Specialty Foods Department

Winter has finally decided to put in an appearance. Thankfully there’s a silver lining to the colder temperatures and that is the heartier fare in which we can indulge. With cheese, this means robust mountain cheeses for melting and blue cheese for risottos and sauces. Or for simply enjoying with some crusty bread.

Sfogliato al Balsamico, $22.99 per lb.

With its rind the color of chocolate and an intriguing dark line running through its middle, this hard Italian cheese from the Veneto is hard to ignore. The thin line is actually origin-protected Balsamic vinegar from Modena. During aging, the wheels are punctured to allow the vinegar to enter the interior. During its two to six months of maturation, this cheese cultivates a savory sweetness from the vinegar as well as a pleasurably chewy texture.

Val d’Aosta, $15.99 per lb.

From the Valle d’Aosta region in the Italian Alps, this semi-firm cheese is supple in texture and delicately grassy in aroma. Made from raw milk and aged about three months, this is the original Fontina, far superior to the rubbery mass-produced fontinas too often used in recipes. Once you taste this cheese you realize that it wants to be melted in order for its flavors of walnuts and mushrooms to bloom. Try the real deal in a fonduta, the Northern Italian version of fondue made with cream, egg yolks, and shavings of white truffles.

Landaff, $19.99 per lb.

This raw milk farmstead cheese is handmade in Landaff, a tiny town in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Since the town was named after the Bishop of Landaff, Wales, and its namesake cheese is inspired by a Welsh cheese style (Caerphilly), it is fitting that the name of this cheese honors both the Bishop and the ancestral cheese. Landaff happens to be delicious as well. 60 days of aging in the cellars of Vermont’s Jasper Hill Farms develops its distinctively grassy flavors that end with a delectable tang.

Bayley Hazen Blue, $19.99 per lb.

Another cheese with a Jasper Hill Farm connection, this cheese is made at their farm in Greensboro, Vermont. A raw milk blue cheese, Bayley Hazen is one of our earthier and subtler American Blues. Using the morning milk of the farm’s herd of Ayrshire cows, it’s a bit crumblier than most blues though still velvety in texture. Aged between four and six months, it has a pleasing balance of the tangy, the sweet, and the salty, and pairs beautifully with either a Riesling or a Tawny Port.

Queso de Valdeon, $15.99 per lb.

This combination cow and goat milk blue cheese from Spain has it all. Not only does it look gorgeous on a cheese platter due to its purplish marbled interior and sycamore leaf-covered rind, but its flavor is wonderfully complex. We never tire of this cheese. Slightly sweet and spicy, it shines best with a fruity Spanish red or a sweet sherry.

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