I guess that it’s best to start by indicating that I’ve never been a big fan of Gouda cheese, most likely it’s from exposure to nothing but industrial strength Gouda during my formative years - Gouda is one of the most commoditized cheeses in the world. It’s not that I disliked Gouda; it just never seemed tasty and interesting enough to waste my saturated fat allotment on. I do have a friend that is a big fan of aged Gouda, and he served some older Goudas on a number of occasions over the last few years. I appreciated their quality, but they never moved me to go out and buy.
Last fall while perusing the Formaggio Kitchen website for domestic artisanal cheeses, I ran across two Goudas with descriptions that intrigued me, Reypenaer VSOP and Reypenaer XO Reserve. I had always had good experiences with the cheeses from Formaggio Kitchen, so I decided to do a little research. Reypenaer is a small dairy in the Netherlands that apparently makes and ages its Gouda the ‘traditional’ way, what ever that means these days coming from the marketing savvy Dutch. The few reviews that I found were very enthusiastic, so I bought some of the VSOP (aged 2 years) and XO Reserve (select cheeses aged more than 2 years) as a gift for my friend last holiday season. Both were quite amazing, loaded with tiny crystals and rich flavors I had never tasted before in any cheese, especially the complex caramel notes. I’ve since bought some for myself, but I find that it is so rich and sweet that I only enjoy it if I have just a small amount at one time. I’m not sure this makes me a convert, but now at least I can say that I’ve enjoyed it and bought it.
About a month ago, while doing some research, I saw a reference to Gouda from Essex Street Cheese in New York City. While I have long been a fan of their raw milk Comté, but I had been under the impression that they only offered hand-selected raw milk Comté and Parmigiano Reggiano wheels, which they buy, and bring back for further aging. It seems that they’ve added two aged Goudas, a factory Gouda, L’Amuse, made to the specifications of a noted cheese shop of the same name in Holland, and one of the only Farmstead Goudas produced today, Wilde Weide - the former is aged two years and the latter 15 months.
Based on my enjoyment of the Reypenaer, I wanted to taste the older of the Goudas and I was excited to read that it was carried at Steve’s Cheese in Portland. Steve’s was my last stop on a day trip to Portland a week later, and Steve just happened to be in the house that day. I asked him about L’Amuse, and it just happened to be the dark orange wheel on top of his cheese case. He suggested that if I liked the L’Amuse, I should try the Wilde Weide. The thought of tasting relatively young Gouda didn’t thrill me, but I decided to play along. He gave me the Wilde Weide first and its flavor and texture just about knocked my socks off, the pale yellow cheese had quite a flavor profile with just a whisper of sweetness and none of the rich caramel notes. I then tried the L’Amuse, and he reminded me that even though it was very high quality, it was still a factory cheese. It was even sweeter and more caramelly than even the Reypenaer Xo Reserve, and after the Wilde Weide, the sweetness and caramel notes seemed overbearing. Steve agreed with me and mentioned the phrase “cheese candy” referring to the L’Amuse and aged Goudas of its type. In this respect, I think that while the L’Amuse is a well made cheese, both the Reypenaer VSOP and XO are better cheeses with the sweetness and caramel notes more balanced with the rest of the flavors, whereas the in the L’Amuse they seem to dominate. I took home a piece of the Wilde Weide, which proved to be too, too small.
This past weekend I went back for more, only to find what amounted to a “heel” of a wheel remaining, so I bought it. The Wilde Weide, ‘wild meadow’ is an organic, raw milk Borenkase, ‘farmers' cheese.’ Jan and Roos van Schie’s farm is in southern Holland on a lake island accessible only by boat. They make the cheese from the milk of their herd of Montbeliarde and Red Friesian cows, which pasture-graze all year long - Red Friesian is an old Dutch breed, but Montbeliardes are rare in these parts since they are typically found grazing in France’s Jura Mountains far to the southeast. Every step of the cheese making is done by hand on the farm, and that's what makes it so good.
The aroma is strikingly different than most Goudas of this age I’ve tasted - arguably not many. At room temperature for about an hour, there was barely any of the telltale aroma of Gouda, and as I took in the scent it became more reminiscent of a Parmigiano-Reggiano in its strikingly buttery tones but with a finishing tanginess (Influence of the mountain bred Montbeliarde cows?). The flavor followed suit, very smooth with a good balance between nutty and buttery and the occasional crystal crunch in the bite. The finish was a bit toasty with a tangy sweetness, and while the ‘official’ tasting notes mentioning Bourbon, the nutty components combine with the finish to remind me of a Speyside Single Malt, possibly Balvenie 12-yr Double Wood. Is it a most un-Gouda-like Gouda, or the way Gouda once tasted before it became a factory made commodity? All I know is that it will be in my regular rotation from now on.
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