I routinely gush about our beautiful neighbor counties of Marin and Sonoma, so it ought to return as no shock that I’d soar on the choice to hitch on a two-day journey to search out out about (and sample) various the delicious cheese and wine coming out of California in such an beautiful setting.
And whereas I’d wager that the majority people affiliate winemaking with areas like Sonoma, there’s a rising number of small specialty cheesemakers producing handmade, artisan cheeses inside the pastoral coastlands and mountains of Marin and Sonoma counties. In actuality, California has been making cheese as long as it has been making wine.
Aron and I’ve made some extent of heading north and out that technique—to elements the likes of Stage Reyes Farmstead, Straus Ranch, and Cowgirl Creamery—each time different strikes. And his mom and father (his dad retired from UC Davis after years of dairy science, and labored with many of the farms as soon as they first started making cheese, and his mother generally is a excellent meals scientist) even honeymooned alongside these roads!
So while you ever happen to look out your self on this part of the state, I extraordinarily advocate you make some extent to drive by the use of these romantic pastures. There’s actually a Cheese Path map with an inventory of farms (all via the state) which you can tour, and document of instructed driving loops!
Individually, I appreciated the behind-the-scenes look I acquired with Precise California Milk on this go to: I was as quickly as as soon as extra impressed with the sweetness and the native bounty of this place I’m lucky to call dwelling, and I was moved by the multigenerational tales of the farmers we met.
Listed beneath are various the highlights from my tour…
I drove west to Sonoma merely after lunchtime; it was a short one-hour drive to The Lodge at Sonoma Renaissance Resort & Spa. I’m always searching for model spanking new areas to stay with Aron (and the kids) and I took fast discover of the state of affairs—instantly all through from Sonoma Put together Metropolis and a short bike or shuttle-ride to Sonoma Plaza.
I ended up profiting from the pool and the restaurant on site that afternoon and night time (plus, there was a cheese plate prepared), nevertheless Sonoma’s downtown sq. is definitely one in every of my favorites: it’s charming (basic movie house—confirm), walkable, and has a nice mix of newest tasting rooms and historic elements of curiosity (suppose Mexican military outpost, fleeting frontier republic, Spanish Mission village).
If I’ve been formidable, it is perhaps an superior place to stand up and stroll inside the morning, nevertheless sleeping in was a perk of this midweek escape that I wasn’t going to miss!
Our first trip spot in spite of everything of us met—there have been about 15 of us changing into a member of those from the California Milk Advisory Board—was Reprise Wines on Moon Mountain. I was notably excited as soon as I found now we have been headed there as a result of the winery isn’t well-known (it’s solely open by appointment and the wines are solely supplied instantly), nevertheless the views from Moon Mountain looking out all one of the simplest ways to San Pablo Bay are legendary.
We adopted a one-lane avenue a few miles up the mountain after which took an ATV as a lot because the ridge overlooking their 300-acre property.
Ivan, our data for the tour, gave us the backstory of the winery—layers of iron-rich basalt and volcanic ash (from eruptions 1000’s and 1000’s of years up to now) variety the soil base and the earlier lava flows are seen from the ridge.
It was a singular tasting experience—I really wished Aron had had the prospect to hitch!
Subsequent, after a tour by the use of Repris’ 18,000 sq. ft of caves—bored and blasted from the hillside with marks from the big drills nonetheless seen—we bought right here to a candle-lit desk with rows of wines and plates of cheese prepared. It was a fantastic scene, and the cool cave was welcome on the virtually triple-digit day.
There, Janet Fletchera cookbook author and cheese-appreciation expert, met us and took us by the use of a cheese and wine-pairing course. She gave us concepts for tasting—and smelling!—as we labored our technique from Ricotta to Triple Cream, Cheddar to blue, and answered our questions on pairing as we labored our technique down the row of wine glasses.
It was moreover proper right here that we found that the Precise California Milk Seal certifies that the product is made out of 100% California Milk—and that virtually half of all of California milk goes to make California cheese.
Subsequent, we moved up into one in every of many winery’s tasting areas (with additional unimaginable views) for a cheeseboard-making demonstration by Marissa Mullen, of That Cheese Plate and Cheese By Numbers. She had give you a developing system for a putting collectively an beautiful cheese and shared her course of.
Actually one in every of my favorite takeaways? Start with folded salumi to variety considerably river mattress, after which assemble spherical it. It moreover doesn’t hurt to have a few edible flowers to excessive all of it off.
I am undoubtedly making additional of these!
We had a short break once more inside the sunshine, nevertheless have been very good retaining cool inside the caves: Sarah Nep met us subsequent, and confirmed us one of the simplest ways to carve cheese. Her creations have been unimaginable. It’s much more sturdy than it even appears to be!
All of us carried out spherical a bit with carving planes and graters and I tried to duplicate our A-Physique cabin. It wasn’t the prettiest nevertheless the kids have been so excited as soon as I launched it dwelling.
Once more down the mountain, and after a brief leisure on the lodge, we joined as soon as extra (at that fairly golden hour), for the fast drive into downtown Sonoma.
Café The Hague—a small, Michelin-recommended restaurant merely off Sonoma Plaza for 23 years—was our trip spot for dinner. Its proprietor, Saul Gropman, bought right here spherical to welcome us with wine as each dish arrived. I was excited after we started off with a bottle from Hudson Ranch! Each plate featured native meals (all sourced inside 60 miles)—and, in spite of everything, California-made cheese.
Afterward, we bid a quick goodnight determining that we had additional tasting and touring to return again.
Early the following day, we checked out and drove into Petaluma to see the model new mannequin new processing plant for Stage Reyes Farmstead Cheese.
I’ve written about Stage Reyes Farmstead Cheese (acknowledged for his or her primary blue) sooner than, when Aron and I had a Tomales Bay and Stage Reyes daytrip, and drove out to their farm—Giacomini Ranch—for dinner at The Forktheir class and event home. They’ve many implausible cheeses that they make (and we acquired to sample all of them), nevertheless I’m notably eager on their Gouda and their newer Bay Blue.
We talked about their consider sustainability and the care of their herd—the farm has sustained their family for virtually 4 generations regardless that the cheese agency was based mostly in 2000—sooner than touring their processing facility.
Then, all of us suited up in booties and hair nets and lab coats sooner than getting a peek at how the milk is processed and turn out to be gold. Truly: we found ourselves standing amongst rows and rows of gold-wax-hued wheels of Toma cheese (each spun and wiped by a model new robotic they referred to as Tina Turner)!
Subsequent we adopted the winding Pink Hill Freeway to Marin French Cheese—the longest repeatedly working cheese facility within the USA (relationship to 1865). Their tasting room makes an superior stop while you’re inside the house—there are free tastings, picnic supplies, and a restaurant.
I’ll all the time bear in mind first sampling their breakfast cheese after we chosen what to serve at our marriage ceremony ceremony! They’ve been making the enduring Petite Breakfast since 1865. A recent Brie, it skips the rising previous room, and has the flavour of creamy cheese curds. It and their Schloss—a washed-rind cheese on the alternative end of the flavour spectrum—are my two favorites.
Their land is a scenic expanse of grassy meadows shady ponds. You would possibly actually really feel the cool coastal breezes drifting in from the Pacific Ocean, merely ten miles away.
In actuality the views merely get greater and better as you drive alongside these roads. Since 1980, the Marin Agricultural Land Perception (MALT), a broad coalition of ranchers, environmentalists, and neighborhood leaders, has protected 86 family farms and ranches on better than 54,000 acres on this house, which is in spite of everything good for the farmers however moreover for the lucky vacationer who handed by the use of these fields—often with solely a cow or two in sight. Counting on the season, they is perhaps lush and inexperienced, speckled with wildflowers, or glowing gold.
One in all many farms whose family has joined with MALT is the Lafranchi family ranch. Over 100 years up to now their family made their dwelling on the 1,150 acre ranch in Nicasio, and what really bought right here all through proper right here, as with at each of the alternative areas we stopped, was a strong sense of stewardship, and a labor to guard the customized of farming for the next know-how.
99% of California dairies are family-owned and this go to was a clear reminder that precise meals comes from precise of us. There was a farmer behind each of those cheeses we tasted, anyone you possibly can ask instantly about his or her practices.
I notably cherished listening to regarding the sustainable practices the Lafranchi ranch employs and prides themselves on—from inside composting to rotational grazing.
The milk that comes from their herd is obtainable to Clover-Stornetta or launched over—modern from the morning milking—into their creamery to start out the transformation into Nicasio Valley Cheeses. So we did in spite of everything get to type these as successfully, at their retailer (amount 48 on the cheese path map) inside the tiny hamlet of Nicasio.
I had many favorites, nevertheless chosen to hold dwelling a 8-inch wheel of their Locarno to share with Aron: a delicious, creamy brie that can get creamier as a result of it ages or warms, and we ate it with crusty bread and a spoon.
From there, all of us wished each other protected travels and went on our technique. I adopted the roads once more by the use of the hills, pulling over typically to snap but yet another {photograph} of the views.
And in my head, I was already plotting my subsequent go to.
Have you ever ever ever gone on a cheese tasting path? I really feel this is perhaps a extraordinarily distinctive (and delicious) technique to tour the state!
P.S. Shut by: a daytrip to Petaluma, a family weekend on the Sonoma Coast, oysters and cheese in Tomales Bay, and a romantic weekend in Calistoga. Moreover, some creative strategies to pair cheese, like with beer—or whiskey!
Due to Precise California Milk for sponsoring this journey and providing all of my lodging all through my maintain. This journey was part of a partnership with the California Milk Advisory Board, nevertheless all opinions are my very personal.
[Photos mine with exception: group photo and langoustine c/o Alexandra Heston Photography]
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