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Janet Fletcher

180 Stonecrest Dr
Napa, CA, 94558
(707) 265-0404
{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

Janet Fletcher

  • Home
  • About
    • About Janet
    • Media
    • Client List
    • Contact
  • Planet Cheese
    • Planet Cheese Blog
    • Planet Cheese Signup
    • Cheese Library
  • Store
    • All Items
    • World Cheese Tour
    • Books
  • Classes
    • World Cheese Tour Classes
    • Other Classes & Events
    • Custom Class/Event Request
    • Cheese O'Clock Video Archive
  • Recipes
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
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Gold-Standard Manchego

February 25, 2025 janet@janetfletcher.com

I love aged sheep cheeses so much that even a mediocre one will tempt me. But a sublime Manchego like the one pictured here makes me greedy. I don’t want to share it; I want to hoard it. You have the Brie, honey. The Manchego’s all mine. Of course, I also want every cheese lover to know about it, and buy it, so that we keep the shipments coming. Manchego is Spain’s top-selling cheese by a mile, with 61 different producers. But if you want to taste the gold standard, in my view it’s this one.

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In From: Spain, Milk: Sheep Tags Manchego, queso Manchego, Queso Manchego Artesano PDO, Manchego 1605, Spanish cheese, Essex Cheese
12 Comments

What Tradition Tastes Like

September 5, 2023 janet@janetfletcher.com
El Abuelo Ruperto - sheep cheese from Murcia

It’s possible today to make commercial cheese that hands never touch. Milk is trucked to the plant and goes in one end of the production line and packaged cheese comes out the other. How dreary is that?

The cheeses I write about aren’t made like that, but they aren’t often made by old-time methods either—on a farm, from the raw milk of the family’s flock, with hands cutting the curd and flipping the wheels and humans making decisions at every step. The exceptional new Spanish cheese pictured above is an example of the distinction a cheese can achieve when made the hands-on, purist way.

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In From: Spain, Milk: Sheep Tags sheep cheese, Quesos Ruperto, El Abuelo Ruperto, Forever Cheese, Lacaune sheep, Spanish cheese, Spanish sheep cheese, raw milk cheese
2 Comments

New Kid on the Block

January 31, 2023 janet@janetfletcher.com
Truffle Cheese

Does the world need another truffled cheese? Well, maybe this one. It’s Spanish, from goat’s milk, and new on the scene—just in time to add some love to your Valentine’s cheese board. Try it shaved—it feels like a silk handkerchief. Grate it for fondue, happy hour panini or asparagus risotto. A truffled cheese omelet speaks to me, needless to say. Truffles, bubbles and cheese—that’s my love language.

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In From: Spain, Milk: Goat Tags truffle cheese, Spanish cheese, goat cheese, cheese board, Valentine’s cheese, cheese and sparkling wine, cheese and Champagne, cheese and bubbles
13 Comments

New Year, New Ewe Cheese

January 3, 2023 janet@janetfletcher.com

Fresh sheep cheese wasn’t even a thing a decade ago. Now we have options, including this newcomer from Spain. Like a buttery cream cheese, it’s all ready to schmear on your morning bagel. Or marinate with extra virgin olive oil and garlic confit for wine o’clock. To savor this cheese at its most seductive, warm it until it quivers.

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In From: Spain, Milk: Sheep Tags sheep cheese, fresh sheep cheese, schmear, bagels, wine o’clock, marinated cheese, Spanish cheese
4 Comments

Spain’s Best Goat Cheese?

February 15, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com

If Manchego isn’t Spain’s top-selling cheese by a large margin, I’d be surprised. We all know Manchego. It’s a dependable—and often exceptional—aged sheep cheese. But Spain has a much bigger story to tell. Its goat cheeses, fresh and aged, can stand up to Europe’s best, but they don’t get much shelf space in American cheese shops. One of my favorite Spanish goat cheeses, I was pleased to learn, is also the favorite of Spanish cheese authority Enric Canut ,who told me years ago in an interview that he thought it was his country’s finest.

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In From: Spain, Milk: Goat Tags Majorero, Spanish cheese, goat cheese, Spanish goat cheese, Enric Canut, World Cheese Tour, Manchego
Comment

Spanish Aristocrat

August 3, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 77 _DSC3741.jpg

This stunning Spanish sheep cheese is worth the hunt, even without knowing its cinematic back story. I’d certainly place it among the most captivating cheeses I’ve tasted in many months, with aromas and flavors all its own. It tastes nothing like Manchego or any of the Basque sheep cheeses. Made on an estate where sheep have grazed since the 13th century, the cheese owes its origin, in part, to an American fashion model who spied for the OSS in World War II and married a Spanish count. As the importer says, you couldn’t make this stuff up.

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In From: Spain, Milk: Sheep Tags Finca Pascualete, Extremadura, Spanish cheese, sheep cheese, raw milk cheese, Aline Griffith, Manchego
12 Comments

Trio of Lovelies

September 15, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 135 _DSC2062.jpg

For all those who say they don’t like goat cheese, here are three to change their mind. I would bet on it. How can you not love these beauties? I get why people dislike those chalky, overly tart fresh chèvres that smell like a goat barn. I don’t like them either. But goat cheese can be silky, sweet, nutty and mellow, with an aroma like pale caramel. These three gems (one is mixed milk) are absolutely worth the hunt—each an original creation made by a single producer.

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In Milk: Goat, From: Spain, From: Italy Tags Spanish cheese, Italian cheese, goat cheese, washed-rind cheese
4 Comments

Bumpy Ride for Cheese Imports

August 11, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 79 _DSC1787.jpg

Six months into this horrid pandemic and we still can’t plan for the future. Will we be able to gather for Thanksgiving? Will we have holiday parties? For me, these aren’t top-of-mind questions, but if you’re a cheesemaker, you need to guess, now, what people are going to want two or three months from now. The usual customer buying patterns have been completely upended. Montenebro (above), the fabulous Spanish goat cheese, is in short supply because the cheesemaker slashed production two months ago. Iffy flight schedules still plague air-freighted cheeses from Europe.

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Tags imported cheese, coronavirus and cheese, Montenebro, French cheese, Spanish cheese, Italian cheese, Victory Cheese, Forever Cheese, World’s Best Cheese, Aniata Cheese
Comment

A New Blue to Love

July 9, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 235 _DSC9162.jpg

A new blue cheese made with goat’s milk is cause for rejoicing. There are so few. This beauty, from Andalusia, was the region’s first goat blue when it debuted in 2012. Andalusia produces a lot of goat cheese but nothing remotely like this. The innovator? A spunky young woman who married into a cheesemaking family and wasn’t afraid to challenge tradition.

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In From: Spain, Milk: Goat Tags goat cheese, blue cheese, Spanish cheese, Andalusia
2 Comments

Best Buys at the Cheese Counter

May 14, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 154 cheese bargains 1.jpg

My recent class on “Best Buys at the Cheese Counter” reminded me—and my students—that a superb dinner-party cheese platter doesn’t have to set you back more than the lamb chops. You can spend $35 to $40 a pound on cheese today, or you can spend half that if you know where the values are. I assembled the seven selections for this class without shopping at a big-box store or chain. I was a little surprised by the class favorite but almost all the cheeses got some votes.

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Tags Ferme de la Tremblaye, Brie, Brie Fermier, goat cheese, Vella Mezzo Secco, Vella Cheese, California cheese, French cheese, Spanish cheese, Gouda, Dutch cheese, blue cheese, Fourme d’Ambert, Stompetoren, Cabot Creamery, Vermotn Cheddar, Cabra al Gofio, Los Cameros
-2 Comments
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Welcome to my world: a fragrant, fascinating universe devoted to great cheese. In this and future Planet Cheese posts, you’ll find profiles of the world’s best cheeses plus insights into everything cheese: shops, recipes, interviews, pairing discoveries, classes, videos, travel. If you haven’t already done so, sign up here - it’s complimentary - and join me in learning something new about cheese every week.


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     Photographs: Douglas Fletcher, Ed Anderson, Megan Clouse, Faith Echtermeyer, Eva Kolenko,
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