It's So Easy, Being Cheesy

Thanks to a tip from fellow food writer and friend, Libby from Cooks Like She Talks, Shawnie (of Manges! Mangi!) and I were invited to a cheese tasting hosted by NYC's famous Murray's Cheese Shop. Anyone who spends any time with us knows Shawnie and I are suckers for a good creamy brie or a pungent, tangy blue -- and have driven 13 hours one way for a cheesy experience (see our road trip to Rhode Island last summer). A quick trek across town to meet the Murray's team and savor their wares was a no-brainer.  

Murray's, if you're not familiar, is New York City's oldest cheese shop, founded by Murray Greenberg in 1940.  Over the years, Murray's developed a reputation as a premier cheesemonger, featuring a rotation of over 300 cheeses and their very own aging caves below their main store in Greenwich Village.  More recently, they have been building a partnership with regional grocery stores to share their love of cheese with the whole nation, setting up mini stores and counters in groceries in the South, Midwest, and Western U.S.

Murray's first venture in Columbus is in the Kroger at Sawmill and Hard Road in Dublin (with counters soon to follow at the Brewer's Yard Kroger and the Perimeter Loop Kroger).  The Murray's "shop" is a large, free-standing, rectangular counter, surrounded by cheese on three sides (and an olive bar on the fourth).  In the middle, a Kroger associate who completed Murray's two day cheese class (and thus has the privilege of wearing a red Murray's chef's coat) offers samples of anything you'd like to try and suggestions on how to use any of the cheeses in the case.

Murray's main objective is to make cheese accessible and user friendly. As Nathan Aldridge, our host for the evening and Murray's traveling "preacher of cheese" explained, many people view cheese like they do wine: complicated and overwhelming to explore. To mitigate that anxiety, Murray's organizes their cheese by type: bloomy, semi-soft (melty), washed rind (stinky and intense), hard, blue, etc. Cataloged in this manner, they can help the customer figure out what they enjoy, based on what they might of tried in the past.  

Typically, a customer will be introduced to a more mild cheese, and then can work their way up to more intensely flavored cheeses.  Murray's has found that this way, they can help demystify the cheese world expand a customer's palette. The "Under $5" baskets of cheese provide yet another opportunity to sample a variety without breaking the budget or committing to a huge chunk of cheese.

As part of our evening, we tried six different cheeses, served in the order of their "strength". Each was paired with sparking, white, and red wines, accompanied by dried fruits and preserves.

We kicked the event off with a sparkling white Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc, a dry, crisp chardonnay-based bubbly from California. Kroger's wine specialist worked closely with the Murray's team to create versatile pairings. The order in which we tasted the cheese were:

Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery Goat Cheese- A pasteurized, grassy goat cheese with a rich taste and buttery texture. Tart, but not bitey-tasting. The fresh chevre was served atop a water cracker and tasted with a William Hill Chardonnay. 

Fromager d'Affinois - Agreeably our favorite-- this brie-like cheese was as creamy and soft as butter. It melted in your mouth and had an earthy, mushroomy-ness to its flavor. This Bend, OR cheese also happens to be the most expensive cheese we tasted- Go figure! This was served with a bit of the bubbly and pairs extremely well with berries and figs..

Aged Machego - This Spanish cheese contains the highest fat content of all we tasted, making it firm enough for grating, yet complex enough to stand on it's own, especially with a robust red. We sampled a fruity Italian Allegrini Palazzo  Della Torre Merlot with the Manchego.

Pleasant Ridge Reserve - This beautiful, grass-grazed cow milk cheese hails from Wisconsin. The farmstead cheese is smooth, with hints of olive, fruit, and herbs with a tangy finish. This too was served with the flavorful merlot.

Crave Brothers Les Freres - A pasteurized cow milk, described as "luscious and pudgy" also comes from the hills of Wisconsin. one part-stinky and two parts luscious, the cheese reflects the four brothers' Irish-French heritage. The stinkiest of the cheeses we tasted, paired well with both the Merlot and chardonnay. 

Cambozola Black Label - Brie meets blue in this German Brie-style, pasteurized cow milk containing the barest hint of blue veining, This cheese is a nice transition for people learning to appreciate the creamy blues. We returned to the bubbly for our final pairing.

When all was said and done, we were educated about Murray's core values, their hand selection of quality cheeses, and attention to customer service, which will be evident to Columbus Kroger shoppers after just one visit to the cheese shop.  We not only left the event with a belly full of fabulous cheese and wine, but with a swag bag of Merlot-infused Belavitano and a chunk of Pleasant Ridge Reserve, as well as a Murray's Cheese Handbook and a jar of preserves. 

I'm thinking that a road trip to NYC to check out Murray's Cheese Caves might be on the agenda next summer...

(This post was a team effort by the Ham Sandwich and Shawnie of Manges! Mangi!)