Summer is in full effect and with festival season getting in to gear as well, here's a pairing that's fit for any warm weather occasion!

The Cheese

Rapsberry Bellavitano

Producer: Sartori
Location: Plymouth, WI
Milk: Pasteurized Cow
Rennet: Microbial (vegetarian)
**allergen note: this cheese is not gluten free as it is washed in Raspberry Tart Ale from New Glarus**

Sartori is a fourth generation family owned company, founded by Paolo Sartori in Plymouth, Wisconsin. He was from a tiny town called Valdastico in the northern Italian Alps. He settled in Wisconsin's dairy country and within a year cofounded S&R Cheese Corp. with partner Louis Rossini. Paolo's son Joe Sartori continued to expand the business, and in 1970 was the first American to export cheese into Italy and Japan. In 1999, Sartori introduced a new cheese of their own invention called Bella Vitano, Italian for "Beautiful Life."

For the Raspberry Bellavitano, Sartori works with the famed (and Pastoral staff favorite) New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin. They provide the Raspberry Tart Ale in which the Bellavitano is soaked.

The Wine

beaujolais-villages rose

Producer: Chateau De Lavernette
Region: Beuajolais, France
Grape: Gamay Noir
Farming: Biodynamic/Organic

When we discovered this wine together at the Imports 59 grand tasting at Paris Club a few months back, we had a similar dazzled look on our faces. We chatted with the wine maker about the renaissance of a sorely misunderstood wine producing region and were immediately compelled to make some fairly straight forward notes in our tasting guide: "BUY!".

Fresh and juicy, but not flimsy. This rose has a creamy texture in the mid-palate broken up by flirty acidity. Expected flavors of strawberry are speckled with melon and floral characteristics. We just purchased the last 2 cases of our beloved spring rose (Elk Cove), perfect timing to fall for a new rose in the run-up to the height of summer.

The Pairing

Guest Monger: Mark

At first blush, the cheese appears to be a bit too "big" for rose of gamay noir; notes of hazelnut and brown butter with those lovely protein 'crunchies' interspersed throughout the cheese. However, once you put the 2 together they sing. The vibrant raspberry tones from the Raspberry Tart Ale play so well together with the red fruit that is so obvious in the wine. For me the experience is almost as if I were eating a fresh raspberry tart with just a little bit of whipped cream.