by Sophia Stern
January teased us with a forty degree day, but the below-double digit weeks are still long ahead of us. As a celebration of dark, cold winter nights, we’ve paired a staple cold-weather cheese with a dry Riesling from an unexpected location. This week, from the Swiss Alps, we have Appenzeller paired with a delicious Riesling from the Finger Lakes region in upstate New York. Appenzeller is as nutty and buttery as it is funky and bold. The Black Label Appenzeller featured in this week’s pairing is made of raw cow’s milk and has the distinct melt-in-your mouth feature of a classic Alpine cheese. At six months, this Appenzeller is flecked with small tyrosine crystals, offering a slight crunch throughout the cheese.
Tradition and hard work are key to any cheesemaking process, but making cheese in the mountains takes cheesemaking to another level. Extreme cattle herding is integral to Alpine cheese. Herdsmen move the cows up the mountain, allowing them to graze pasture to pasture until they reach the peak in the summer and begin migrating the herd back down before the winter snow. Allowing the cows to feed on different pastures across a variety of altitudes gives their milk the dynamic, unique flavor that goes beyond the usual buttery, nuttiness of cow’s milk. The cow’s high variety diet, made of a multitude of grasses, herbs, flowers, and more, along with their high activity lifestyle, leads to healthy, happy cows with nutrient-dense, flavorful milk.
As if the traditions of mountain dairy farming weren’t enough to produce a beautiful cheese, Appenzeller is treated to a laborious and highly secretive aging process. Once the curds have been stirred, drained and pressed into their eventual cheese shape, the fresh wheels are soaked in a salt bath. This bath imparts flavor and removes extra moisture content. Once dried and aging on their wooden shelves, each wheel of Appenzeller Black Label is tended to for six months. During the six month period, the wheels are treated with a secret smear made up of 25 vague herbs, an alcoholic secret spirit, and other undisclosed ingredients. There are only two people who know the full recipe of the smear, but the flavor imparted on Appenzeller is much of what makes the cheese so loved.
To my absolute delight, we’ve paired this flavorful cheese with a delicious Riesling from the Finger Lakes. Although I personally love a sweet Riesling too, Ravines Wine Cellars’ Dry Riesling is, as you would expect, dry, but also tart with juicy, fruity notes and a minerality that keeps the wine in balance. Enjoying these two together to be transported to a warm and beautiful Alpine resort or, at the very least, to make your evening a little cozier.
To read more about Ravine Riesling, check out the liquor store’s blog post here.