Barone Rosso smells like an old cantina. That may sound like an insult, but I mean it as a compliment.
I purchased a thin wedge of this semi-aged cow’s-milk cheese from Italy’s Veneto region at Red, White and Bleu, in Arlington Falls Church, the other day. I opened up the package and set the cheese on my counter, and within minutes my kitchen seemed to take on the aroma of every small, cool and musty cantina that I have ever been in. I was in love with the cheese even before I tasted it.
Barone Rosso is one in a series of “Ubriaco” (drunken) cheeses produced by La Casearia Carpenedo. The wheels are buried in barrels of grape marcs, the solid remains of grapes pressed for wine, where they are left to mature for several months and take on the color and flavor of the grape.
The Carpenedo family has been in the cheese business since the early 1900s, but it is only within the past three decades that it has focused on innovative aging and flavoring techniques. The company, located outside of Treviso, produces one of my all-time favorite cheeses, Sottocenere al Tartufo, which has a paste flecked with black truffle and an alluring ash- and spice-coated rind.
To read the rest of the story, go to: The Washington Post
