Lindsay Bandage Cheddar – CheeseLover.ca

Best Bites, Burrata, Celtic Blue, Fromagerie Au Grés des Champs, Fromagerie du Presbytère, Fromagerie Le Détour, Fromagerie Nouvelle France, Glengarry Fine Cheese, Laliberté, Lindsay Bandage Cheddar, Mariposa Dairy, Savvy Company, Vanessa Simmons

Best Bites: Twelve outstanding cheeses of 2014

December 31, 2014 No Comments

We lower the curtain on 2014 with Vanessa Simmons, respected cheese sommelier at Savvy Company in Ottawa, recalling the 12 Canadian cheeses that made the year memorable for her palate. Check out her tasting notes and make up your shopping list for the next visit to a cheese shop.

Celtic Blue Reserve: Glengarry Fine Cheese
Even more robust, buttery than the Celtic Blue we know and love from Glengarry Fine Cheese.

Taliah: Taliah
New-on-the-scene earthy ewe’s milk clothbound cheddar from Québec.

Lenberg Farms Classic Reserve by Celebrity Lindsay Bandaged Cheddar: Mariposa Dairy
Continues to wow year after year. Tangy, fruity, yet clean.

Bonnechere 2 year: Back Forty Artisan Cheese
One-of-a-kind and very rare to find aged. Packs a punch of flavour with awesome bite on the finish.

Magie De Madawaska: Fromagerie le Détour
Runny, lucious, creamy, buttery, nutty and ooey-gooey good when perfectly à point (fully ripened).

Bella Casara Mascarpone: Quality Cheese
Rich, and oh so sinful, with flavors of butter, cream and a hint of sweet dulce de leche (to quote myself!). Eat right from the spoon.

Quality Cheese Hand-Pulled Burrata: Quality Cheese
Heaven. Pure indulgence. Need I say more?

Sylvan Star Natural Smoked Gouda: Sylvan Star Cheese Farm
Surprising! Hints of bacon, maple and smoke, with an overlay of butter and nut rounding out its smooth and supple texture.

Chèvre a Ma Maniere: Fromagerie L’Atelier
Elegant, delicate, tender, yeasty, gorgeous!

La Madeleine: Fromagerie Nouvelle France
Soft and sweet, with a hint of sour finish.

Pont Blanc: Au Grés des Champs
Texture of soft ice cream sandwich with flavours and aromas of fresh sweet milk and grass that lingers and lingers.

Laliberté: Fromagerie du Presbytère
Cheesecake-like luxury, silky, creamy, melty-in-your-mouth.

Jean Morin wins again with Louis d’Or and Pionnier

November 10, 2014 No Comments

Jean Morin of Fromagerie du Presbytère is Grand Champion twice over at this year’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.

His Louis d’Or is Grand Champion in the cow’s milk variety cheese class. Pionnier, made with a blend of cow’s and sheep’s milk in collaboration with Marie-Chantal Houde of Fromagerie Nouvelle France, is Grand Champion in the goat and sheep milk variety cheese class.

Marie-Chantal Houde and Jean Morin with Pionnier.

The 18-month Farmstead Gouda made by Adam van Bergejik of Mountainoak Cheese is Reserve Grand Champion in cow milk.

Lindsay Bandaged Goat Cheddar made by Pieter van Oudenaren of Lenberg Farms/Mariposa Dairy is Reserve Grand Champion in goat and sheep milk.

Grand Champion in cheddar cheese is Black Diamond Mild Cheddar made by Parmalat Canada, now part of Groupe Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy producer. Parmalat dominated all cheddar categories except:

Fromagerie Perron won the extra mature category with Le Doyen Extra Mature Cheddar;
Empire Cheese & Butter Co-op won the 12-to-24-month cheddar category with Empire Mature Cheddar;
Agropur Dairy Cooperative won extra mild cheddar and Stilton-shaped cheddar categories.

Click here for complete results.

Alexis De Portneuf, Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser, Goat cheese, Lindsay Bandage Cheddar, Mariposa Dairy, Royal Winter Agricultural Fair, Sheep cheese, Woolrich Dairy

Tania leads the Mariposa charge in Royal competition

November 8, 2013 No Comments

Royal Winter Fair Grand Champion: Tania Lenberg Farms Toscano Sheep Cheese. Tania also won a Super Gold in the World Cheese Awards in September.

Mariposa Dairy dominated this year’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair competition for cheese made with goat, sheep or water buffalo milk. Mariposa’s Tania Lenberg Farms Toscano Sheep Cheese was named Grand Champion. Three other Mariposa cheeses won their classes as did Tania.

Tania, a farmstead Toscano-style sheep’s milk cheese, is a relatively new addition to the array of cheeses produced by Mariposa Dairy in Lindsay, Ontario. Sweet and nutty, attractive on the cheese board, Tania already has many fans.

A distinctive characteristic is the colour of the paste that deepens as the cheese ages. Cheesemaker Pieter vanOudenaren says the orange colour comes from the carotene in milk. The inset shows a wedge of Tania in our cheese bin that was made in early 2012, now nicely aged, darker in colour and delicious.

Mariposa markets its goat and sheep cheeses under three labels: Celebrity, Mariposa Dairy and Lenberg Farms Classic Reserve.

Here are the results for cheese made with goat, sheep or water buffalo milk:

Grand Champion Goat, Sheep or Water Buffalo Milk Cheese

Mariposa Dairy – Tania Lenberg Farms Toscano Sheep Cheese

Reserve Champion Goat, Sheep or Water Buffalo Milk Cheese

Woolwich Dairy – Woolwich Dairy Crooked Wheel

Hard Cheese

1 Gordons Goat Dairy – Farmstead Goatagiono aged 2.5yrs no GMO

Firm Cheese

1 Mariposa Dairy – Lenberg Farms Bandaged Goat Cheddar
2 Mariposa Dairy – Lenberg Farms Premium Age
3 Woolwich Dairy – Woolwich Dairy Goat Cheddar

Interior Ripened

1 Mariposa Dairy– Celebrity International Mediterranean Gouda
2 Woolwich Dairy – Woolwich Dairy Goat’s Milk Feta Cheese
3 Mariposa Dairy – Extra Sheep Feta

Surfaced Ripened

1 Woolwich Dairy – Woolwich Dairy Crooked Wheel
2 Upper Canada Cheese – Nosey Goat
3 Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser – Sainte-Nitouche

Mold Ripened Cheese

1 Alexis de Portneuf – Cendrillon
2 Woolwich Dairy– Woolwich Dairy Triple Creme Goat Brie
3 Quality Cheese – Ashley Goat

Unflavoured Fresh Cheese

1 Mariposa Dairy – Celebrity International Goat Cheese Original
2 Quality Cheese – Ricotta
3 Woolwich Dairy – Woolwich Dairy Original Chevrai

Flavoured Fresh Cheese

1 Cross Wind Farm – Cranberry Orange
2 Cross Wind Farm – Italian Blend
3 Woolwich Dairy – Woolwich Dairy Chevrai Cranberry Cinnamon

Flavoured Cheese

1 Blyth Farm Cheese – Blyth’s Jalapeno
2 Blyth Farm Cheese – Blyth’s Garlic
3 Blyth Farm Cheese – Blyth’s Cumin

All New Innovations

1 Alexis de Portneuf – Double Joie
2 Quality Cheese – Buffalo Mozzarella
3 Woolwich Dairy – Woolwich Dairy Plain ‘N’ Simple Fresh Chevre

Any Cheese Made with Sheep’s Milk

1 Mariposa Dairy – Tania Lenberg Farms Toscano Sheep Cheese

Andy Shay, Farm House Natural Cheese, Figaro, Fromagerie du Presbytère, Fromagerie Nouvelle France, Glengarry Fine Cheese, Great Canadian Cheese Festival, Julia Rogers, La fromagerie Atwater, Les Bergeries du Fjord, Lindsay Bandage Cheddar, Mariposa Dairy, Monforte Dairy, Ruth Klahsen, Saint Agur, Sobeys, Wendy Furtenbacher

Outstanding cheese bites of 2011

December 31, 2011 No Comments

px_cl_monforte_bliss — Bliss from Monforte Dairy, an outstanding cheese bite if there ever was one.

We bring the curtain down on 2011 with friends in fromage recalling the memorable cheeses that crossed their palates this year. It’s a tradition at CheeseLover.ca we started last year.

Interestingly, two friends selected the same stand-out:

Lindsay Bandaged Cheddar, Mariposa Dairy:
Lindsay Clothbound was the best new Ontario cheese I tasted this year. Beautifully balanced flavour, everything you would expect in a great clothbound cheddar in texture and flavour—with a terrific goat bonus at the end.
—Andy Shay, Cheese Buyer, Sobeys Ontario

Lindsay Bandaged Cheddar, Mariposa Dairy:
New to Ontario’s cheese scene and winning awards already, Mariposa’s twist on bandaged cheddar is an aged hard goat’s milk cheese, slightly dry and crumbly, with significant earthy, but distinct “meaty” flavor.
—Vanessa Simmons, Cheese Sommelier, Savvy Company

Vanessa named three other memorable cheeses of 2011:

Finchthaler, Canreg Station Farm & Pasture Dairy
Zacharie Cloutier, Fromagerie Nouvelle France
Figaro, Glengarry Fine Cheese.

Jersey du Fjord, Les Bergeries du Fjord:
My memorable cheese this year is definitely the Jersey du Fjord, aged 10 months, a 20-kg English Cheshire-inspired cheese that was one of the 16 Champions at the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix, a first prize and silver medal overall at the Quebec Caseus Awards.
—Alain Besré, Fromagerie Atwater and Aux Terroirs

Old World
2011 was my year to celebrate Old World classics. Iconic Spanish cheeses, such as sultry smoky Idiazábal and cool minerally Valdeón were big hits, as were rare treasures from tiny shops in Toronto, including Danish Esrom (Stinky! Umami!) and Portugal’s Serra da Estrela—a tangy, wobbly, grassy wonder.
—Julia Rogers, Cheese Educator, Cheese Culture

Hail to the blues!
At what point do we stop developing our taste buds? For years, I have fought with the blues, only to find it actually works to try something 25 times! I have now come to the other side and crave the blues. No cheese board is complete without them. So what blue converted me? Saint Agur. How can you resist that double creamy, lovely balanced blue served with a beautiful glass of Karlo Estates Van Alstine Port. Hail to the blues! Bring them on in 2012!
—Jackie Armet, Cheese Co-ordinator , The Great Canadian Cheese Festival

Lady Jane, Farm House Natural Cheeses:
I first fell in love with this cheese at The Great Canadian Cheese Festival in Picton when I tried it during one of the pairing sessions. It looks like the best, most beautiful buttermilk-y cheesecake, with a texture that is such heaven in your mouth. Lady Jane is one of my favourite new finds of 2011.
—Wendy Furtenbacher, Blogger, CurdyGirl

At CheeseLover.ca, the most memorable moment in cheese of 2011 came when we first tasted Laliberté, the triple-cream cheese made with whole organic cow’s milk at Fromagerie du Presbytère. Such rich dairy delight!

Other taste hits of the year just ending:

Bliss, Monforte Dairy:
Cheesemaker Ruth Klahsen never ceases to amaze with her creations. This Brie-style pasteurized sheep’s milk is pure bliss.

Goat Cheese Curds, Monforte Dairy:
Be prepared for bursts of farm flavours when you pop these squeaks into your mouth.

14 Arpents, Fromagerie Médard:
Every time we taste this soft-ripened cheese we get religion and want to make a pilgrimage to the Lac Saint Jean in Quebec where Rose-Alice Boivin Côté and her family work wonders.

—Georgs Kolesnikovs, Cheese-head-in-chief at CheeseLover.ca, wonders what outstanding cheeses he’ll encounter in the New Year.

Alexis De Portneuf, Camelot, Cape Vessey, Glengarry Fine Cheese, Lindsay Bandage Cheddar, Mariposa Dairy, Royal Winter Agricultural Fair, Thornloe Cheese, Upper Canada Cheese, Woolrich Dairy

Lindsay Bandaged Cheddar best goat-milk cheese at Royal

November 9, 2011 No Comments

Two new goat-milk cheeses—one barely out of the vat—took top honours in the goat-cheese competition at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair this week.

Lindsay Bandaged Cheddar was named Grand Champion about a year after it was introduced by Mariposa Dairy of Lindsay, Ontario—and began winning awards, including Best of Show, Runner-up, at the American Cheese Society.

Camelot, a new goat-milk cheese introduced by Upper Canada Cheese of Jordan, Ontario, only a few months ago, was named Reserve Champion and its other new cheese, Nanny Noire, placed second in mold-ripened class.

Mariposa Dairy dominated the goat-milk cheese competition, winning or placing in five categories.

Upper Canada’s goat cheeses are made only with milk from a rare herd of Lamancha goats pastured at Gord and Melanie Wood’s Idyllwood Farms near Keene, Ontario, and cared for by the entire Wood family. Says Lauren Petryna, head cheesemaker:
“This fresh, pure milk is then transformed into Camelot and Nanny Noire. Camelot ages for two months in our cellars, while camembert-style Nanny is rolled in ash, allowed to develop its bloomy rind and is ready to be enjoyed within weeks.”

Here are the top three in the mixed-milk class of the annual competition at the Royal:

All New Innovations Mixed Milk Cheese

Buffalo Mozzarella, Quality Cheese
Buffallo Ricotta, Quality Cheese
Doucerel, Agropur Fine Cheese

Here are the top three cheeses in each category of the goat-milk competition:

Firm Cheddar, Mozzarella, Caprano

Lindsay Bandaged Goat Cheddar, Mariposa Dairy
Mornington Heritage Old Cheddar, Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative
Mornington Heritage Marble, Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative

Interior Ripened Gouda, Friulano, Manchego, Havarti, Feta

Woolwich Dairy Goats Milk Feta, Woolwich Dairy
Feta, Rivers Edge Goat Dairy
Feta, Glengarry Fine Cheese

Surface Ripened Oka-style, St. Paulin, Tilsit, Mimstes

Camelot, Upper Canada Cheese
Cape Vessey, Fifth Town Artisan Cheese

Mold Ripened Brie, Camembert, tre Fratello, L’Extra Goat, La Brie,Triple Cream Brie

Nettles Gone Wild, Fifth Town Artisan Cheese
Nanny Noir, Upper Canada Cheese
Triple Creme Brie, Woolwich Dairy

Unflavoured Fresh Cheese Cream Cheese, Ghage, Quark, Ricotta

Capriny, Alexis de Portneuf
Chevre Original Cup, Mariposa Dairy
Chevrai Original, Woolwich Dairy

Flavoured Fresh Cheese

Celebrity International Goat Cheese Herb+Garlic, Mariposa Dairy
Celebrity International Goat Cheese Mediterranean, Mariposa Dairy
Celebrity International Goat Cheese Fig, Mariposa Dairy

Blue Veined Cheese

Celebrity International Blue Goat Sliced, Nasonville Dairy

Flavoured Cheese Smoked, Jalepeno

Mornington Ultimate Smoked Cheddar, Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative
Mornington Ultimate Cranberry Cheddar, Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative
Charlton hot pepper, Thornloe Cheese

camelot — Camelot by Upper Canada Cheese Company was named Reserve Champion in the goat-cheese class.

Judges: Thierry Martin and Jean‐Jacques Turgeon

Sponsors: Gay Lea Foods Co-operative, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, Canadian Cheese Society, Cargill, Central Ontario Cheese Makers, Parmalat, Jersey Canada, Continental Ingredients Canada, Ecolab, Empire Cheese.

The 89th annual Royal Agricultural Winter Fair runs until Sunday at Exhibition Place, Toronto.

To be posted tomorrow: results in the cheddar competition at the Royal.

Agropur, Alexis De Portneuf, Allegretto, Amalgamated Dairies, Arla Foods, Awards, Bedda Fedda, Black River Cheese, Bleubry, Blossom, Bocconcini, Bonnie & Floyd, Bothwell Cheese, Burrata, Cape Vessey, Celtic Blue, Cendre de Lune, Chevrita, Empire Cheese & Butter Co-op, Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, Finica Food Specialties, Fondue Prestigio, Fromagerie 1860 DuVillage, Fromagerie Au Grés des Champs, Fromagerie Blackburn, Fromagerie Eco Delices, Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser, Fromagerie Isle-aux-Grues, Fromagerie Lemaire, Fromages CDA, Glengarry Fen, Glengarry Fine Cheese, International Cheese, La Roche Noire, La Vache à Maillotte, Lady Laurier d'Arthabaska, Lankaaster, Le Cabouron, Le Cendre, Le Paillot de Chevre, Lindsay Bandage Cheddar, Mamirolle, Maple Dale Cheese, Mariposa Dairy, Monforte Dairy, Mont Gleason, Mont Jacob, Nouvelle France, Oka, Operetta, Parmalat, Quality Cheese, Raclette du Village, Rondoux Chevre, St. Albert Cheese Co-op, St. Honoré, Toscano, Triple Crème du Village, Wishing Tree

Best cheeses of the “British Empire” in 2010

December 13, 2010 No Comments

854966 — Lori Legacey, cheesemaker at Mariposa Dairy, has a sniff of a 19-kilo wheel of cheddar. The dairy's Lindsay Bandage Cheddar beat out 40 other goat-milk cheeses in the British Empire Cheese Competition. Photo by Lisa Gervais/The Lindsay Post.

Here are the results of the cheese competition at the 83rd annual British Empire Cheese Show organized by Central Ontario Cheesemakers Association:

The Alexis De Portneuf division of cheese giant Saputo was crowned Grand Champion.

Quebec cheesemaker Fromagerie La Vache à Maillotte was named Reserve Champion.

Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, an artisan cheesemaker in Ontario’s Prince Edward County, was honoured with the Finica Food Specialties Award.

In the cheddar class, Parmalat Canada was recognized as Grand Champion. Reserve Champion honours went to Fromagerie Isle-aux-Grues.

Glengarry Fine Cheese, after an excellent showing at Royal Winter Fair, picked up several more awards at British Empire, as reported in Eastern Ontario AgriNews.

Here are the top three in each class of the competition:

ARTISAN

Goat Milk Cheese