French Cheese and Wine

Over the last (almost) 13 years I've covered a lot of topics here on Chez Loulou, and the one that I still love to talk about and am most passionate about is French cheese.
But lately cheese has been getting some competition.

My project to taste all the cheese slowly progresses and I continually nerd out with books like The Oxford Companion to Cheese and Mastering Cheese.
I always want to learn more, read more and eat more cheese.

Also, for the last few years I've had the incredible opportunity to offer a French cheese tasting workshop with Paris by Mouth. It is the highlight of my week and the most fun I ever imagined a job could be.



French cheese will always be my greatest love, but now I've fallen for something else.
I'm having a little fling with French wine.

(shhh....don't tell cheese)

Over the summer I enrolled in an intense, online French Wine Scholar certification program and I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into. I thought that after 15 years in France, enjoying the regional wines and even living in a wine making region for 8 years, I would have a pretty solid base to work from. Well....



Now I wake up in the middle of the night and my mind automatically starts listing the principal villages of the Côte de Nuits from north to south and notes which ones have Grand Crus.
I spend time on the Métro memorizing the unusual grape varieties of SW France and remembering which grape dominates which area of Champagne. Terms like gneiss, semi-carbonic maceration, Portlandian marl and sur lie swirl around in my head. I have flash cards and a dozen highlighters.

I am in awe of how much there is to learn and just how much I didn't know. And it's so much fun! I mean, my brain hurts most of the time and I'm slightly terrified of the exam I have to take at the end, but wine is a fabulous subject to study.

Here's to my new love!



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La Fête du Fromage - Clacbitou

I managed to visit six cheese shops in six days while in Paris, a personal best.
I was in cheese heaven.  My friends were in cheese hell.

We would walk into a Fromagerie and within one minute of breathing in the aroma of ripening cheese their faces would kind of twist up and this look of dismay would appear, then they would make their apologies and quickly retreat.  There was always a café nearby where they could sit and have a coffee, so they were pretty patient with me.
(Funny, because I find the aroma of ripening cheese a wonderful thing.  Go figure.)

Last year I was told about a little Fromagerie in the 11th called Autour du Fromage, which happened to be just down the road from where we were staying.  On our first day I casually led the group in its direction under the assurance that we were heading toward the Marais - which we were, I just had a couple of stops to make along the way.  I did a lot of our navigating around the city, so figured that working my cheese hunting agenda into our outings every so often wasn't too unreasonable.

Inside I found Clacbitou, a férmier goat cheese from Burgundy.  I took it back to the apartment and did a solo tasting as none of my cheeseophobe friends would get near it.  Oh well, more for me!
Clacbitou has a slight aroma of hay and earth, a very fine, chalky texture and a dense, chewy mouthfeel.  The flavors are mildly goaty, salty and mushroomy, with hints of nuts and slightly tangy.
All around a good cheese, just not the best fromage de chèvre I've ever had.  I prefer its Bourgogne cousin, Charolais, which has a similar texture but a more balanced, sweeter flavor.  It was also reminiscent of Chabichou du Poitou, which I also prefer.

White wines such as Sancerre or a Bourgogne aligoté are good pairings.


The woman at Autour du Fromage was chatty and very helpful, so if you're in Paris and are looking for a great little Fromagerie, please check this place out.

Autour du Fromage
120 Rue de Charonne
75011 Paris
01 43 71 58 48
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La Fête du Fromage - Brie de Melun

Brie de Melun is not your average Brie.

It achieved AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) status in 1980 along with Brie de Meaux and is produced in the same area as Brie de Meaux, about 50 kilometers outside of Paris in the Île-de-France region, but that is where the similarities end.

Brie de Meaux is soft, Brie de Melun is robust.
Brie de Meaux is refined, Brie de Melun is lusty.
Brie de Meaux is perfumed, Brie de Melun is heady.
If Brie de Meaux were Jackie O, then Brie de Melun would be Marilyn Monroe.

The difference in flavor has to do with the method of production. Whereas Brie de Meaux's production uses rennet to achieve coagulation in a mere 30 minutes, Brie de Melun relies on lactic fermentation, which takes at least 18 hours.
Seven to eight weeks of affinage* produce a dense, pale yellow colored interior and a bloomy, white rind that is brushed with reddish-brown streaks. The flavors are fruity, salty, slightly sour and rustic. I also tasted hints of mushroom and hazelnuts.

Brie de Melun is absolutely fantastic!



Serve with red wine such as Sancerre, Bourgogne or Gaillac.



* the process of maturing and ripening cheese




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La Fête du Fromage - Creamy Époisses de Bourgogne

A beautiful, golden Époisses de Bourgogne recently graced us with its presence.

Époisses was referred to as "le roi des fromages" (the king of cheese) by Brillat-Savarin and is still considered by many cheese aficionados as one of the world's greatest cheeses.
Up until the 1930's there were hundreds of Époisses makers, but its production almost completely stopped during the Second World War. Production was picked back up in 1956 by a Monsieur Berthaut who was determined to revive this noble cheese from Burgundy.
Merci Monsieur!
The deep gold rind is washed in salt water for three weeks, then washed in marc de Bourgogne for several weeks, creating a flavor that is delicate, soft and creamy, rich, sweet and tangy. The outdoorsy, barnyard-like smell is quite something to behold, but don't let it scare you! This is one of France's very unique, special cheeses.
Pour a glass of white Burgundy such as a Pouilly-Fuissé to enjoy with Époisses.

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