Cheese Club! A Dynamic Partnership

I am pleased to announce a dynamic, synergistic, fermented-milk-loving partnership between "Its Not You, it's Brie" and Solano Cellars Wine Shop & Wine Bar. Starting this coming August, yours truly will be crafting a cheese club of my two to three favorite cheeses that month, every month. So if you love cheese, live near Albany, El Cerrito, Berkeley or Oakland, California, or feel like taking frequent road trips to pick up the goods in the land of lovely weather, consider joining.

Interested? Take a look at what I wrote up for Solano Cellar's newsletter below:

"Do you remember when you were aching to take some of that oozing, buttery triple-crème you had at the wine bar home? What about that seasonal sheep’s milk Pecorino Foglie di Noce wrapped in walnut leaves and rubbed with olive oil you sampled in the Regional Italian Wine and Cheese Class? They remember you too.

In the tradition of our world famous wine clubs, Solano Cellars is starting a club that brings the world of artisan cheese into your home. Every month, wine bar manager, cheese instructor and author of “It’s Not You, it’s Brie” Kirstin Jackson, will choose her favorite two to three cheeses- some wine bar favorites and some club exclusives- for you to sample.

Every club will come with wine recommendations for bottles available on the shop floor and (there’s more!) write-ups similar to the descriptions found on Kirstin’s cheese blog and at Solano Cellars. At least one of the club cheeses will be ripe and ready as Frog Hollow peaches in late July, and the other one or two will be happy to sit tightly wrapped in your fridge for a couple-three weeks. The club will total $25 and will be available mid-month, every month."

Some sample cheeses to come:

Alta Langhe La Tur: natural-rind, cow, sheep and goat’s milk, Italian

Redwood Hill Camellia: bloomy-rind, camembert style goat cheese, California

Crawford Family Farm’s Vermont Ayr: semi-hard raw cow’s milk, amazing, Vermont

Mimolette Extra Vielle: hard cow’s milk, aged two years, French

Manchego Pasamontes: raw sheep’s milk from a small-production creamery, Spain

Prima Dona Aged Gouda: nutty, caramel, earthy, Dutch (see picture above)

What do you do if you want to join the pick-up only cheese club?

Call Solano Cellars. Be sure to mention you heard about the club through "It's Not You, its Brie," and the nice and friendly wine geeks will be happy to hook you up:

Solano Cellars, 1580 Solano Ave, Albany, CA 94707, 510.525.9463

Wine clubs are also available through the store if you're want to taste their monthly finds, and are shipping-ready to most states even though the cheese club is not.

P.S. Kitchen Curders, coming early next week- the first post of the Home Creamery Mozzarella edition. Thanks for your patience, and please send me your links if you haven't already.