The soul of cheese

Christiane Ruckerl says a cheese tasting should start with a soft mild cheese and progress to a harder, bolder variety.

Alongside the cheeses there are grapes and nuts, though Ruckerl says a little bread－a fresh French baguette or slices of rye－are the best accompaniment for letting the cheese flavors shine through.

We start at the mild end, with a soft French cheese of the natural white-mold type with a thick rind. It's nutty and creamier than it looks.

Next is Reblochou, a raw-milk cheese that's soft and smeary－"not fluffy like Brie", she says. "Raw-milk cheeses are made with milk that has not been pasteurized, so you can always taste the animal more than the herbs and the hay they've eaten." Some say the rind is just there to add flavor and not to be eaten on these cheeses, while others like to eat the thin, softer parts that are not at the thick outside edge.

Unfortunately the importing of raw-milk cheese is restricted in China, but Ruckerl hopes that will change after future negotiations and demonstrations that such food can be transported in safe conditions.

Fresh-milk cheeses offer a rich array of well-defined flavors and aromas, with depths of complexity. "When I think of the piquant tanginess of a raw milk blue, or the grassy, herbal depth of a raw sheep's milk cheese," croons another expert, the cheese blogger at the US grocery chain Whole Foods, "I often say that savoring a great raw-milk cheese feels like a walk in the woods."

Because of the animal nature of raw-milk cheese, Ruckerl says, some people like to eat bacon with such cheeses, but "that doesn't make sense to me". A better choice, she says, is olives－but black ones, not vinegary green ones.

Third on the platter is Taleggio, a saltier cheese ("but still more of an introvert") from Lombardy in Italy. "It's cured in natural caves that produce white and blue mold－there's no raw milk here, so you are not going to taste the cow," she says, grinning. We're finding the sweet riesling works best with this one, and she notes that it would nicely pair with a fortified wine, like madeira or port, and with oily foods.