This month members get to savour one Ontario cheese, Le Bon Secret and two Québec cheeses, La Mascotte and Victor and Berthold. What a feast!
Quality Cheese Inc. – Albert’s Leap, Vaughan, Ontario. The team at Quality Cheese represents the fourth generation in a family tradition of cheese-making. The company’s president, Almerigo Borgo Sr. emigrated from Italy more than 45 years ago and his sons are carrying on his legacy. Albert’s Leap describes the time when Albert the cheese maker went on a little cheese pilgrimage. He wanted to offer something new and different to the North American consumer. They use the name ‘Albert’s Leap’ to commemorate his leap across the Atlantic.
Le Bon secret
- Type of milk: pasteurized goat’s milk
- Texture: Soft
Tasting notes
Le Bon Secret is a soft and velvety cheese with a light orange bloomy exterior, with a white to off white interior. It has slightly tart notes with fresh hazelnut and mushroom flavours that intensify with time.
Pairing opportunities:
Le Bon Secret would pair well with an unoaked Chardonnay. If you want to drink red, go for a medium-bodied Cabernet Franc. Beer drinkers may want to pair it with an IPA such as the Nickel Brook Head Stock IPA.
Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser, Noyan Québec
Fritz Kaiser in Noyan, Quebec, founded the Fritz Kaiser cheese factory in 1981 near the border with the state of New York. Mr. Fritz Kaiser began crafting his cheeses in 1981 according to traditions from his homeland, Switzerland.
La Mascotte
- Type of milk: Goat’s Milk
- Texture: Semi-soft
Tasting notes
This cheese offers an aroma of milk and grass with a delicate nutty taste. La Mascotte is a subtle, mild and fresh tasting goat’s milk cheese, without the often associated strong aroma. It is moist, allowing a full floral, herby and zesty palette with a subtle taste of roasted almonds. Its rind releases a most appealing slightly woodsy aroma.
Pairing opportunities:
La Mascotte would pair well with a fruity, full-flavoured and full-bodied red wine such as a Merlot VQA. When choosing a white wine try a full-bodied Chardonnay. A white Belgian beer pairs well with La Mascotte, like the fresh flavour, with light citrus and hop tones, of the Hacker Pschorr Weisse Bier.
Fromagerie La Vache à Maillotte, La Sarre, Québec
Located in La Sarre in Abitibi, La Vache à Maillotte is the very symbol of Quebec country cheeses made with sheep’s milk and raw cow’s milk. The company sets itself apart by its creative and innovative approach that is deeply rooted in the countryside’s traditions – the same traditions used in the art of creating, making and introducing people to quality cheeses of unparalleled taste.
FROMAGERIE DU CHAMP À LA MEULE, Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Québec
A cheese maker since 1995, Martin Guilbault and his team passionately produce cheeses that are well-known and respected in Quebec. Today, two generations of the Guilbault family ensure the development and production of incredible cheeses for a clientele of connoisseurs and cheese lovers.
Victor et Berthold
- Type of milk: cow’s milk
- Texture: Semi-firm
This semi-soft, washed-rind cheese is made from thermalized milk. This cheese is named as a tribute to the generations of Guilbault who once ran the family farm: Victor, grandfather of Fromagerie Du Champ à la Meule, founder Martin Guilbault, and Berthold, his uncle.
Tasting notes
Its coppery-orange rind hides a supple, smooth and creamy-beige interior. Its texture is creamy and smooth. Aged for at least 60 days, it features the aromas of cream, butter and herbs, and the strong taste reveals slightly tangy milk and fruit flavours with a rustic note that melts in the mouth.
Pairing opportunities
When pairing le Victor et Berthold choose a red wine blend such as Apothic Red or a Pinot/Syrah such as C’est La Vie! Pinot Noir Syrah. As for beer, Leffe Brune beer would make a good match.