StiIton – This noble cheese was first discovered in 1730 by Cooper Thornhill in the village of Stilton, Huntingdonshire. It is still perhaps one of the most highly regarded of all blue cheeses. It’s firmer and milder than Roquefort or Gorgonzola, and is the only British cheese to have legal protection via a certification trademark implemented by the Stilton Cheesemakers’ Assocation formed in 1936.

In my experiment, Stilton was one of the stronger blues but in general paired well with all of our reds. It is slightly dry, yet tangy with a hint of crunch saltiness. Of the cheeses I tasted, Stilton may be the oldest but not the strongest. Of the eight blue cheeses I sampled, that honor would go to Shropshire.

Shropshire is not as rich in history or texture as Stilton. It is often recommended as a substitute for Stilton but somewhat dry and crumbly. It is also made from cow’s milk but dyed a yellowish orange, setting it apart on the cheese platter. The yellow coloring comes from the addition of annatto – a natural food coloring. It is aged for 10-12 weeks and with a fat content of 34%, certainly not for the weak at heart. It has a sharp, strong flavor and slightly tangy aroma.

Shropshire blue was first made in the 1970s at the Castle Stuart dairy in Inverness, Scotland by Andy Williamson, a cheesemaker who had trained in the making of Stilton. It was originally known as Inverness-shire Blue or “Blue Stuart” but eventually sold as “Shropshire Blue” to increase popularity, even though it had no link to the county of Shropshire. The Castle Stuart dairy closed in 1980 and Shropshire has earned its name-right and is now made in the county of Shropshire.

Just like a fine wine, it appears that blue cheeses have mellowed with time. The newer versions seem to be milder and creamier – especially the St. Agur blue. Still on the strong side, St. Agur is creamy, spicy and rich. It was developed in 1988 by the Bongrain cheese company and is made from pasteurized cow’s milk from the village of Beauzac in the Auvergne region of central France. St. Agur is enriched with cream and contains 60% butterfat which qualifies it as a double-cream cheese. It is aged for 60 days and becomes stronger and spicier with age (just like me!) This cheese was somewhat tangy, yet creamy and balanced. It also paired well with all of the reds.

The last of the blue cheeses in the “strong” classification – in my humble opinion – is the most versatile. It is the Spanish, queso de Valdeon. It is made in Posada de Valdeon in Northern Spain. As any cheese-lover knows, the Spanish love their goats so it’s not surprising that Valdeon contains a mixture of cow’s and goat’s milk. It also has the distinction of being the only blue wrapped in sycamore (or chestnut) leaves adding to its complex flavor and lovely presentation

Surprisingly, Valdeon went well both our 2010 Chardonnay and all of the reds, giving it my blue ribbon for the most versatile “blue” cheese award. It is rich and creamy and pungent enough to interesting without being overpowering. It showed itself as especially well-suited for both red and white wines.

In a somewhat backwards fashion, we now move onto the “mild” blues. In some blue-blooded cheese circles, only the original blue veined beauties are worthy of a fine cheese affair. I couldn’t disagree more. In the past 50 years, the crafting of blue cheese has almost become as American as apple pie. Some of the finest blue cheeses I tasted are made in the good ol’ U.S. of A. They are milder and creamier. And, since many people shy away from blues they think are “stinky” or too strong, these American cheeses may be the way to brighten the bleu cheese blues.

Maytag, Buttermilk, Pt. Reyes and Shaft’s blue cheeses are all made from cow’s milk and produced in the U.S. They are similar in texture and taste but each has their own distinguishing characteristics.

Buttermilk Blue Cheese is made by Roth Kase – one of America’s great cheese makers. It is made with the freshest raw milk from herds of predominantly Jersey cows that happily graze on the rolling hills of Southern Wisconsin. Kase’s factory houses a Swiss-made copper vat for the traditional production of Alpine cheese. It is cured for at least two months. The Buttermilk blue turned out to be the “perfect” pairing for our 2008 Menage a Trois, which is a blend of equal parts of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.

Maytag is a fairly well-known American blue cheese and probably for good reason.  It has been around the longest and developed by the descendents of the appliance dynasty. Maytag is described as “pungent and crumbly” but I found it anything but. It was mellow and creamy and paired very well with our 2008 Puppy Love Cabernet Sauvignon – which is our heaviest bodied wine.

Maytag blue was first developed in 1941, making it the oldest of American blues. It is produced on the Maytag Dairy farms outside of Newton, Iowa (formerly home to the Maytag Corporation.) The founders are the grandsons of f the Maytag appliance company mogul. To this day, the Maytags use prize-winning Holstein cattle for the cheese production and were the first to adopt the process for making blue cheese from homogenized cow’s milk. A process developed at Iowa State University in 1938.

Point Reyes and Shaft’s Blue cheeses are both made in California. The former is produced near the Pacific Coast and the latter aged in abandoned gold mines in the Sierra-Nevada Mountain Range – adding to the allure of this cheesey American history lesson.

Point Reyes Blue Cheese is also crafted from the milk of Holstein cows that probably couldn’t have it any better. They enjoy cool, salty breezes and graze upon fabulous oceanviews. According to the Giacomini family that had only been milking the cows since 1959, decided to really milk the cow in 2008 when Bob Giacomini made his first vat of Point Reyes Original Blue.

According to the Giacominis, the secret to the great taste of his cheese lies in the “unique combination of three ingredients:  Grade A raw milk from a closed herd of Holstein cows that graze on the certified organize, green pastured hills overlooking Tomales Bay, the coastal fog and the salty Pacific breezes.” It is the only organic and Kosher blue cheese this patriot stumbled upon. It is creamy and slightly salty and aged for at least six months.

Not intending to give them the Shaft by being last, Shaft’s Cheese is certainly not least.  In upholding the American tradition, it is a nice, mellow, creamy “bleu” cheese. Long after the gold rush, the company started their own gold when it began aging this cheese in 1999 in an abandoned gold mine, which they claim is an “ideal aging environment for one of the nation’s finest bleu cheeses.”

Shaft’s, Maytag and Valdeon all paired well with our 2010 Spring Fling Chardonnay – but in my opinion, the conquistadors won this battle, though in a pinch, any would do nicely.

So what’s the blue-bottom line:  my palate was pleasantly surprised by how well the purported “stronger” blue cheeses paired with the red table wines. (I had been told these should be reserved for ports.) I was even more surprised that one of them – Valdeon – paired so well with our Chardonnay. I was also surprised how many of the blues that I’d always loved to eat, but didn’t know much about, were American-made. I was also pleased by how good the the American blues are as that can also brighten the blue cheese blues by saving some money since American blues are traditionally cheaper than the imported ones.

If you’d like to taste or find out about my perfect pairings, you’ll have to join us this Sunday. I’ll be serving my favorite pairings at our Red, White & Blues party at the First Crush wine workshop, July 3, from 12-5 p.m. Otherwise, I’ll post the results next week.

So here’s to Blue Cheese – both American and European – and a salute to the freedom of wine and cheese pairing choice!