Say it with Cheese – Give a Wheel this Holiday Season
We’re all in need of delight. This year has been difficult for so many people, and the holidays compound the loss we’ve all felt this year. Though we can’t be together, we want to offer up a different idea for your remote holiday giving: wheels of cheese. From little minis to big wheels, cheese as a gift can last for the long winter and beyond, giving joy countless times. Being at home so much now, we don’t really need any more stuff occupying space in our homes and minds. Though it might be unconventional, cheese makes sense – it’s about the experience of eating it more than the actual object. This is not an off-the-rack gift that will be forgotten. It’s a thoughtful one into which many people have put their time and love, from the farmer to the cheesemaker to the retailer who sells it. You’re supporting those people, all of whom really need your support, so surprise your loved ones with something unexpected, delicious, and unique! We know many people won’t be able to splurge on an 80 pound wheel right now, so we’re offering up some suggestions below for all budgets. May the gifting begin. Happy holidays, all. See you next year!
These small format wheels and logs are perfect for a gift basket or stuffing into a lucky person’s stocking. They may be small, but we promise the impact will be big!
This little number is a fresh sheep’s milk log from Murcia. If you’ve ever had Miticrema or Miticaña de Oveja, then you’ll know that the producer, Montesinos, really know what they’re doing with both sheep and goat’s milk. We love how versatile this cheese is – it’s great plain on crackers or you can use it in cooking wherever you’d use chèvre.
Speaking of Montesinos, they also make Drunken Goat® and its little sister, this mini 12 oz wheel. Most people tend to go nuts for this fruity and mild goat’s milk cheese soaked in Doble Pasta wine. If you put this cheese and a bottle of red wine (extra points for wine from Murcia) in a stocking, you’re golden.
A luscious and creamy cow’s milk cheese from the island of Faial in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Let the cheese warm up out of the fridge for a while, slice off the top, and enjoy the gooey, slightly tangy cheese with Toketti, crudité, or fried potatoes.
Truffles are a quintessential holiday food, and eating this semi-soft, truffle-studded cow’s milk cheese just feels festive, even if you’re at home in your pajamas. It is coated in the ash of many different spices and is the brainchild of Sergio Moro in the Veneto, Italy. The cheese is even wrapped up in paper with a little bow – it doesn’t get much cuter than that.
This cheese may stink up a stocking (turophiles know this is a good thing). Pungent and meaty, it’ll be familiar to Taleggio lovers, but it’s a bit harder to find and has a more intense flavor. It’s a washed rind cow’s milk cheese that comes in at one pound, so slice, snack, and melt away!
Gifting these medium-sized wheels are a great way to recognize those who have helped you through this year: friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, mail carriers…you get the idea. They aren’t wheels you’ll find just anywhere; they’re diamonds in the rough. Your giftee will feel extra appreciated knowing that they have a gift that truly keeps on giving.
Your friend loves Brie? Expand their horizons with this soft-ripened goat’s milk cheese from Piemonte, Italy. This bloomy round is plush and velvety and really sings with a glass of dry sparkling wine. Perhaps make it a New Year’s gift to say goodbye to this year’s dumpster fire.
If you know and love someone who is all about dessert, grab them a wheel of this cheese, which can be served as dessert alone or with squares of dark chocolate. It’s a creamy cow’s milk blue that is bathed in a sweet wine made from Moscato grapes called Fior d’Arancio. It’s brimming with aromas and flavors of stone fruit, honey, and orange blossom. As your giftee slowly peels off the gold foil from this cheese to reveal the candied orange slices on top, they’ll feel like royalty.
This cheese is very special to us and we think you’ll feel similarly. It’s our first pecorino from Abruzzo, home to numerous national parks and rugged green mountains in eastern Italy. Aged six months, it’s not sharp and piquant like the pecorinos of the south, but surprisingly sweeter with notes of butter and grass. You could even go crazy and gift a pecorino from several regions of Italy so they can taste and compare!
Spain is known for its great sheep’s milk cheese and legendary saffron, which finds its way into many rice dishes throughout the country. This charming cheese combines both in one good-looking package. The four month aged sheep’s milk cheese is studded with threads of saffron, giving the paste a golden color and delicate floral aroma. It’s subtle, stunning, and would be fantastic grated over pasta or risotto.
Bring some island vibes to your favorite people with this paprika-coated cow and goat’s milk cheese from Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. The paprika doesn’t add spiciness, but a glorious smoky flavor that brings out the toasted, brothy notes in the paste. You should gift a wheel with a girolle so they can make beautiful little red-edged flowers of cheese.
If you really want to make an impression, these bigger wheels are a huge wow, literally. They will feed multiple people (and well) over months. They’re both practical and unexpected. Maybe you never considered buying a giant wheel of cheese as a holiday gift, but there are many people out there that would delight in such a present. You mostly likely know someone would prefer a wheel of cheese over the latest tech gadget or diamond jewelry. So get to your local cheese counter, talk up the cheesemonger, and bring home something they’ll savor for a very long time.
Celebrities have been known to gift each other wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, but why not pick something a little more uncommon? Gran Kinara is a one-year aged raw cow’s milk cheese. Cheeses of this style are very rarely made with thistle rennet, but this one is. It’s a technique perfected by the cheesemakers at Fiandino in Piemonte, Italy. This cheese is vegetarian, so more people on your list can enjoy it. Crumbly and buttery with a floral aroma, we recommend it grated over pasta or roasted veggies, but really, the possibilities are nearly endless with 80 pounds of cheese.
São Jorge is a little more manageable at 22 pounds, but no less spectacular. It’s a traditional Azorean cheese from the island of the same name. Cows abound on the verdant island, and their raw milk is used in this piquant four month aged cheese. It has a peppery undertone that is often compared to cheddar. It is so snackable and would play nice with full bodied red wines, IPA, whiskey, and port. Bring it to all your online happy hours!
This raw cow’s milk cheese only comes around once a year, so you’re making a statement getting this for someone. It’s made in the Alps on the border of Italy and Switzerland, so it has a traditional Alpine profile that can compete with the best of them. It smells of wine and ripe fruit, and its flavor explodes with notes of wild herbs, grass, and hard-boiled egg. Its semi-firm texture will melt gorgeously over a bevy of potatoes – give it the raclette treatment!
Okay, so this cheese doesn’t have the physical weight that the others do in this category, but it does carry real weight in how extraordinary it is. Paški Sir, a year aged sheep’s milk cheese from the island of Pag in Croatia, is considered a special occasion cheese even in its own country. Because it takes milk from 10-12 sheep to make one wheel, there is understandably not a lot of this cheese around. It’s got a ton of flavor concentrated in one little bite, so a 6 pound wheel still packs a huge punch. Savory and rich with lots of butterscotch, this cheese isn’t cheap, but it sure would make a meaningful gift.
Fontina d’Alpeggio is a far cry from the tasteless, rubbery fontina you might be used to. It comes from one of two specially selected mountain farms, where the cows graze at altitudes of 1900+ meters. It’s only available from the late fall through early winter, which really is perfect timing, since the buttery, earthy flavors match so well with comfort foods like fondue and gratins. This is a cheese you most definitely want 18 pounds of.
