My third night at a row at Spring.
Lucky, lucky me.
How clever we are to have rented an apartment next door.
For tonight’s Wine Lab, we once again descend downstairs into Spring La Buvette – the wine bar.
The table commune, set and ready.
The smell of robust French cheese was so heady…
Intoxicating.
No silverware tonight.
Did you know to really, REALLY taste cheese it is best torn apart with your hands?
Breaking the cheese in half, or to cut the cheese, is to give you the best scent and best fresh taste.
Josh Adler, Spring Chef du Cave.
And fabulous French Cheese Mapmaker.
The chestnut cheese boards were complete works of art.
A classic French cheese board consists of a mix of flavors, colors and textures.
Three to four cheeses is more than enough, and the trend now at parties and tastings in France is to choose one cheese, and display one huge oversize wheel for cutting at the party.
Wineries are featuring one wheel on a board, with a knife or knives, and huge baskets of bread.
Spring is doing this at their wine parties.
Less is often more, after all.
Did you know that the life of cheese is directly proportional to the size of the cheese?
And additionally, size dictates how long the cheese will last?
Our tasting plates, featuring our six paired selections.
The sensational selection of Spring artisinal wine pairings.
Champagne pairs perfectly with a mild, creamy, fatty brie. Both are round in flavor, and create the perfect flavor and texture pairing.
Josh is so full of tales – I could sit and listen for weeks at no end.
Tales of traditions, winemaking, handmade small batches, bio trends, cheese lore, seasonally correct cheese buying tips, steep hillsides and the bounty they bear…just to name my favorite few.
Cheese must be presented at the right moment to be enjoyed best.
Like wine it is aged, but unlike wine it’s best taste is defined by weeks instead of years.
Once cheese is cut, it loses it’s flavor. When buying cheese it should always be cut for you, wrapped in cheese paper (wax on one side, paper on the other), and once home this should be stored inside of a tupperware container to maintain freshness.
When selecting a cheese at the grocery, always look for pieces that have the least amount of rind on them, so you ensure you are getting the la couer – the heart of the cheese.
Did you know you always serve your cheeses to be tasted left to right, or on a round plate, to start at 12:00?
You display the cheese to taste lightest to strongest, otherwise you damage your tasting.
To assemble a cheese plate, you can feature a cow, a sheep and a goat, and a soft a hard and a bleu, or a washed rind (these are the sinky cheeses, made by adding salt and alcohol to the rind to create molds to grow) and a semi soft.
Josh lived in San Francisco for years, cheese mongering at mecca Bi-Rite Market in the Mission.
I confessed: I am their biggest stalker, spending hours at a time inside the postage stamp sized market tasting, buying, sourcing new artisanal trends and lines, and soaking in all the farm to table culture.
Another amazing night at Spring…bien sur.
Lucky for us, we will walk right by again tomorrow.
