• Take your cheeses out of the box as soon as they arrive. If they seem a bit warm, unwrap the paper wrapped ones & let them breath a bit, then put them in the frig for about an hour open & let them chill before rewrapping.
• Please don’t worry about how long cheese will “keep” unless you are expecting a blackout or a natural disaster, & in that case, you’ll have bigger things to address. Cheese once cut is not meant to keep; it’s meant to be eaten. Plastic wrapped cheeses will of course, “keep” longer than others. So don’t buy lbs. of cheese & plan on it being great in 3 or 4 weeks.
• Don’t be alarmed by blue mold on cheese—especially paperwrapped ones. Those molds are everywhere, including your frig, & are as natural as sunshine. If you don’t like blue cheese then brush or scrape off the blue mold; otherwise, enjoy!
• Let cheeses come to room temperature before serving. They will have twice the flavor as cold.
• Fresh goat cheese does not melt because of its low fat content, & because its texture comes from hand ladling, not fat, do not beat it senseless when incorporating it into recipes or it will lose that texture and become pasty and liquefied.  If cheeses come plastic wrapped, rewrap in plastic after opening. If packaged in paper, it’s because they need to breathe, so do not wrap in plastic. Rewrap paper wrapped cheeses in waxed paper & store in butter tray or vegetable compartment of frig. A glass dome is also an excellent way to keep these fragile, rinded chevres from drying out. Don’t be intimidated about pairing wine & cheese. Good cheese goes with almost any wine. The old adage is “buy wine on apples & sell it on cheese”, which essentially means a good cheese may improve a mediocre wine, but not the reverse. We are not that fussy about wine, with one notable exception—Port. Port is grand with blue cheese, but will totally overwhelm most others.
• Cheese is best served as a course. Before a meal, cheese with herbs, is great. After a meal when it often replaces dessert, avoid savory ingredients & go for the sweet edge in both condiments & wine. Why is this best? Because cheese is a perfect & a simple thing, but elegant enough to stand on its own & satisfy without much preparation.
  

Wonderful Pairings

Fresh goat cheese cut into medallions served with honey, sliced pears, & Muscat

• Wabash Cannonballs, Sofia, or Piper’s Pyramide in wedges with fresh figs & drizzled with a rosemary or mint infused simple syrup. Serve with a white dessert wine, like a late harvest Riesling.
• Mont St. Francis served with fresh strawberries & drizzled with Mandori Balsamic. Serve with a fruity red, like a Zinfandel or Pinot Noir. Better yet, serve a bit of strawberry/balsalmic compote on the side.
• Mont St. Francis, sliced thin & drizzled with honey & served with very sweet fruit, like apricots or figs.