It all began about twenty years ago, one block east of Lincoln Center, when a guest at Picholine Restaurant declined the suggestion of Port for his cheese selection and asked for a different wine-by-the-glass option instead. This began my quest for optimal pairings for all the fine cheeses I would encounter. I initially wrote out notes on each pairing: The Silverado Cabernet Sauvignon starts off on the right foot with the Spenwood, fruity vs. savory, then they go their separate ways, with no synergy in the “finish;” all that remains is a memory of the Cab while the cheese lingers sweetly to the end; the wine is flattened.

Even though extensive and informative, these notes were not user-friendly for quick reference. Those thoughts were recorded onto a Word document but were quickly replaced with quantifiable scores so that I could look up Cabernet Sauvignon, for example to find a complementing selection of cheeses, or in reverse, look up Spenwood and find a list of satisfactory wine partners. An early decision to be made was how to score those cheese and wine matches. I came up with a five-point spread, from +2 (a great match) to -2 (a disaster), with 0 being the neutral point (nothing lost, nothing gained). There was a temptation to rate a pairing a 0+ from time to time, but I soon left those middling scores for others to record and stuck to whole numbers.

The word document grew rapidly, from a few dozen scores to hundreds, then to thousands and was lined up by cheese name, from Aarauer Bierdeckel to Zamorano. Then a second document was created by wine varietal, from Albariño to Zinfandel. Some of the first notes were not detailed but later entries included more information: ABV, vintage, vineyard, as well as date the pairing was tasted, always followed by the score.

These scores became handy reference tools and they helped shape content of all my books, from The Cheese Plate through to my Swatchbook of Wine & Cheese Pairings. Occasionally I received requests for recommended beer, whiskey, martini, even sake pairings. Some of the “rules” of pairings began to crumble, starting with “What grows together goes together.” Other pairing principles held more promise: The “fruit” in a wine is balanced by the “savory” in a cheese, the “size” of a cheese should be balanced by “size” in the wine, etc.

At times I would record multiple pairings, tasting as many as seven different wines against nine different cheeses, for a total of sixty-three pairing entries. This is how the database grew exponentially explaining why I wished I had started it all off on Excel.

Converting all of this data into a viable app has been a months long project and it appears we can finally see the light at the end of the proverbial cheese tunnel now. The first version of the app will launch May 1st (subject to Apple’s approval) and will be supported by iPhone, with a nice chunk of the thousands of pairings included. The frequent updates will include new entries, interactive features for the subscribers, such as adding their own scores and comments, ‘favoriting’ cheeses, wines, and pairings, as well as a revolutionary in-app purchasing and fulfillment solution. Future extensions will feature beer pairings, then spirits, then ciders, etc.

Be on the lookout for this; it’s going to be fun. It all started with: I would rather have a different wine with my cheeses, not Port, sir.

Can’t wait for May!

-Max

When I accepted an invitation to participate in the First Press fund raiser for the local public radio stations I wanted to reach out to some of the cheese community while here, beginning with my good friend Christine Hyatt, past president of the American Cheese Society, and well-connected to cheese peeps everywhere. She has been living in Phoenix for several years and has helped unite the cheese folks, drumming up a little excitement, stimulating the customer base, and helping raise standards among cheese makers and vendors.

Christine invited several members of the surrounding cheese community to her house on my first evening in town and I got to know them a little better. Christine pulled out all the stops! One of Phoenix’s few CCP’s, Adam Burstein, was there – his passion for cheese was immediately evident. Lara Mulchay is one of the pioneers of the Phoenix artisan cheese scene and she will be opening her latest cheese venture, Craft+Culture at the downtown Marriott. I know where I’ll be staying the next time I’m in town!

Wendell Crow, of Crow’s Dairy was at Christine’s too and he practically insisted we swing by his Nubian goat dairy west of town in Buckeye. So glad we did; the scenery was beautiful and the hospitality was amazing. It’s been kidding season in Buckeye so there were plenty of cute little doelings prancing around. They’ll be providing milk for Crow’s lovely cheeses in just a year!

We got to visit what is apparently Phoenix’s only independently owned cheese shop (hard to believe) the Wedge and Bottle. Owners Troy and Krista Daily have an operation that appears to be on a roll. Highly recommended; don’t take my word for it, just look at the reviews! I also dropped down to Tucson to do a little cheese talk at Tana Fryer’s Blu A Wine & Cheese Shop. My first visit to that lovely city and Tana and her team were super professionals.

The Arizona cheese appetite is growing; business is good, so no serious shortage of customers except perhaps in the hotter parts of summer. It seemed like the biggest challenge the producers face is limited fresh pasturage. No surprise there; after all, it is the desert. Same as in other arid regions around the globe, irrigation has turned broad swaths of the desert state into lush farmland. The water table is not far below the surface throughout most of the state, and there appears to be thick topsoil to nourish crops.

Arizona is one of the few states in the union that permits the sale of raw milk. Considering the independent mind-set defining Arizonans perhaps this may not be a surprise. Should anyone be thinking of moving their dairy operations to sunny Arizona the demand for unpasteurized milk exceeds supply. The availability of raw milk is all well and good, so long as every dairy is maintaining strict sanitary practices.

Whenever one of the infrequent problems occurs with dairy products it affects the entire industry, both raw and pasteurized products. Should problems occur in a raw milk it could have dramatic repercussions on access to raw milk cheeses as well – the ones aged sixty days or more. We hope that the booming Arizona dairy industry will take heed and ensure that all operators follow the highest standards. It would appear that the state’s industry is outpacing the resources of its inspectors. I hear that some raw milk producers are operating under the radar with caution thrown to the wind.

One little disappointment: the top line restaurant where I dined on my last night in Scottsdale had no cheese course. Nevertheless, the Arizona cheese industry is looking great already and it appears it is going to have a sunny future.

If you ask a cheese lover what their favorite cheese is the name Manchego will come up more often than you might expect, given that there are hundreds of well-known cheese names in the world today. What makes Manchego a favorite is a combination of its many attributes beyond simple deliciousness. A big reason why it never fails taste-wise is that Manchego can tolerate poor handling and temperature abuse better than most others. This is partly because it is a cheese that comes from a region with harsh temperature extremes, so it has evolved to what it is today – a cheese of unparalleled keeping qualities. The long shelf life ensures that the cheese will retain its unique flavors and aromas, and will keep its delectable butter fats, and its sufficient moisture levels providing the pleasant mouthfeel, all held together in a complex protein structure. These qualities are unrivaled in Manchego’s many imitators and cognates. A cheese like today’s Manchego has been produced in the region for millennia but has only recently evolved to the world-class we know today.

The climatic conditions of La Mancha have always been challenging for an agrarian economy, as great as the soils may be. When irrigation was introduced nearly two centuries ago, the vast region became a prime location for agricultural exploits; it also became the “bread basket” of Spain. The one sheep breed that has always been able to thrive through the temperature extremes and arid conditions is the Manchega. The yield is low but the milk quality is high. It is a marvel to recognize how great a milk can be derived from such limited resources.

Now I ask you: What cheese are you craving?

Do you say Sì or No to Manchego?

I had skirted around the Berkshires of western Massachusetts before, and I have probably flown over them a number of times, but this was my first real immersion into the area. It is easy to see why many people make the annual pilgrimage from many miles away. The region reminds me of the Ozarks: similar topography and roads, surprisingly similar vegetation and houses. The residents were welcoming, with many of them volunteering to make the Classic a success.

We arrived in Lenox a little too early for check-in so we spent most of the midday using the Cranwell Resort’s spa facilities; it was easy to see why our townhouse was not vacated early: one would want to prolong a stay as long as possible.

My first order of business was to check on Friday evening’s cheeses, each of them sourced from Massachusetts cheesemakers: a Fig Burratta, A Barndance, and Berkshire Blue. All three were in place at the Seranak, the gorgeous venue for the evening’s dinner. The cheeses for Sunday’s seminar were also there – a sigh of relief was granted. Friday’s dinner was grand and the cheese course was the closing act; no dessert course to weigh it down.

We took in a marvelous dress rehearsal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Saturday morning -Tchaikovsky’s Seventh Symphony, which fit into the area’s scenery perfectly. This was followed by the Grand Tasting. One couple said they came for this part of the Classic alone, all the way from south Florida. The tasting featured several chefs’ signature dishes, wines from all over, and a few fresh and lovely Massachusetts beers. As if this three-hour event were not enough on its own, we were invited to an evening crew party which included a veritable gourmet smorgasbord.

Anticipating a busy Sunday morning, I chose to retire early that evening. Sunday’s weather could not have been more spectacular, made all the more enjoyable by the professional Tanglewood staff. I brought out the seminar’s six cheeses for tempering first, went over a few details with the severs, saw that everything was on schedule, then began the process of preparing the individual plates. The fresh baguettes were cut, water was poured, collateral set at every setting, the wines were poured at their ideal temperatures, then the cheese plates were set. The view from the Seranak porch was fabulous.

Of the four Rutherford wines, the Arroyo Chardonnay and the Predator Zinfandel were the standout partners for the cheeses. Not one single “miss” was noted with either of these wines.

The Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon were fine too, just a little more particular with each of the cheeses. The cheeses: Garrotxa, Kunik, Manchego, Hannahbelle, Mahón and Bailey Hazen Blue. Rutherford’s Pam Gallagher joined me in presenting the seminar, and was proud of how well the wines showed, even a little surprised at how well the Chardonnay lined up.

A little Yo-Yo Ma rounded out the early afternoon, then departing Tanglewood for Brooklyn with a stopover in Connecticut. The Tanglewood Culinary Program Director, Debbi Otto, orchestrated a tremendous festival from her end. Full of energy, hard work and dedication, exuding remarkable grace through all the complex and concomitant food and beverage events. A big round of applause for her!

Then, Monday’s final leg to Brooklyn was delayed three hours by our car’s broken distributor.

After this spectacular weekend, I did not mind one bit.

Each year’s conference seems to get better than the last; this places pressure on future conference organizers. How they manage to cram all the various highlights into a tight 72-hour agenda must be the greatest challenge. Before the keynote address gets the ball rolling the organizing committee has to set aside a day to administer the Certified Cheese Professional exam. If it took place during the formal conference the candidates would miss important meetings, sessions and other opportunities. This adds a day to the agenda: the afternoon before the start of the conference for the exam itself, and preparing for it the full morning before: allowing time to set up the registration area, giving the proctors their assignments and instructions, and outfitting the exam room with electrical outlets, microphone and monitors, as well as loading the exam software into the rental laptops.

At the rate we are going, it appears we may be adding a second seating during the morning for next year’s exam, so this would require a much earlier start for the setup. As recently as late June we were expecting a total of 260 exam takers this year – maximum capacity for the room. There were some last-minute deferrals which brought the number down to 230, leaving a bit more elbow room. If we continue to see this uptick in enrollments, a second venue on a different date may be required. One option under discussion is to host an exam during the winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. This may make sense for the coming year, when the ACS conference is on the East Coast, offering greater accessibility. We will have to monitor enrollments before we schedule an additional exam at a different location on a different date. On the years when the ACS conference is held on the west coast it would be a little unfair for candidates from the east – which could suggest the Fancy Food Show in New York as a possible exam venue. This is not an immediate concern but again, with the fantastic growth in enrollments since the first exam in 2012, we must be prepared to come up with solutions; there are already over 60 signed up for the 2015 conference exam in Providence.

Adding two more days ahead of the CCP exam is the judging and competition. With over 1,600 entries the logistics of managing the judging are already stretched – a process that cannot be rushed and crammed into one day. To run one day of the judging process during the exam day would strain resources and manpower. Before the judging begins, the cheeses have to be received, checked in, and assigned their codes. This adds another three days on the front end. Few volunteers can justify being away from their regular jobs more than one week and in many cases even two days can be tough. This would prevent them from attending invaluable parts of the conference, including the awards ceremony and the closing Festival. With the amount of physical work involved, many volunteers would be exhausted and besides, suitable conference facilities available for more than a week are either hard to find or overly expensive.

Visits to farms, creameries and other sites have to be scheduled before the conference or after. It makes sense to add these days to your itinerary before the regular conference if you have travelled from farther away. Visitors from other countries and continents are often eager to see the American operations so they can be counted among those taking the tours. It is remarkable that there is such a growing international interest in what is going on here in the United States today. Board member Kate Arding believes our young Certified Cheese Professional program has a lot to do with this focus from outside. They may have their organizations and guilds, and excellent dairy sciences universities, but there is nothing quite like our CCP program. Other countries are watching our little program take off and the wider dairy industry is realizing the benefits. In countries where the industry is a little flat, a certification such as ours might help boost appreciation and sales.

There is so much going on during the ACS conferences it is impossible to get to everything. Yet if the conference were spread out over a longer period there probably would be more meetings and sessions added to fill up the time. It would be kind of like moving into a bigger house: you would tend to fill it up with things you might not actually need. There are the unscheduled meetings that pop up while the concurrent sessions are going on. Add to that the one-on-one networking and socializing; these conferences fly by quickly. No wonder some people feel like they have had enough before they end, well before the closing Festival of Cheeses.

The awards ceremonies are anticipated by everyone, not only by the cheesemakers, even the judges do not know the winners. They may recall a few when the winners are called up to receive their ribbons but putting a cheese to a name has to wait until the Festival on the following evening. This is the first glimpse they have to find out who crafted the cheeses judged to be the best.

The mix of winners was spread out well this year. Some of the newer creameries picked up a number of ribbons, like California’s Bleating Heart Cheese, for their pretty little sheep milk Blue, Ewelicious Blue – highly recommended – and their original cheese, also made from sheep milk, Fat Bottom Girl – equally delicious. Wisconsin’s Hidden Springs owner Brenda Jensen had a great day at the ceremonies, picking up more ribbons than any other producer. She won a Blue Ribbon for her excellent Timber Coulee Reserve and a Red Ribbon for another wash rind sheep cheese, and another for her Meadow Melody, and yet another Red for her younger Timber Coulee. Vermont’s Consider Bardwell won a Blue Ribbon for Rupert, a cheese we have loved since we first tasted it less than five years ago. Connecticut’s Cato Corner has been one of our favorite dairies of the Northeast; its Dairyere was another winner.

Indiana’s Capriole won Blue Ribbons for the lovely Sofia and for the outstanding O’Banon. Legendary cheesemaker Paula Lambert won Blue for Deep Ellum Blue and one of Wisconsin’s greatest recent success stories, Holland ‘s Family Cheese, won Blues for Marieke Gouda Jalapeño and Marieke Gouda Smoked Cumin, unrivaled flavored Gouda styles.

Vermont had a good day, as is often the case. Two years in a row that it has won Best-in-Show, this year with Farms for City Kids Foundation’s Tarentaise Reserve, and with several Blue Ribbons to follow: the same producer’s Tarentaise, the Cellars at Jasper Hill’s divine Harbison, Boston Post Dairy’s Très Bonne, Vermont Creamery’s Bijou and Feta, Grafton’s Queen of Quality Clothbound Cheddar and Shepsog, and Cabot’s Monterey Jack.

It has been an eventful seven days in Sacramento. Seeing old friends, making new connections, and tasting amazing cheeses. It is fascinating how this seemingly simple dairy product brings together such an extraordinary group of individuals from all over the country and from all over the world. I cannot wait to see everybody again at the 2015 ACS Conference in Providence!

Max

The candidates did not appear to be particularly nervous going into the exam. Most of them seemed to be cool, calm and collected, fully prepared. This suggested that this group had been studying the many facets of cheese for many months; their eligibility to sit for the exam was thoroughly vetted.

Exiting the exam was a little more harried. Not that the candidates felt that they had fared poorly but that the process of uploading their scores was impeded. Our first thought was that there was a bandwidth shortage – with 228 exams entering into the software simultaneously – might this be the problem? Candidates began to wonder whether or not their exam scores would be saved; attempts to upload scores on hard wires were also blocked. It became apparent that there was a larger problem than bandwidth. Understandably, the temperature in the exam room began to rise and the commotions surely impacted the concentration of those still taking the exam.

But no worries: We have assurances that all will be well, that the scores will be secured.

Once this is verified the exam review process will begin, perhaps delayed a few days due to the software glitch. Regardless, it will be a few weeks before the candidates will know whether or not they passed. It’s worth the wait. Each question on the exam undergoes statistical analysis. Anomalies among the answers must be checked; the integrity of the exam and of the entire certification must be upheld, for the sake of the CCPs and for the entire cheese industry.

Many thanks to all the proctors, the CCP committee, the ACS office, and to the patience of the exam-takers. We anticipate there will be nearly 200 more CCP’s to join the 253 who have already passed. Good for cheese!

Max McCalman

If all the ACS CCP candidates can ace Tuesday’s exam it will make it a lot easier for the exam review committee. All perfect scores? It seems that everyone has been studying extra hard so maybe it could happen. There are around 230 scheduled to take the exam, about 50% more than last year! We are already looking at next year’s exam, thinking we may have to offer the exam twice to meet the forecasted demand.

Where the CCP project is headed is hard to say but we believe it has already contributed mightily to the cheese industry. The knowledge base has grown and cheese is being cared for better than ever. Quite simply, cheese is better understood and many cheese myths have been debunked. Producers may be more confident their cheeses are better represented and customers should feel more inclined to buy more cheese. The people behind the counters and cheese trolleys seem to know more than they use to; and there is a little more pride showing. The American Cheese Society’s Certified Cheese Professional program has taken the cheese wave and given it guidance and support, with positive ripple effects far beyond what is witnessed among the CCP’s themselves. Everybody’s doing it: getting to know cheeses.

-Max

There are no foods with a greater capacity to inspire passionate discourse, with a myriad of facets to consider: from animal welfare and sustainability, to nutrition and safety. This is part of the beauty of cheese study; it invites contemplation and it stimulates discussions around the globe and around the clock.

A former student emails me questions from her shop in Hong Kong; which triggers the memory of last summer’s young Provençale chèvres au lait cru – illegal for import here due to outdated and misinformed rationale; which reminds me of the upcoming FDA visit to the 31st American Cheese Society conference in Sacramento – a conference now being staged by the organization’s Denver-based administrators and a team of volunteer planning and judging committees’ members from around the country; while cheesemaker Mary Quicke readies for her full day traveling from Devon, England to be there too; while in the meantime: a cheese trolley is being set up for the evening service at a restaurant in Melbourne, who’s chef was inspired by a cheese talk given by Russell Smith – cheese expert of Down Under – also headed that way; as candidates for the Certified Cheese Professional exam are up all night cramming for the 29th of July; shepherds are releasing their flocks from their milking parlors in Portugal’s sunny Beira Baixa; while many millions of pounds of fermented milk cure on cool and damp wooden boards right here in the U.S. of A.; and young and old tummies alike are sated everywhere, including those of the crew of an international space station orbiting our planet.

It is good. Cheese is a food that is as greatly revered as it is reviled. Yet it is a food that has sustained our race for millennia and one that has been offered as a peace offering between warring parties.

Cheese is headed your way, starting now!

Max