Two years ago, Doralice Handal became owner of The Cheese Shop in downtown Healdsburg. After a few years learning the ropes at Marin’s famed Cowgirl Creamery, Handal was ready to strike out on her own, so when the four-year-old shop became available, she jumped at the chance. “[At Cowgirl, I was] doing cheese buying and working in the wholesale warehouse,” she remembers. “I also worked in the creamery and helped in all facets of the business. Before that, I was at Whole Foods in the specialty cheese department in San Francisco.”
A permanent East Coast transplant (“I don’t see myself scraping ice off my windshield anytime soon,” she laughs), Handal attended cooking school in San Francisco and worked in several different restaurants before joining the Cowgirl team. “I started in savory and ended up in pastry,” she says. “I started creating cheese plates for the chefs to snack on while they were on the line. Then they started having me create them for the bar and as specials. Then we began incorporating cheeses into the entrées and some desserts. From there, cheese became my life!”
Today, her little Healdsburg shop claims clients worldwide, thanks to a website, doraliceimports.com, which offers a huge variety of culinary treats to private connoisseurs and professional customers alike. “I work with some shops on the East Coast that do similar things,” she explains. “Not just retail and tourism. A large part of our business is to restaurants, wineries and hotels. We also import cheeses from Ecuador and elsewhere.”
Patrons who walk into The Cheese Shop get the benefit of these connections. In addition to an impressive array of both local and international cheeses, offerings now include restaurant-quality spices, a carefully chosen selection of local wines and a surprising collection of gourmet treats including olives, olive oils, mushrooms and even a few handmade sweets.
But we’re here to talk cheese. Specifically, how Doralice uses a familiar (in this neck of the woods, anyway) device to make sure every customer walks out of her shop with exactly what they want—even if they didn’t know what that was when they walked in.
The Wine Aroma Wheel was invented in 1990 by Ann C. Noble, then-professor and sensory scientist/flavor chemist for UC Davis’ Department of Viticulture and Enology. The wheel breaks down the complexity of wine flavors to make them understandable to even novice wine tasters. By starting with fairly general terms—fruity, chemical or nutty, for example—and gradually becoming more specific—citrus versus berry or dried fruit—the wheel guides conversation about wine to enhance communication.
“We’re working with almost the exact same terminology,” explains Handal. “Because the same sorts of notes you’d find in wine—and that same terminology—can be used to describe cheese. [The wheel can] help you find out how to use cheese as part of a wine pairing, but it also helps us know how to describe it to a customer or to figure out what someone’s going to like.”
"I actually have my staff train themselves on the wine wheel. I want them to be very aware of all the different descriptions that can apply to both wine and cheese, and how to use those in conversation to really draw out what a customer wants.”
She continues: “Whatever food product you’re selling, you’re basically playing 20 Questions with your customers to find out exactly what it is that they want so you can get the exact right bottle of wine—or type of cheese—for them.
“We have people come in here and say, ‘I have this fantastic Bordeaux from 1982.’ You have to start asking questions, because that’s not enough information: ‘Tell me about the wine. Bordeaux is very earthy; do you know what type of soil the grapes were grown in? Is it tannic?’ Luckily, around here, most people are going to know the answers to those kinds of questions. But even if they have no idea—or are maybe feeling a little self-conscious for whatever reason—we keep going: ‘Is it earthy? Does it finish on the palate? Is it fruity? Is it fruity like an apple or like raspberry jam?’
“We’re basically working off the wine wheel descriptions, but starting on the outside and working our way in.”
Handal says she can narrow choices further by asking about milk preferences. Cheese is made from cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk, and each of these has its own characteristics. You have to take into consideration what those milks traditionally taste like. “Cow’s milk is the richest,” she says. “It’s the most buttery and creamy and, across the board, easiest to eat. It’s reminiscent of fresh cream or butter. It can be robust and full-flavored.” Goat’s milk, she explains, is generally tangy and light, sometimes citrusy or grassy; “very springlike.” Sheep’s milk creates much sharper cheeses (“people immediately think of Manchego”); it’s earthy, and its fattiness manifests as an oiliness rather than a butterfat content.
“It’s all a game,” concedes Handal. “Someone wants a nutty cheese that’s slightly creamy made from cow’s milk and, say, comes from northern Italy. [Regional specifics often happen if someone’s drinking an Italian wine, for example, or is serving other regional foods.] The more we can help them narrow down what it is they want, the more we can help them really find something special. The more specific a customer can be, the more specific we can be in our recommendations. That’s the easiest pairing: when we have a specific wine to work with. Then we know exactly what we can do.”
Asked about the absolute pairing, Handal is unequivocal: “Champagne trumps everything! You can have anything you want!”
The Cheese Shop, located at 423 Center Street in Healdsburg, is open Monday through Saturday (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.); phone (707) 433-4998; www.doraliceimports.com.
