September 3, 2007 - Joanne Seelander is a selection of the reknowned Swiss affineur Rolf Beeler. It is a smear-rind raw milk cheese aged for six months. It's made in a dairy at the foot of Mont Vully in Switzerland (near Bern & Lac de Morat), from the milk of a handful of cows which graze on the grass herbs and flowers of the nearby hills lake-side. It is a hard rinded pressed cheese which melts well and is great in a fondue with Gruyère or Comté.

Seelander is a semi-hard cheese which is golden cream color with some medium-sized holes. The hard rind is golden brown and gray with some yellow and white molds and is slightly sticky. The cheese smells slightly yeasty like baked bread - a Swiss-cheese kind of aroma, with nuts and some wildflowers. It's slow to melt in the mouth with some crunchy protein crystals, but does finally melt away to leave a rancid butteriness and a tang of tannin and acidity on the tongue. Salt bites on the finish. Deep cellar-y notes near the rind and very musty flavors near the rind. The center has a fruitiness and saltiness which is more Comté-like but the finish is more like Gruyère. The cheese has a long finish.

  

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