the cheese blog

Manchego, Garrotxa, and Valdeón

I was in New York for a quick break and stopped by one of my favorite restaurants Tia Pol. To end the meal, I decided on the small “plato de queso combinado.” There were three Spanish cheeses in the combinado: Manchego, Garrotxa, and Valdeón. The Manchego was pretty good. Manchego, typically from the La Mancha region, is an unpasteurized sheep’s milk aged a minimum of 60 days. The natural rind was grayish with the typical cross-hatch pattern. Interior color was tending to the whitish side, not a very deep yellow color, which indicated it was a younger cheese (maybe 9-12 months aging). The aroma and taste were a bit mild. It had a decent, slightly nutty and briny taste. It was paired with whole cherry compote. A decent, if safe, first cheese on the plate.

The second cheese was Garrotxa, which I have had previously. It was paired with lightly sugared walnuts.

The third and final cheese was a Valdeón. It is a cow and goat’s milk blue cheese from the Castile y Leon region of Spain (northern coast of Spain, in the Picos de Europa Mountains). Apparently one of it’s special features is that the cheese wheel is wrapped in oak or sycamore leaves and then matured. The cheese is very veiny, with wonderful streaks of forest green and royal blue. The aroma was briny and peppery. The texture was very creamy. The taste was very rich. It had a nice balance of saltiness with a slight taste of hazlenuts before a quite spicy finish, which lasted a long time. The Valdeón was paired with Marcona almonds in olive oil. The Valdeón was the best of the three!