Naming the Cheese: Etseri, Svaneti

There is a fridge in our home-run shop, which, if my wife opens it while a customer is in, will elicit by aroma the question, “Did something DIE in here?”

But now on to another location for cheese, the best selection in all of Georgia. I first discovered it when Focus Cafe asked Georgia’s then Queen of Cheese to provide her wares for the opening of the cafe’s inaugural art exhibition, featuring my photographs connecting Svaneti and food.

That evening was a revelation. I had never, in over twelve years in Georgia, known that so many different cheeses existed in this little country. But, like the enormously varied set of landscapes, practically every village here has its own version of the product. Some are made of cows’ milk, others from that of sheep or goats. They may be smoked, brined, infused with herbs, wrapped in certain leaves or in wax, or kept in wine. No, this isn’t France, it’s Georgia! But few of these cheeses appear in any bazaar; the shop which our heroine started, Cheese Corner, and now a second, are perhaps their only point of sale. The lady has left her shops to others, and they continue to flourish.

I recently visited the outlet at 163 Nutsubidze Street. A pair of large cooled glass displays greeted me, filled with the magnificent wares, making me feel as if I were in any such shop in Europe. One cabinet seemed to be devoted to more common types, the other exclusively to those unknown elsewhere. Different colors, sizes, shapes and, yes, aromas, tantalized me- someone who has loved good aged cheese from early childhood and missed those types of decades ago in Georgia. Until now. From softest to hardest, weeks young to years old, gentle to pungent: they beckoned me.

Around were also offered things to accompany your choice, all local, too: wines, fruit, nuts, honey and more. This was clearly an experience for all the senses, one suggesting a complex mix of flavors and textures supporting and strengthening one another in a gourmet’s delight. The prices, too, are somewhat beyond the normal ones you’d find in your corner shop or any of the country’s main markets. But then, these items simply cannot be found for sale elsewhere.

As for me, I was here on a mission, to fulfil a dream I’ve had for some years now.

I met the proprietor and we talked awhile about some of his products. One is made by people from Switzerland who are in Georgia for several months of the year, in other mountains than mine; most of the rest are traditional village cheeses from all over the country, as a map illustrates. There’s even a special matsoni, Georgian yogurt, made from the milk of water buffaloes. The shop has been open for about seven years.

He apologized for the relatively poor selection at the moment, although it was still a cornucopia to my unpracticed eyes. More types would soon be finding their way back in to make up for the lack, he assured me. And he let me sample a few, which really impressed me. Each has its own name.

I walked out of there with an extra bounce in my step, mission accomplished. Because, unaccustomed Svans’ olfactory reaction notwithstanding, the very latest cheeses to join their fellows in this shop, by the wish of its owner, from this summer onwards, will be MINE.

Cheese Corner: Nutsubudze St. 163 and Berdzenishvili St. 6, Tel. +995 595 953131, info@cheesecorner.ge, www.facebook.com/cheesecorner

Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 1350 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/

He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:

www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

Tony Hanmer