Excellent gourmet gifts are not just fancy food – they’re an uplifting experience. If they’re really good, they take the gift recipient to a new place; perhaps somewhere they have never been before. Such is the case with the fine cheese products from The Cheese Ambassador. The nice people at The Cheese Ambassador asked if GourmetStation would review one of their collections. Chef Julie and I promptly answered yes and within a few days a delicious cheese gift was delivered.

The Cheese Ambassador selected their Mediterranean Collection for us that included three delicious cheese samples: The Tipsy Goat from Spain, Port Salut from France and Piave from Italy. The cheese gift  included history of each cheese along with a wine pairing “cheat sheet.” Very cleaver!

Tipsy Goat from Spain was my favorite hailing from La Mancha, the home of Don Quixote. Perhaps the 40 year aging process is what gave the cheese its richness, but I was most pleased with the tangy after bite. Got my attention. Chef Julie favored the Port Salut – creamy and buttery. The back story is what makes the difference as we conjured up images of Trappist Monks learning to make this wonderful cheese while exiled in Switzerland. Finally, we both enjoyed the Piave and the firm texture made it a candidate for grating over vegetables.

We enjoyed all three cheeses with Hot Pepper Peach Preserves (hey, we’re from Georgia), organic trail mix with smoked salted almonds and a thinly sliced apple. Perfection! Almost forgot, the web site has a suggested wine list for each cheese along with FAQ’s answering questions like how to store cheese.

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