Our tour of “blue state” Inaugural cheeses has plenty of fodder in the New England states, and Vermont’s Jasper Hill Farm appears four times on the Wine Spectator list. Today’s cheese, Winnimere, is a washed-rind stinky cheese whose funky outer appearance may intimidate the uninitiated. The pink crusted round is wrapped in dark spruce bark, which imparts a woodsy flavor. Inside the salty crust, the cheese is creamy, yeasty and tangy with a subtle fruity sweetness from the raspberry lambic-style beer the cheese is rinsed in. In keeping with their strict pursuit of quality, the spruce bark and beer are obtained from Jasper Hill’s own trees and yeasts.
I enjoyed the Winnimere paired with Allagash White Ale from Maine and Fox Run’s Riesling from New York’s Finger Lakes region.
You could also try it with a Dogfish Head Midas Touch from the Vice President-elect’s home state of Delaware.
Winnimere is only available November to April, and I found it in stock at the District’s Cowgirl Creamery.
To learn more about washed-rind cheeses, read this week’s Cheesemonger column at The Kitchn. And tune in tomorrow when our Inaugural cheese tour heads West!
January 15, 2009 at 2:25 pm
It looks really good. I like the photo. ongratulation four your blog !
March 20, 2009 at 4:00 pm
[...] certain “groupthink” mentality when it comes to embracing new cheeses. When I reviewed Winnimere there was only one shop in town carrying it; it was Culture’s centerfold cheese around the [...]
April 9, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I purchase a great deal of cheese both imported and domestic. I’m a cheese lover and have never turned away a sample no matter how “stinky”. I purchased some of the Winnemere just yesterday and I have to say, that while the taste was very pleasing, I could not under any circumstances keep this in my house. The foul oder that permiated throughout my house was likened to that of a dead animal found under your home in 100 degree heat.
April 10, 2009 at 12:01 pm
All the more reason to eat it in one sitting.
But yes, it is definitely at the high end of the funk scale!
April 10, 2009 at 3:02 pm
We should have a funk-off: Winnemire vs. Red Hawk.
April 15, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Good tidbit: as a long-time cheesemonger who’s very familiar with winnemere and jasper hill farm, though, just wanted to let ya know that you have its season wrong. Winnemere begins its season no earlier than March and really only gets into its best shape beginning in late April/early May.
April 21, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Kara – Interesting, I got those dates from Cowgirl’s library of cheese. I know it was available by January when I first tasted it, and it’s still out now in mid-April. Hope it does stick around a little longer, I may be developing an addiction.
June 3, 2009 at 1:41 am
Whoa, I am eating this right now – it ain’t that stinky, more soulful – I can taste the grass and tell that the people who made this really care about what they were doing. This is the closet thing I’ve had to Vacherin Mont D’or – this is really really wonderful stuff.
December 31, 2009 at 1:33 pm
[...] Some of my favorite cheese-and-bubbly pairings are not with wine at all, but with beer. Like Allagash’s effervescent Belgian-style White Ale with Jasper Hill’s Winnimere. [...]