Tete de Moine

Tête de Moine is a raw cow's milk cheese from the Bernese Jura in Switzerland, made in small cylindrical wheels and aged on spruce boards under a brushed, brine-washed rind. The name translates literally to "monk's head," a nod to both the Bellelay monastery where it was first made in the 12th century and to the way the wheel is served. You don't cut Tête de Moine. You shave it on a girolle, the little hand-cranked blade that turns the paste into thin ruffled rosettes.

The paste is dense and straw-yellow, semi-hard but supple, never dry. Shaved thin and aerated by the girolle, it opens up into something much bigger than the small wheel suggests, buttery and fruity on the front of the palate, with a toasted hazelnut and brown butter middle that comes from the raw milk and the time on spruce. Underneath that sits a gentle washed-rind savoriness. The finish carries well past the swallow.

This is an AOP cheese, protected to the Jura region, and the girolle ritual is half the point. The rosettes melt on the tongue in a way a slice of the same cheese never would. Around the holidays a wheel of Tête de Moine on the table with the girolle next to it does a lot of the work for you.