What Are the Insider Tips to Discovering and Buying the Best Cheese of Your Life? with Michael Finnerty

Natalie MacLean
May6th

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Introduction

Why does buying from a good cheese shop often beat picking up a wedge from the supermarket? How do people underestimate the physical labor and other demands of being a cheesemonger? How does using a cheese iron reveal where a wheel of cheese is in its life?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with Michael Finnerty, author of the terrific new book The Cheese Cure: How Comté and Camembert Fed My Soul.

You can find the wines we discussed here.

 

Giveaway

Three of you are going to win a copy of Michael Finnerty’s new book, The Cheese Cure: How Comté and Camembert Fed My Soul.

 

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I’ll choose two people randomly from those who contact me.

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Join the live-stream video of this conversation on Wednesday at 7 pm eastern on Instagram Live Video, Facebook Live Video or YouTube Live Video.

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Highlights

  • Why do so many people underestimate the physical labor and other demands behind life as a cheesemonger?
  • How does using a cheese iron reveal where a wheel is in its life?
  • Why can two wheels of the same Comté taste noticeably different?
  • How do grading systems help protect cheese quality?
  • Why do locally made cheeses sometimes outperform famous imported cheeses?
  • What are the advantages of visiting a cheese shop over supermarkets and bulk retailers?
  • How do cheesemongers tell the difference between a cheese that is flawed and one that is stronger than their taste preferences?
  • What causes washed rind cheeses to develop those famously funky aromas?
  • What made the Hervé Mons 1924 Bleu so unforgettable that Michael describes it as a narcotic cheese?
  • Why should you always taste a cheese before buying it?

 

Key Takeaways

  • Why does buying from a good cheese shop often beat picking up a wedge from the supermarket?
    • Once you cut a wedge of cheese from the wheel, you are instantly shortening its lifespan, because it’s been taken away from the whole, and it will start to lose flavor. That’s the other thing I would say. Taste it. Always taste. Especially if you’re going to a cheese shop, as opposed to buying it in the supermarket or buying it at one of those bulk retailers where they’ll sell you a big chunk of Comté. The advantage to going to the cheese shop is exactly this. You have a relationship with the mongers, you get to talk to them, you get to taste them, you know what you’re getting. And if you don’t like it, then don’t buy it.
  • How do people underestimate the physical labor and other demands of being a cheesemonger?
    • N:You were given what you called the cheese talk, a dissuasion technique, delivered by a fellow cheesemonger who worked at your stall. What key points did he use to try to dissuade you from taking this job?
    • M: The point of the talk is trying to put you off doing the job if what it is that you want to do is just sell cheese and have a laugh with the customers, and eat cheese. We’ve been talking about all the nice things about cheese, but there’s a lot of not nice things about cheese. They’re messy and sticky and stinky and we have to make sure that there’s a healthy environment, that we’re respecting the food handling rules, all of that requires constant cleaning. Cheeses are heavy. They need to be displayed properly, that means they need to be cut well. For instance, these big alpine wheels are 40kg, almost 90 pounds heavy. And closing down the stall after you’ve spent the entire day on your feet, it’s a lot of work. All the cheeses need all sorts of crazy special care because they’re really fussy. They all have a thing that if you don’t respect them, they’re just going to react badly, and they will get you the next day.
  • How does using a cheese iron reveal where a wheel of cheese is in its life?
    • N: You write about carotting the Comté, using the cheese iron. What’s happening there? They’re assessing the cheese’s aroma, texture and flavor?
    • M: It’s done throughout the life of the cheese. So you’ll get a wheel of, let’s say, Stilton, or a wheel of cheddar or a wheel of Comté in this case… you take the sample out and you take a bit off, and then you put it back in, because you can’t just leave a hole in the cheese, because oxygen will be getting in, etc. So we always will see where it has been carroted in the past and what they’re trying to do as they mature it and what we will then do as well as, you’re trying to, grade the cheese. When it’s leaving the maturation caves, it’s a very serious business. It’s also a serious business for us, but what we’re trying to do is figure out where it is in its life and what its flavor profile is.

 

About Michael Finnerty

Michael Finnerty is a cheesemonger, journalist, and author based in both London, UK, and Montreal. After almost 30 years of success and acclaim working for the CBC, BBC, and The Guardian, he found joy and a new life selling cheese at London’s iconic Borough Market. Mike has a weekly column on Pénélope on Radio-Canada, works part-time at Global Montreal, but for most of the year, you can find him slinging cheese with the other mongers. Critically acclaimed, The Cheese Cure is his first book.

 

Resources

 

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Thirsty for more?

  • Sign up for my free online wine video class where I’ll walk you through The 5 Wine & Food Pairing Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Dinner (and how to fix them forever!)
  • You’ll find my books here, including Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines and Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.
  • The new audio edition of Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass is now available on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com and other country-specific Amazon sites; iTunes.ca, iTunes.com and other country-specific iTunes sites; Audible.ca and Audible.com.

 

Transcript

 

Books and Wine, Books: Wine, Boxed Wine, Food & Wine Pairing, Podcasts, Serving Wine, Taste Wine, Wine Question, Wine Style, Wine Tasting, Wine Tasting Notes, Wine Trends, Wine Writing, Women and Wine