Wensleydale, an Animated Delight
I’ll admit that I’ve made small meals out of wine and cheese. I’ve also made meals out of boxed mac’n cheese, so don’t assume too much pretentiousness. Exploring foods is an interest that borders on passion. Over the last several months, the focus has been expanding my cheese palate.
Browsing the many cheese’s at Whole Foods, sat a small wheel of cheese that made me chuckle: Wensleydale. The name isn’t all that funny, I guess. But it reminds me of the Wallace & Gromit animated shows. Wallace is an avid, and in one episode, almost rabid, cheese fanatic. Wallace mentions Wenslydale in “A Close Shave” (1995). That name has always stuck with me, but it never crossed my lips until this weekend.
Its fitting that a British animated creation mentions a British born cheese. Wensleydale is actually the name of a valley of the Ure river in North Yorkshire, England. Like Parmigiano Reggiano, authentic Wensleydale cheese is made only in the Wensleydale valley. The local producers are trying to protect the name. Originally a sheep’s cheese, the cow’s milk based cheese has been made for several hundred years. A revival occurred about a decade ago with the afore mentioned Wallace & Gromit reference.
My ability to describe cheese is almost as bad as by ability to relate the notes of a good wine. That being said, I’ll give it a try. Though not a hard cheese, it isn’t soft either. The texture is dry and boarders on crumbly. Unlike a nice blue or soft goat’s milk cheese, Wensleydale alone with a California Cab just didn’t do it for me. The dry cheese and the dry wine kept fighting with each other. Then again, they may have ganged up to overpower me. The right combination seems like a balanced white wine with a plate of sweet and tart fruit.
Wensleydale is a cheese worthy of the trip home for your private cheese plate. It is accessible, but requires pairing with the right accompaniments. It was fabulous grated onto pasta, too.
