Mont Vivant - Cheese Course

Pressed onto a baguette, crumbled over salads, or eaten straight, we can't get enough of goat cheese in springtime.

This year, voluptuaries and gastronomes seeking a decadently rich and creamy goat's milk cheese will go wild for Rainbeau Ridge Farm's Mont Vivant. Unlike other mold-ripened goat's milk cheeses (like Selles sur Cher or Valençay), this offering from Bedford Hills, NY has an exquisite bloomy rind (unusual in goat's milk cheeses) that seems to impart a more complex and cakey texture, as if it were a cross between Valençay and Brie.

Aged for two to four weeks, Mont Vivant has a distinctly fresh, mild taste that changes with age. Lisa Schwartz, Rainbeau Ridge farm's owner, told us that the name Mont Vivant ("Living Mountain") comes from this flavor evolution.

"When the cheese is only 10 to 14 days old we begin to sell it," she explains, "but, as the name implies, the 'mountain' lives, or evolves, between two and four weeks. Some folks like it aged even longer." If cared for properly, the cheese develops a nice creamy layer just under the rind, and the paste underneath stays flavorful without getting chalky or ammonia-scented.

Depending on its age and the season, the cheese has nuanced variations, but Schwartz says that after two years of tweaks, Mont Vivant has for the most part a consistent taste and texture. Ironically, it was thanks to the weather one August that Mont Vivant came into existence. Two years ago, during the milk's final cool down (post-pasteurization), Rainbeau Ridge experienced a power failure due to a summer storm. "I knew I couldn't use the milk ... so experimentation was in order," Schwartz recalls. "I wanted to cultivate a little more flavor in a new cheese and thought that the use of penicillum candidum would do that -- along with the lightly bloomy rind, the culture is infused throughout." Mont Vivant "is a nod to Valençay," a French goat's milk cheese in the same pyramid shape.

Starting May 30, Mont Vivant will be sold locally at the Pleasantville, New York farmer's market. Check out the Rainbeau Ridge website to find the stores and restaurants where its cheeses are carried, and look out for the late summer publication of Schwartz's "Over the Rainbeau," a book chronicling a cheesemaker's journey through the seasons.