Affinage

Affinage describes the aging process that cheeses go though and an Affineur is the brave man or woman responsible for aging each cheese to perfection. You see, good cheese is a dynamic and alive thing; always changing from week to week and with near endless possibilities of texture and flavor. As much as anything else, the Affinage of the cheese impacts the flavor that the end consumer, you dear reader, gets to enjoy. 

Roquefort Caves

First let us clear up that 'aging' a cheese does not mean simply tossing it in the cupboard or refrigerator for a couple of months or a year and coming back to find a masterpiece. A note here regarding purchasing cheeses and then attempting to age them in your home refrigerator: go forth boldly but do not be fooled. You are not aging your cheese, you are at best holding onto it for longer and at worse ruining it altogether. Refrigerators have the wrong temperature and humidity settings, yes even in the vegetable drawer, to mimic a cheese cave. The temperature in a fridge is too low as is the humidity, you want 80% and up for relative humidity and 45-58ºF (7-14ºC) to begin with, though each recipe is different.

Murray's "Cave"

Aging a cheese is a labor intensive process carried out in conditions controlled to fractions of a degree and tenths of a percentage of humidity in new high-tech operations and deep caves as old as the hills themselves where the character of the cheese is ingrained into the very rock in older operations. Cheeses must be turned, washed, rubbed, scraped, brined, turned some more, scraped some more, bathed, salted, probed, injected with mold and then maybe turned again during the aging process according to rules that are written nowhere as clearly as in the mind of the affineur. It is not at all uncommon for particular affineurs to gain notariety for the degree of perfection to which they age wheels of cheese, and indeed stores such as Murray's of NYC take great pride in having a dedicated cheese aging cave and affineur on staff, ensuring everything that goes in the glass case up front is at the peak of flavor and texture and ready to be sold. Tours are available, I've not had the pleasure yet but I plan on it!

All that hard work and intuition truly pays off in the small miracles of flavor that result. Here are some general guidelines of what to expect in terms of flavor and texture but keep in mind that everything can change depending on the cheese recipe and the cheesemaker, so there is no hard and fast rule. 

Baby goat

Goat: As a fresh cheese it'll be creamy and rich with milky sweetness, chevres are by far one of my favorites for their bight and popping flavor and spreadable softness. A surface ripened goat cheese, aged for a number of weeks, will be yet sharper and noticeably firmer, perhaps even crumbly, and should still be very creamy if not as milky as before. Here the sweetness may be more reserved and share the palate with other tones displaying the complexity of where the cheese came from. An aged goat cheese will be good and firm but is rarely aged to the 1 year mark and so will likely still be sliceable and creamy once it melts on the palate. Though the sweet tang will still be present it will be accompanied in equal measure by other notes as well. I'd look to Capricho de Cabra, Humboldt Fog, and Cabra Romero for excellent examples of the three age categories. 

Cow baby

Cow: The best examples of young cow cheeses must be French Bries, for while crème fraîche is delicious I'd not count it a cheese. The good Bries will be very rich and decadent while not heavy on the palate and should show a good deal of complexity, notably mushroom and garlic in this case. Slightly aged cow cheese will retain that same creaminess and especially an overall buttery feel but, in this Cheese Addict's opinion, tend to lack a depth of flavor (the soft-squishy texture doesn't win any favor either). Aged cow cheeses on the 8 months and up side of life come into their own with a good honest texture and a flavor (or at least sharpness) worth trying, and when you reach the 1 year and up crowd it just gets more intense. The best staple Cheddars usually fall into this category any cheddar or Gouda younger usually doesn't hold my interest. Going yet older and you enter Parmigiano Reggiano territory, where cheeses will become crumbly and (sometimes overly) dry but caramelly and chewy as well. Here I should note that most Parmigianos are in the 1-1.5 year range and are much drier than a similarly aged cheddar, a difference that comes down to the cheesemaking process and how much whey was made to leave the curds. That being said I've tried Parmigianos younger than 1 year and, while still good, it just isn't the same. Perhaps the best part of extra aged cow cheeses is the crunch of the casein clusters that appear and add a heavenly texture variation to the mix. I would be so bold as to say that, on the whole, cow cheeses simplify in term of flavor as they grow very old, trending either to salty or to sweet. Find a good Brie, an English Cheddar, and either Alpine Comte Reserve or an extra-aged Gouda to best see the transition.

Baby sheep

Sheep: Fresh sheep cheese, while available, is not my preferred fresh cheese medium. The oily nuttiness and the dark flavor lends itself better, I believe, to aged cheeses. A young sheep cheese will be alive with the grassy and earthy notes of the area it came from and will be far more tangy and tart than sweet, there are some brie-like sheep's milk cheeses that display this nicely. In the 5-9 month range they will be in what I would call the prime of the their lives, oily and nutty, firm enough to cut and also still moist but just bursting with salty and rich fatty flavor. There are some sheep's milk cheeses aged in the 1 year and up category but not many, a notable example being the sheep's milk Gouda Ewephoria. Fleur du Maquis, a 6 or 8 month Manchego, and Ewephoria display the aging of Sheep cheeses well. 
Blue: Younger blue cheeses will typically be less thoroughly veined and so creamier and milder, without as strong a kick. Gorgonzola Dolce is the younger than Gorgonzola Piccante, for example, and some Roqueforts that are truly exquisite are aged longer than others to bring even more kick out. 
Buffalo, Horse, and Yak: To my deepest disgrace I've yet to find enough data to generalize. I've had a buffalo Mozzarella and a Parmigiano Reggiano di Bufala that were both incredible, and I've yet to be turned off to Horse or Yak cheese of any age, but then chances are these are not the questions that are keeping you up at night: "Just how will that Yak cheese melt over my lasagna"?

Right, so there is something to clear up what Affinage is and why it's important, and if you have actually read through all this then I can only assume it's out of a love for cheese and cheese knowledge. Go forth and enjoy cheese!