Today’s WineAndCheeseFriday entry has Andean Culture, song and dance, and a cheese-making facility! If you read about Viña Florida y Queso Amasado, https://wineandcheesefriday.com/vina-florida-y-queso-amasado/, a few weeks back, then you know that we found some cheese produced nearby, at a local farmer’s market. We were fortunate enough to be able to head out to Tarqui, the village where it is made, for a tour. Our contact that sold us the cheese, Miyo, let us know that there was a tour scheduled and that we could come out and join them.
This weeks WineAndCheese not only rhyme, they look like the same word. This was all coincidence with what we found this week in Ecuador. The wine is Chilean and it is sold at a place simply called “Winery”, of course it caught our eye when we walked by. There was no wine made there but a wide range of wines available, including Penfolds, Veuve Clicquot and an assortment of South American wines. We chose the Carmenere by Cono Sur since we’ve only tried this varietal once or twice before and wanted to learn more about it. We found the cheese at our local grocery store, Supermaxi. Although we are not familiar with the brand Floralp, it said it was made in Ecuador, so we had to try it.
We’ve been in Cuenca, Ecuador for two weeks now so we figured it was time to try some local flavor. Our wine was purchased at a local monastery and all we knew about it was that it was white wine made there. Our cheese had a funny story, we were in a restaurant one night and our conversation lead to the fact that we review cheeses, so we were given directions to a local market to buy this cheese. The market was about a 40 minute walk from our place but we were up for an adventure! Once we arrived we did our best to understand that this cheese was called Queso Amasado and that it was made in a village named Tarqui. Now onto the tasting notes.
Start the new year out with your own Wine And Cheese Holidays Calendar. This calendar includes over 30 days to celebrate! It was created to showcase all the Wine and Cheese Holidays throughout the year. It features the links mentioning the origin of the holiday and date that will change if the Holiday varies depending on the day of the month, for example, on the third Thursday of August.
Usually around Christmastime, Neil and I try out a sweet wine. Pretty much right on schedule, we were given this bottle by some friends of the family that happened to make their own wine. When we do these sweet wine pairings we typically choose a strong cheese so when I saw this at ALDI, https://www.aldi.us, it was an easy choice.
What better way to celebrate the holidays than with Wine, Cheese, the beach and family! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!