Rodolphe Le Meunier Roquefort

Roquefort is the sheep's milk blue from Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the south of France, aged in the natural limestone caves of Combalou where cool damp air pulled through the fleurines feeds the Penicillium roqueforti and shapes every wheel. This particular selection is finished by Rodolphe Le Meunier, the affineur out of the Loire who picks his wheels at the moment he thinks they are in balance.

The paste is semi-soft and moist, pale ivory shot through with even blue veining, breaking rather than slicing cleanly under the knife. It opens tangy on the front of the palate from the raw sheep's milk, then the blue kicks in through the middle with a confident peppery bite, and the whole thing pulls back into a long sweet buttery finish that is the calling card of a properly aged Roquefort. There is a damp limestone and mushroom note from the caves running underneath all of it.

What makes this one worth the splurge is the affinage. A lot of Roquefort can lean too salty or too sharp on the front end. Rodolphe's wheels hold the salt back and let the sweet finish do the work.