The All-American Cheese and Wine Book

by Laura Werlin

No one appreciates and helps us understand America’s exciting new artisanal cheeses better than Laura Werlin.

Werlin’s first book, The New American Cheese, profiled America’s great cheesemakers and complemented their new cheeses with delicious pairings and recipes so well that the International Association of Culinary Professionals awarded it highest honors. Beyond being a lexicon for new American cheese, it fueled the current revolution in artisanal handcrafted and farmstead cheesemaking throughout our country.

Her recently released follow-on, The All American Cheese and Wine Book is another potential prize-winner and essential reading for anyone following the most current American culinary trends.

Werlin not only provides an update on this fascinating and rapidly growing industry, but to our great please, this time adds wine as well. She teaches us ways to truly appreciate the miracle and art of transforming milk and grapes into two of nature’s all-time greatest gifts.

As might be expected, Werlin takes us through the two largest dairy states, California and Wisconsin, but surprisingly also to Colorado, the Finger Lakes region of New York, to North Carolina and New Mexico. She travels coast to coast to introduce us to fifty of the nation’s most interesting vintners and cheese makers, sharing the depth of their personal passion and dedication to their craft.

We discover what it means to lose a vineyard’s crop to an early frost, and to deeply love the baby goats and lambs that graze on the best grass one can grow for them. Werlin’s appreciative, personal encounters with people so deeply committed to the land truly illuminate the fullness of life.

As in her earlier book, Werlin offers inspired pairings of all kinds, educates our palates and informs our sensory vocabulary. In The All American Cheese and Wine Book, Andy Ryan’s photographs are so luscious you’ll find yourself searching out a wonderful cheese and favorite wine to enjoy while you read. Be forewarned: once you begin this epicurean journey, a lifelong quest may lie ahead. With Laura Werlin’s fine writing as your guide, you’ll definitely enjoy your travels.

The All American Cheese and Wine Book
by Laura Werlin
Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2003

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The New American Cheese
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