, Bert.

[erik]

this is something very theatrical the passing of great cheese makers. i used to go get cheeses from a man who was badly handicapped, his cheeses were probably the greatest stuff, then a decade later i contacted the farm and realized that his wife had been the backstage person behind the genius cheese and she told me he couldn't talk anymore nor get up and i thought about the cheese, she said that a couple had taken over but i've been afraid to stop by...well, frankly i've lived across several oceans during a long period and now i have this idea about one of my strongest memory, i was at the agriculture fair, i was maybe fifteen, i purchased a fresh goat cheese from some very authentic looking farmer looking so different from people in paris i had grown up around and this thing wow it had the effect of one of those shakespeare lines one never manages to forget. so yea, when the greatest cheese maker on earth couldn't come to the phone, i too started making those killer raw milk crottins inside my motorhome on my mountain top in california, the goats the cheeses all this stuff seemed like it was going to swallow me alive it s so much work its live bacteria one has to just keep doing more and more and it was illegal of course so anyway there was this guy from the swamps, he once said, man, this stuff you makin up there is like alligator meat, it s so natural and unreal .... and i thought in some way that these times were already so much past the time of kubrick's 2001 yet we are indeed moving forward in a complete different kind of futurism.