ColoRouge

oil on wood, 12x12"

ColoRouge, original artwork by Mike Geno

From the Cheese Portraits series.

This stunner, first caught my eye when I was checking out one of my favorite cheese blogs, Matt Speigler's: cheesenotes.com . Matt has a great eye and his photographs are always seductive. Reading about this cheese, I discovered it was from Colorado, a state I had yet visited with my brush.

"This wrinkled blossom is the ColoRouge, from the MouCo Cheese Company, which advertises itself as producing [salaciously addictive soft ripened cheese in Northern Colorado.] Birgit Halbreiter and Robert Poland, the owners and cheesemakers, met while working on a different kind of microbially active product, beer, at New Belgium Brewing in Ft Collins" - cheesenotes.com

I love that on their website, it's explained that the natural-rind wheels are shipped in special paper that allows the wheel to breath. This "living cheese" evolves and you are offered an aging guide for you to match your taste preference. I hope I can control myself and let one age: "MouCo ColoRouge is fully aged at 7-8 weeks. At this point the cheese flavor is quite complex with its buttery creamy flavors as well as a developed earthiness that is spicy and ...well...just addictive."

Origin: USA, Colorado

Availability: sold