For my Christmas present, Uly got me a cheese club membership! After much delays, the first shipment came in early April, and I was definitely looking forward to trying it. I was supposed to get three different cheeses, but he threw in a fourth one due to the delays. The cheeses are (from left to right): Bleu Sunshine from Winter Park Dairy (Florida), Bent River Camembert from Alemar Cheese Company (Minnesota), the freebie cheddar from Fiscalini Farms (Modesto, CA), and Lionza cheese, also from Fiscalini Farms. All were great...I've never had a really hard bleu cheese and it was milder than expected, the cheddar and Lionza were both nice and nutty, but my favorite had to be the camembert...it was just so nice and creamy with a bit of funk to it that you never get with brie.
To celebrate my cheeses finally arriving, we opened a 2004 Napa Valley Silver Oak cab that had been sitting in our cellar for a few months. This usually costs more than the Alexander Valley one that we opened last time but surprisingly I wasn't as impressed. It was good, but just not wow like the Alexander Valley Silver Oak bottle of the same vintage. Good thing we didn't pay the $75 retail though, since Uly got it for free from work! :) Still, it went well with all the cheeses, especially the Fiscalini Farms cheddars. Had our usual cheese fixings with it, and some leftover chorizo. Given my perpetual diet, I can't afford to eat cheese like this all the time, but these were definitely worth the extra points!
