Free cheese? Yes, ma’am. And it happens every year as part of the Montreal en Lumière Highlights Festival.
It’s called the Fête des Fromages d’Ici (or the Festival of Our Cheeses, for anglos), and I’ll be talking about it on GlobalTV’s morning show at 7:20am this Tuesday. So plan your Thursday lunch break, Friday happy hour or all-day Saturday accordingly!
I’m currently waiting for a morning home delivery of six of the best cheeses you’ll be able to taste at the fest. Here’s a preview:
Quebec Cheeses at the Montreal Highlights Festival
From Feb. 23-25, the Complexe Desjardins will be taken over by the cream of the local cheese industry, with everyone from award-winning artisanal dairy farmers to larger producers offering free samples.
1. Go early! Lines can get long for the 50 or so types of cheeses on offer.
2. The cheeses are free, but you can buy them to-go
3. There’ll be local wines for purchase that pair with the cheeses. So it’s a perfect after-work 5 à 7 stop-off.
4. All the cheeses at the festival will be cow’s milk.
MY TOP SIX CHEESES
Le Mont-jacob, a semi-soft, washed-rind cheese with pasteurized milk from Jonquiere
-tastes like fruit and roasted peanuts
-washed rind means it’s washed with brine for 20 days and rubbed to let the flavour develop from the outside in, then aged 60 days.
-name comes from the mountain across from the cheese shop near downtown Jonquiere
-won the 2016 silver medal at the World Cheese Awards and the Selection Caseus competition 5 times!
-Fun fact: underground pipes transfer the farm’s milk to the cheese factory
-Fromagerie Blackburn was the first factory in North America to tranform whey leftover from cheesemaking into energy using a process called methanisation
Pairing: Great with French onion soup or an omelet. Or with beers with a lot of hops. Or with Gamay or Pinot Grigio
Le Cendré-des-Prés, a soft, bloomy rind cheese from pasteurized milk made in Berthierville in the Lanaudières
-ivory colour with a horizontal line of edible maple ash running through the middle
-tastes like mushrooms blended with spruce tips and whipped butter.
-smells like baked bread and wildflowers.
-just enough acidity to balance the creaminess, like a touch of grapefruit.
-From the Fromagerie du Domaine Féodal.
-Morbier style, says cheesemaker Guy Dessureault. People told him it’d be impossible, so he did it to prove them wrong. Stubbornness breeds deliciousness.
-Silver medal at the 2016 World Cheese Awards
Pairing: Mexican chocolate, white beers or rosé wine (or Quebec cider from the Mondial des Cidres, another event at Montreal en Lumière)
Louis D’or, a raw milk organic cheese from Fromagerie du Presbytere in Warwick, QC
my personal favourite cheese in Quebec
-There are three versions: aged 9, 16 or 24 months. I love the 24 months.
-Made into gorgeous 40-kg rounds (you don’t have to buy a whole one! Geez!)
-washed rind, firm
-refined, elegant, really flavourful because of production and aging techniques based on traditions from the Jura region of France.
-story of the name: Louis Morin was the 2nd in his family to run the farm, adding d’or as a nod to the French currency from the reign of Louis the 13th.
-this cheese has basically won all the prizes… special distinction for Best raw milk cheese and Caseus Longaevi prize winner at the Selection Caseus 2016, best Quebec cheese at the Canadian Cheese Awards and finalist in three other categories and it was the 2015 Canadian cheese grand prix winner
-deep umami flavour
-orange rind, slight crumble, fruity and nutty and tangy flavours with a sweet milk finish.
Pairing: Great with anything from sake to Port to Pale ales
Alfred Le Fermier, an organic raw milk cheese made from grass fed Holstein cows in the Estrie region in Compton.
-the different grasses, clover, alfalfa and lotus give the cheese its earthy flavour
-smells of hazelnut, honey, mushroom and wood, the latter coming from the spruce planks on which it’s aged
-orange-coloured washed rind ripened for eight months
-named after Alfred Bolduc, the first owner of the Bolduc farm
-won the super gold medal at the 2015 world cheese awards
-the 18th months aged version was a 2016 Canadian Cheese Awards finalist and a 2015 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix winner
-the 24 months won at the Selection Caseus 2013
Pairing: Really good with big reds, lager or ice cider
Fontina Fumé Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, a firm, rindless smoked cheese made from pasteurized milk in the Cantons de l’est
-ripened for 3 months.
-flavours of soft smoke, toasted almonds, hazelnuts and melted butter.
-made by Benedictine monks from the Abbaye de St-Benoit-du-Lac
-winner at the 2016 Selection Caseus competition for best flavoured cheese.
-best new cheese at the 2014 Canadian Cheese Awards and finalist for best Quebec cheese
Pairing: Great with a glass of full-bodied Chianti, (can handle something big because of the smokiness), a burger or chili.
Le Bleu d’Élizabeth, a semi-soft, blue veined cheese made with thermized organic milk from the Fromagerie du Presbytere in Warwick, QC.
-good crumble and and tangy cream flavour
-ochre spots are good, not bad. Blue and green veins also good. There because of Penicillium roqueforti bacteria (Think Roquefort cheese)
-salty but not overly salty like some blues and a little hazelnut
-named after Sainte-Elizabeth-de-Warwick (name of town where it’s made)
-won the 2016 blue-veined cheese award at the Selection Caseus and the 2015 blue cheese category at the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix.
-Been farming organically for 20 years.
-if you don’t like strong cheeses, go with the less aged version
-if you like it funky, try the 12-month version
Pairing: Perfect with ice wine, says Jean Morin, the cheesemaker
Photo credit: Équipe Spectra
Leave a Reply