Kafalotiri is a mountain cheese, hand-crafted by the Mt. Vikos cheese company in central Greece. It is made from sheep and goat's milk, salt-brined and then rubbed with more dry salt. The cheese is aged for about three months to develop a more complex flavor. Its texture is semi-hard and a little bit crumbly with tiny air pockets throughout the cheese. Kafalotiri is pleasantly sharp and somewhat salty. This cheese is great as part of an appetizer platter with olives and roasted peppers, and it is also sometimes grated on Greek pasta casseroles such as Pastitsio.
We tasted our Kafalotiri cheese with a triple olive bread loaf from Wegmans. The triple olive bread contained Green Olives, Blonde Olives, and Kalamata Olives from three different parts of Greece. The saltiness of the olives complimented the cheese nicely, and the flavors went well with an excellent Greek wine from Boutari. The Boutari Naoussa wine is a classic from Central Greece, produced since 1907 and made from the Xinomavro grape, similar to Pinot Noir. Like Pinot Noir wines, good Xinomavro wines are subtle while complex in palate, offering a great choice for complementing this cheese tasting.
Unlike other cheese tastings where the cheese is primary and other components more peripheral, the key to this combination is that while none of these flavors were overpowering, each subtly built towards a flavor portrait representing a pastoral picture of mountainous Greece. Distinctive and representative of this taste profile, I highly recommend this cheese in combination with similar flavors, or trying your own picnic in a basket as a travel get-away without the airline mileage!
