WARNING: Picture intensive post to follow!
Adam and I scored tickets to the 2010 World Championship Cheese Contest held in Madison, WI (where we got engaged!) So on St. Patrick's Day, we took the day off of work and headed up to Madison.
Our first stop was at the Yahara Bay distillery where we were greeted by the owner's step son who offered us samples of two of their Gins, Vodka, Aged Rum, Apple Brandy, and Limoncello.
We loved all of it (And how it was made from local ingredients like Washinton Island Juniper berries and Wisconsin grown honeycrisp apples). We took home two bottles of Gin, 1 bottle of Apple Brandy (wish we got more!), and he tossed in a small bottle of the aged rum since it wasn't available for sale.
Then it was off to lunch at our favorite Madison restaurant, The Old Fashioned. (Where we split cheese curds, a cheese burger, and beer cheese soup since we were worried we might not get enough cheese later).
After that we headed over to Middleton to visit Capital Brewery but on the way, Adam insisted we stop at the Mustard Museum.
This place has a "museum" downstairs filled with old bottles of mustard from all over the world. Upstairs, there are more bottles from all over the world but you can actually buy those.
Even Meijer's brand has a place on the shelves of the museum.
Got mustard?
The store upstairs:
The sun was shining and we were looking forward to enjoying the unseasonably beautiful weather so we made our way to Capital Brewery, grabbed a few beers and enjoyed them in their Bier Garten. And I was worried it might be crowded :P
Finally it was time to check into our hotel so we could get on with the main event!
For $20 we got to spend 2 hours sampling cheese from across the globe. There were 15 international cheeses and 11 Wisconsin Cheese Makers for a total of about 35-40 different cheeses! We got there early, and they let us in early so I got to snap a bunch of picture of undisturbed cheese.
Get ready for some cheese overload!
This booth was run by Fromagination (right across the street from the Capital). They had a 12, 10, and 5 year Cheddar from Hook's. We heard whispers that they had a 15 year in their store so we stopped on the way home to pick some up. But at $60 a pound we only spray for a quarter pound :)
The Japanese Umami Gouda below on the right here was one of Adam's favorites.
Check out the coolers. Wouldn't you die to roll one of these cheese filled puppies into your basement?
Besides all of the delicious cheeses, there were also appetizers:
So, what was our best in show? It would be this 8 year from Widmer's.
We went back and forth between this one and Hook's 12 year most of the night. Ultimately, we decided the 8 year had the better flavor.
Probably one of the best $20 we've ever spent (except for the way we felt the next day, LOL).