What sorts of white wine do you like?

"One of the finest," is, of course, a subjective rating. Not to badmouth cheddar. Personally, after the age of 30, I began to have bad problems with COW milk products (except not as severe with yogurt). It is NOT the lactose. Anyway, l am now limited to goat & sheep cheeses (unless I come across some lama or tiger cheese). The variety thus available to me is much more limited, in the typical supermarket. And, to get to my semblance of a point, goat cheddar is not particularly exciting.

Sheep cheeses tend to be richer, though less common, in my area. Goat cheese makes very good Gouda. Unfortunately, I have never seen goat Gruyère, which used to be one of my favorite cheeses. Goat Brie, is also uncommon.

There was a delicious, hard (?) Italian goat cheese I used get years ago, but haven't seen it recently. It was never identified, in the market's cheese area, by the specific name-- it was identified by the name of the producer. The name is not coming to me, at the moment (so expect a random post from me, sometime in the future, whenever it pops into my head).

 

My favourite blue cheese, Roquefort, is made from ewes milk.
Far too expensive to be anything but a rare treat sadly.

 

How could you have possibly have left out Sauvignon Blanc? I assume, though, that someone from New Zealand has already lectured you about this. It is also a quizzical thing-- if you are including rare whites, like Gutedel-- that you would also omit Chenin Blanc. And how about the mussel-lover's must, Semillon? Or Muscadet? Viognier? Muscat?

If you prefer to focus on lesser-known wines, you should add Torrontes (from Argentina).

 

Well, if your gauge is rude peasants, there won't be many who know about gourmet foods and drinks, in any country in the world, despite your claim that it is different in Australia. America is a very complex country with a very diverse population of all sorts of different education levels and all sorts of disposable incomes or lack thereof. Stereotyping Americans is often an exercise in futility because we're not all the same.

Many middle-class Americans, even the ones who are not necessarily wine and cheese aficionados, who throw a party at home for their friends, will have, among other things, a cheese platter with six or seven varieties and a few different kinds of wine bottles. It is extremely common to bring a bottle of wine to a dinner party. I don't think you need to only consider aficionados to find Americans who drink wine and eat fine cheeses.

Now, if you only want to consider blue-collar Americans in disadvantaged rural areas who are exclusive beer drinkers, they probably won't know about wine varietals and they will call "cheese" those yellow slices of processed goo. The problem I see with your take is that you seem to believe that these are the majority of Americans.

I've seen this stereotypical views over and over, when friends visit from Europe. They come here with the idea that "Americans are dumb unsophisticated types who have no clue about wine and cheese" and then I take them to a restaurant and they are taken aback by the sophistication of the wine list and by the availability of artisanal fine cheeses. It is interesting to notice, like I've demonstrated (complete with a link and the full list), that two thirds of the very superior wine restaurant programs in the entire world are in America.

 

As long we are focusing on cheeses, and somewhat exotic ones, at that, let me pose this hypothetical, to you. If you could pick what country or region it came from, where would you choose, as the source of your first sampling of human-milk cheese?

 

No doubt, as well, there are those without pedigrees, as cheese gourmands and oenophiles, in working class communities in Britain and elsewhere. And Australia-- are you kidding? I thought the national pastime was getting blackout-drunk on Fosters, then doing things that I will not mention, in front of all these sophisticated readers... I guess I can understand how others could think in a stereotypical way about the U.S., as that is truly how I imagine a sizable percentage of Australians. And as far as wine goes, their Shiraz, if I'm being honest, is just too fat, & without character-- alcoholic fruit punch, really-- compared to French, or Argentinian, Syrah (from what I've tried of the Australian, which hasn't been much; but why keep gambling on what has been a losing game, when you know where to find better fortune?).

But some, love the Aussie Shiraz, of course. So maybe the lesson is not to be overly rigid in one's judgements of what is, "proper," regarding national tastes, and what is not.

 

Could some-one start a thread about cheeses?

 

OK, OK. You just don't seem to know that America is made in huge majority, of a vast, vast middle class. So, yes, the lowest classes are unwashed and unsophisticated... but they are not the majority. For our vast middle classes and our upper classes, wine and fine cheese are very popular staples (as evidenced by the HUGE wine and cheese sections in our supermarkets, which, like member @Curious Always said, are much bigger than the beer section), which is why we are the country with the highest consumption of wine bottles in the world (above France and Italy), and like I said, we drink 13% of all the world's wine while having only 4% of the world's population, so we're punching way above our weight, a fact that you seem to want to ignore. Oh, and by the way, it's not that the beer section isn't of a sizable extension... you might think we drink Budweiser. Well, think again. America has a HUGE number of artisanal, craft breweries, and any good supermarket will have an exquisite selection of several delicious American craft beers, plus imports from Belgium, Germany, etc.

But just as another illustration of how you're mistaken when you stereotype Americans and our supposed lack of knowledge of cheese and wine, I want to show the products of just a simple trip I just made today to my neighborhood Wagemans supermarket.

So, cheese, I got:

Organic Farmstead Oma - Waitsfield, Vermont, USA
Stilton - Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom
La Tur - Alta Lange, Piedmont, Italy
Locatelli - Crema di Pecorino Romano - Lazio, Italy
Soumaintrain - Bourgogne, France, Cave-ripened in Wagemans' cheese cave (yep, our supermarket has one) - how many supermarkets in Australia have cheese caves?
Crémeux de Bourgogne Fourré à la Truffe d'été 3% - Bourgogne, France - this one is so, so good, you wouldn't believe it! With black truffles, simply phenomenal.
Boxcarr Farms Cottonbell - Cedar Groves, North Carolina, USA



Wine, I got:

Tapiz Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 - Mendoza, Argentina - Score 95 (4 bottles)
Champagne Sophie Baron Grande Réserve Brut N.V. - Champagne, France - Score 90 (2 bottles)
Col Solare 2016 - Cabernet Sauvignon - Columbia Valley - Red Mountain AVA, Washington State, USA - Score 96 (1 bottle)
Maison Brotte - Les Hauts de Barville 2018 - Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rhône, France - Score 91 (1 bottle)
Haro - Imperial Reserva 2018 - Compañia Vinicola del Norte de España - Rioja, Spain - Score 96 (2 bottles)



So, you know, just an earlier trip to Wagemans, given that today is a holiday (Veterans' day) and I'm not working, so I felt in the mood for some cheese and wine hunting.

There were literally hundreds of other options, but the above catch is quite good. I look forward to trying the 96-rated Col Solare.

Oh, and I forgot to take a picture of this one because I stored it in my bar rather than in my wine cabinet, but I also got a bottle of vintage Port and a box of chocolate-covered figs, to eat the Stilton with. Stilton + Figs + Port Wine is a combination made in Haven. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and yes. We have some very tasty ways to cook pork, here. Definitely. That's for a change not a wrong stereotype about Americans, thankfully.

 

Hey, I'm walking too!

 

Blessed are the Cheesemakers.

 

I was actually discussing the difference in 'rube peasant' cultures between nations. There's no condemnation at all - in fact if anything it's the opposite.

 

That's an impressive haul! I don't dare ask what that lot set you back

 

Now you've peaked my interest.
What year was the port and which of the port houses was it from?

 

Vintage Ripple.

 

I didn't only buy cheese and wine; there were other items too. But the total bill was about $900. I threw the receipt in the garbage so I can't say exactly how much the cheese and wine cost, as opposed to the other items (some fruit - berries, avocados, tangerines; two panettones, a small package of sliced smoked salmon, and six medallions of raw salmon tartare; one little jar of salmon eggs, one box of tiramisu, one box of Italian dry fettuccini, a box of the spectacular Wegmans pastries - sfogliatelle, almond cookies, others; one box of frozen Cuban empanadas, two flatbreads - one with mushrooms, one with caramelized onions. Three little boxes of dark chocolate with caramel edges. One box of dark chocolate-covered mint marshmallows; one box of dark chocolate-covered figs, two envelopes of pre-cooked basmati rice, 8 little bottles of liquid yogurt). I think that was about it. So if you have any idea of what these other items would cost, you can deduct the cost of the cheese and wine. I have no idea, frankly. I'm a sort of impulsive buyer who doesn't pay a lot of attention to the prices of each item. Except that I do try to exercise a good price/quality ratio for wine. While the Col Solare was very expensive (which is why I bought only one bottle of it), the others were good buys: high score, moderate prices. I do try to pay attention to that. So, if side by side there are two bottles of the same kind of wine, both rated 92 by Wine Spectator or Wine Enthusiast or Wine Advocate or James Suckling, one is $60, the other one is $40, I'll buy the one that is $40. Now, for cheese, I never look at the price tag. You know, good cheese, especially the imported ones, are usually expensive by the pound here in America. Either you want to bite the bullet, or you don't. If you care for excellent cheese, they'll be all expensive, so I just grab the ones I crave, and that's it.

 

2017 W&J Graham's. Half bottle (375cc). It is rated 97 by Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast and James Suckling, all three with the same score, I just looked it up. Rather cheap for the rating, this one; I remember the price; about $60. Phenomenal value.

 

Where I live we are at a disadvantage. Very limited selection of cheeses, limited selection on bread, good dark breads are hard to find. But we have very good hoop cheeses. But we can still put a pretty good meal together.

 

Holy Foie Gras CF, that's some serious groceries!

I personally enjoy a lot of that grub myself, but never actually buy it. I enjoy it when it's offered by those with more commitment to their stomachs than their net worth. In return they enjoy my home grown organic produce and home baked sourdough. It's a balance

Seriously though, I'm much too tight to spend that kind of money on food. I make an exception for the ocassional top drawer Grana Padano, Brie, or Cheddar .. but generally speaking I go with the mid range cheeses for day to day use - and even these are used sparingly, for health reasons as much as cost.

 

What do you mean by 'disadvantage'? That's an interesting concept to me, because here almost every supermarket will have the usual array of decent cheeses. Here's an example of what you'll find at an ordinary (ie, not high end) neighbourhood store:

 

A vintage port that's only 4 years old?
That's one for laying down and forgetting about for 15-20 years if you ask me.
Now is the time to buy it though. It's forecast to be the best vintage since 1945. A particularly dry year has led to a very low yield. Down to about a third of the previous year's prime vintage.
First ever back to back vintage in the 139 years that the Symington family has been in Portugal.
Also the earliest ever harvest (workers had to cut short their annual holiday to come back and pick the grapes).
Grapes were very small (hence the low yield) but in excellent condition.
It's available for £90 a bottle here so $60 a half bottle is about right.

A great investment opportunity if you can afford a crate or two.
If it turns out as good as predicted it could be worth a thousand bucks a bottle by the time it's 25-30 years old.
A wonderful gift for you to bequeath to your kids (or English internet buddy).
I look forward to your review.

 

What's a hoop cheese? Not a phrase I'm familiar with.

 

Basically a mild cheddar. Made from cows milk and covered in a red or black wax.

 

A good trick for making a cheese sauce made with mild cheddar taste more like a mature cheddar is to add a few drops of Tabasco.
A good strong mustard has a similar effect.

 

Here is part of the cheese section in the most popular grocery store chain where I live.

 

Here’s another drink I’ve favored recently. Artisan ciders.