Over the years, I've trudged up and down the Touchet sneakily scouring for tricky trout. During my…read moreadventures, I've noticed a unique house along the stream's shores. This house had a goat-shaped sign with "Monteillet" on it. For years, I wondered what it was. I eventually found out it was a fromagerie, or goat cheese "factory".
I always thought it cool and out of place to find something like this amongst the palouse and wheat fields, but I am a goat cheese-making illiterate.
I wanted to get educated.
I emailed the Monteillet and made contact. I had friends visiting, and I thought it would be a treat to visit the fromagerie. So, we scheduled a tasting. I corresponded with Jessica, and this ended up being the person who gave us a tasting (I did talk to one of the owners, Joan, on the phone, and she was super nice, and also pointed us to the actual fromagerie when we pulled into the driveway).
Jessica is someone who's interned with Monteillet & has also learned about cheese-making in France. Her welcoming demeanor and text book knowledge of cheesemaking was felt within seconds.
Monteillet doesn't officially open its doors for tastings for a couple more weeks (tastings are $10/person & a little more with a wine pairing). Right about NOW is when the fromagerie is hopping. The painfully cute baby goats are starting to get weened & the mommy goats are peaking with their milk. You could tell the farm was hoppin'.
So, we made our way in to the tasting room. One must be forewarned of the aroma. Cheese is definitely in the house and the nose knows. But HEY, it's cheese, so it's worth the aromatic suffering!
The tasting room is a little small, but it was perfect for our party of four. We saddled up to the bar and Jessica already had an array of their cheeses ready. Two of us opted for just the cheese tasting while a third chose to have a wine pairing as well (the fourth tried finding a clothes pin for his nose).
Jessica walked us through something like 5-7 different cheeses, and we also tried a Mexican chocolate on some of them as well (YUM!). Jessica was the best of hosts. We were all a bit taken aback by how young she was because her breadth of cheese knowledge was astounding and she was the best host.
She talked about how things are really coming together for Monteillet. They've been featured in some national magazines, are staged to tour Farmer's Markets (I saw the owner Joan at the one in Pasco last weekend), and were also in an NPR piece (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125425910). At the moment, they are also putting the finishing touches on an exquisite outdoor dining area (for tastings, events, visiting chef presentations, etc.).
Overall, we had the best experience here. Wouldn't anyone like to get a personalized tour of a farm?! The goats and sheep were also cool to see (the baby goats clearly stole the show [they were painfully too cute!]....as well as the big lumbering and sweet doggies walking the grounds).
We all ended up buying quite a load of cheese. I bought a full round of a soft cheese, and also a quarter wedge of the hard cheese (my fave). The names of the cheeses escape me, but there wasn't a non-excellent one in the bunch--it was just hard to pick one to buy.
WARNING: the smell can be potent. You should have a tupperware container at the ready when you get home, otherwise your kitchen/house will explode with cheesiness! But if you're like me, you won't mind. In fact, you might be trying to figure out a way to bottle the smell for cologne (the ladies, must like this smell, right?).
The cheese has been excellent, and I can't wait to make another trip to the fromagerie!
