Holy Sheep Batman, That Is One Amazing Cheese!

“It is like the smell of a rotting peach on a tree in the backyard”

I think anytime I hear quotes like that I am in trouble, but fortunately that was Julia talking and I was eating a glorious, semi-soft cheese from Portugal called Amanteigado Sera. This was one of the six different cheeses I tried as part of a cheese class called “Holy Sheep”.

The class is part of a series of fromage classes put on by River City Cellars (RCC) located in Carytown. The class was held next door to the wine and cheese shop in the old Urban Artifacts storefront (this will be soon be a wine bar that will be run by Julia, the owner of RCC). There were about 25 students crammed in there and the information was presented by Julia and the Cheese Goddess Sara.

This is my second class with them, and I was anxious to get into this one specifically because I have fallen in love with sheep’s milk cheese. One of the biggest reason is that sheep’s milk cheese has a higher fat content than either goat or cow’s milk cheese. This is because sheep produce limited amounts of milk, but it is full of fat and vitamins and wonderful stuff. On top of that, most sheep’s milk cheese is pressed condensing all together.

Anyway we tried 6 different cheeses. They were from different regions. We had a blue, a brie, two semi-firm, one semi-soft, and a fresh cheese. Of the six cheeses, I really liked four of them. They are listed below with the basic information and the location on the cheese plate

Manouri- pasteurized, fresh, Greece, 12 o’clock
Casa Madaio Cinerino- pasteurized, semi-firm, Italy, 4 o’clock
Amanteigado Sera- raw milk, semi-soft, Portugal, 8 o’clock
Bleu de Basque- thermalized, blue, France, 10 o’clock

In the end it was hard to pick a favorite. I ended up buying 3 of those 4 varieties. Overall, it was a great way to spend 2 hours: eating cheese, drinking sparkling stuff, and learning about all the cool stuff that surrounds cheese.