Cheese of the Month March #1: Te Mata Mt Erin Goats Brie Pyramid

As I totally missed out last month’s cheese of the month I will try to fit in two this month. For the first one this month I have chosen Te Mata Mt Erin, the pyramid format of their goats brie which has just taken out best in class for white mould cheeses and a gold medal at the New Zealand Cheese Awards. It is I think particularly impressive that a goats milk cheese has achieved best in class in a category that one might assume a cows milk brie or camembert to win.

In common with most soft New Zealand goats cheeses, Mt Erin lacks the acidity that you would find in a French Chevre, however it more than makes up for it with spicy marzipan notes and a hint of gamey-ness. When young the cheese will be chalky with a hint of spice, as it matures it will start to run and the full marzipan character will develop, eventually these flavours will become barnyard like.

When its at its peak I think Mt Erin matches extremely well spicy phenolic continental styles. I have successfully matched this cheese Weizen Biers, Wits and lambic beers. For the photo shoot I decided to take a different tack and match it with a frambois, unfortunately the rather sweet jammy Timmermans interpretation didn’t really work. Go with a Wheat beer or a Gueze I say.