Stinky Bklyn | Cheese

Abrigo

Pasteurized Goat's Milk | Aged 3-4 Months

Made in Catalonia, Spain

Like all the other nu wave Spanish cheeses this one borrows liberally from tradition while forging its own path. It borrows the simple pressed curd recepie that is the Spanish idiom, and a traditional cheese form called tronchon. It makes the cheese look like it was stolen from a cathedral. The paste is verging on hard, and is very dense, with a salty, creamy flavor highlighted by a moldy note and a metallic tang.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Cava, Spanish Whites, Cote Du Rhone, Cognac

Aragones

Pasteurized Cow's Milk | Aged 3-6 months.

Made by Julian in Rioja Country, Spain

Aragones is a rare cheese type in Spain. Spain has very few washed rind and very few cows milk cheeses. Julian makes the only other common Spanish washed rind, Pata Cabra. The cheese is more in a Belgian idiom. The paste is smooth and thick, in that zone between sliceable and spoonable and has a lovely balance of fruity flavors and funky rich flavors.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Belgian ale, Rioja Reds, Bourbons

Clara

Raw Goat's Milk | Aged 2-3 months.

Produced in Catalonia, Spain

A relatively recent invention, Clara is a treasure of a raw goat cheese. The small cheese has a rough, natural rind, and two textures. There is a dry flakey center, and a more knit soft edge. The dry texture is matched in the earthy flavor, look for notes of hay and flint.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Spanish Whites, Pinot noir, Tokaij

Ibores

Raw Goat's Milk | Aged 2-3 months.

Produced in Extramadura, Spain

Ibores is a cheese as rough and rustic as the country side that spawned it. It's a traditional cheese of Extramadurra, and is the only cheese from the region not made with thistle rennet. The cheese is firm textured, and has a gamey, olivey flavor.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Txakoli, Vino Verde

Idiazabal

Raw Sheep | Aged 4-12 months

Made ay Izar-Gatza in Navarre, Spain

Idiazabal deviates from Roncal (the mother of all Spanish sheep cheese.) somewhere in the mist shrouded shoals of time. When the sheepherds were in the high pasturage they made cheese, but couldn’t bring it back to their caves at home. Instead they'd be forced to store it in their cramped huts, where their cooking fires would smoke the cheese. Now they make Idiazabal year round in larger facilities. Our brand is smoked over hickory and cherry wood. The smoke flavor is pleasant, and definately not overwhelmig. The sheepy, lanolin notes still shine through. By the way, it's pronounced id-ee-ah-zah-ball or id-ee-atha-ball, depending in how Spanish/pretencious you are.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Dark Lagers, Southwestern French Reds, Zynfandel, Bandol.

La Peral

Pasteurized Cow | Aged 2-4 Months

Made in the village of Illias, Asturias, Spain by the decendants of its inventor, Leon Alvarez

The blues of Asturias are rather famous; it seems to be the only place in spain that makes them in any quantity. Most of them achieve their fame by being wild, untamable beasts, such as Cabrales and Valdeon. In the 1920's an Asturian dairyman decided to break with the local tradition of hyper-blued blues, and made this guy instead. La Peral has a soft, creamy paste, and a enough blue to be spicy, but not overwhelm. The cheese has notes of eggs, and a slight sweetness. It almost tastes like blue cheese custard.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Demi Sec Champagne, Lighter dessert wines, Scotch

La Serena

Raw Sheep's Milk | Aged 3-4 Months

Made in Extramadura, Spain

The best of the Spanish thistle rennet cheeses. In the wilds on the border of Spain and Portugal, rennet wasn't always available. Fortunately the only natural vegetable rennet in the world grows there in abundance, the cardoon thistle. The thistle leaves a strong imprint on the cheeses: a soft almost liquid texture and a strange bitter/sour note. In the case of La Serena, the texture is definately melt in your mouth and the flavor is salty with slightly citric bitterness, almost like lime leaves.

Rennet: Vegetarian (thistle)

Pairings: Cava, Saison, Madiera, Gin

Leonora

Pasteurized Goat's Milk | Aged 1-2 months.

Produced in Catalonia, Spain

Leonara is part of a new breed of Spanish Cheese. In the past decade, a number of Spanish Cheeses have cropped up mimicing the French style. Where the French stop however, these go one step further. They are the lemoniest goat cheeses on earth. Leonora is a perfect example of the style, with a fluffy texture, and a rich, milky undertone to balnce out the tartness.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Sauvignon Blanc, Saison, Tokaij

Mahon

Pasteurized Cow | Aged 1 Year

Made in Minorca, one of the Baleric Islands off the coast of Spain

Mahon might not be the cheese it is without the intervention of a small group of ripener/gatherers who operate on the island. They select the best cheeses from the small farms on the island, and give them a proper aging. Without the additional time, the cheese is rather banal, but at a year, the cheese is bold, sharp, and fruity, with hints of citrus and pinapple, balanced by protien. We buy the longer aged wheels, and then scrape down their rinds and rub them with butter and pimienton.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Sherry, Verdejo, Valencian reds, Pilsner.

Manchego

Raw Sheep's Milk | Aged 1 year

Produced for Mitica, in Central Spain.

Manchego is the most well known and popular of the Iberican cheeses. Because of high demand and production, much of the Manchego out there is of inferior quality. That’s a shame, because Manchego can be a fantastic cheese, given proper aging, and quality production. Our Manchego is extra aged, with a dry paste and is salty, slightly sharp, and has a nice grassy/floral note.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Red wine of any sort, Dark Lager, Gin and Vodka

Montcabrer

Pasteurized Goat's Milk | Aged 2-3 months.

Produced in Catalonia, Spain

Montcabrer is another in the long line of modern Spanish cheeses that, while they are in the style of ancient Spanish cheese, are certainly inventions of their own. While it is a simple pressed goat, Montcabrer has a uniquely buttery flavor, and a touch of salt with a hint of hay.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Spanish Whites, Pinot noir, Tokaij

Roncal

Raw Sheep's Milk | Aged 6 months and up

Produced by Punta del Esca, in Navarre, Spain

The ur sheep cheese, this guy has been made the same way, by the same 13 villages, for the last 3000 years. It's a prime example of what sheeps milk is all about with an aroma like buttered popcorn and a nutty, meaty flavor that lingers in the mouth, with only a faint hint of sheep.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Red wine of any sort, Dark Lager, Gin and Vodka

Valdeon

Pasteurized Cow's and Goat's Milk | Aged 4-6 months.

Made in the Asturias Mountains of Spain

The blues of the Asturias are the most ferocious beasts in the cheese world. Valdeon and its ilk are the bluest of the blues, the strongest of the strong. They are wrapped in chestnut leaves, and allowed to develop natural rinds during aging. This does little for the cheese, as the subtle fruity and nutty flavors the paste develops are blown out of the water by the profusion of blue. Its like chugging hot sauce, or taking your tongue to a belt sander. Eat with caution!

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Pedro Ximenez and Port.

Zamorano

Raw Churra and Castellana Sheep |

In and around Zamora, Spain.

The only real difference between this guy and his better known cousin Manchego is the place of origin, as both cheeses follow an identical recipie common to the central Spanish plains. However, the predominance of the Churra breed, which gives particularly good milk, and smaller production insure that the quality of Zamorano is generally better than its more commercialized cousins. Look for all of the usual tells of sheep's milk. Nutty and buttery, with a lactic tang, and a long lingering finish with a slight whisp of wool.

Rennet: Animal

Pairings: Any and All reds, particularly the rustic styles of Southwest France, and Spain. Also Excellent with Sherry.

Cheese

Abrigo

Aragones

Clara

Ibores

Idiazabal

La Peral

La Serena

Leonora

Mahon

Manchego

Montcabrer

Roncal

Valdeon

Zamorano

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