What did I know about Cabri Ariegeois? Next to nothing, I'm afraid. After trying to locate it somewhere in the known cheese world and failing utterly, it found me. It arrived via a quick phone call from a domestic distributor:
"Hey, we have Cabri Ariegeois! You want some?"
Hell yeah, of course I wanted some. I had been on a month long quest to find the cheese, a writer friend had asked me to find him some for a book he was writing on cheese. I Googled it. Pages showed up in German and Dutch -- two languages with which I have no faculty. I asked my consolidators in France. No dice. I gave up.
And then the phone call. It took almost a month for the cheese to arrive here. Every week my contact promised it would arrive. It didn't. I waited. I called. I forgot about it. And then this morning, it finally showed up.
I ripped the tape off and peered in. I had no idea what I would see inside. Were they little disks? Tomes? No, they were Vacherin-style cheeses, packed into small wood boxes, each piece wrapped in smoky birch bark. Sixteen 500 g (1.1 lb) pieces full. The surface of the cheese was completely covered in b.linens and flouresced orange. There was a subtle stink, but it wasn't the powerful, rank aroma promised by the color and the box.
The side of the box told me the story: LE CABRI-ARIEGEOIS CHEVRE FERMIER DES PYRENEES. FROMAGERIE FERMIERE CABRIOULET - LOUBIERES. Aha! Goat, Midi-Pyrenees, made in Ariege. A quick Google search uncovered nothing specific, but I did stumble upon this curious site with video footage of the affinage (maturing) process. So that's how you age Reblochon!
I pulled a piece out of the case. A quick feel indicated that it was still quite young and hadn't developed its full odiferous splendor. The cheese, arriving by plane, needs another few weeks to mature into a liquid beauty.
And my writer friend? Within minutes of my email notifying him of the Cabri's arrival, he responded. "Great going! I'll take at least half of them using one for a shoot. The "holy grail"!"
Indeed!
This cheese certainly falls into the category of The Cheese Diaries' favorites...washed rind, unctuous, packed in a wooded box (see the entries on Epoisses and Flada)...a party cheese. But it will cost you to throw a party with this one. At $32 a pop retail, you better call your friends and have them bring the wine.
Posted by Wade at April 23, 2004 07:05 AM | TrackBack