Thursday, April 11, 2013

Cheese & Castles

We had a rare weekend in Basel so we decided to take advantage of a few of the (somewhat) local sights.  On Saturday we headed to the Southern Alsace town of Vieux-Ferrette to visit the famous cheese maître Fromagerie Antony.


Antony is considered one of the best affineurs in France (and perhaps the world).  An affineur is the person that ages cheese. They receive cheeses completely fresh, before they've developed, and take care of the cheeses in such a way that they acquire their own unique characteristics.  Depending on the type of cheese, they may brush, wash, and rotate the wheels.

The only way to sample Antony's cheese is to visit one of the Michelin starred restaurants who he provides cheese to (there are ~19 Michelin three star restaurants with his cheese on the menu) or to visit his shop for a cheese tasting in the ~10 seat tasting room.  Needless to say we choose the latter.  We sampled 8 different goat, sheep and cow cheeses (all unpasteurized) along with a demi bottle of Alsatian wine.  We enjoyed each cheese and even took some home with us (in addition to tastings he also has an extensive cheese store - more people stopped in to buy cheese than to do a formal tasting).




On Sunday we took the tram to Arlesheim, one of the suburban towns outside of Basel.  On the hills overlooking town are two castles - schloss Birseck & schloss Reichenstein.  It was a nice walk up and around the hills, but unfortunately the castles are not open for visitors until May.  Oh well, it was still a nice walk on a Sunday.


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