Blue Cheeses: The Big Four

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Kristen Miglore, Getting the Blues; If you want to understand the wide world of blue cheese, start by getting to know these four classic, flavor-forward styles. Wall Street Journal, Oct 6, 2012
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 22642672737054.html

blues can be anything from buttery and soft to stinging, hard-edged and metallic.

Note:
(1) The first sentence of the food critique says, "Blue cheeses are indeed one big family—with a few uniting traits and idiosyncrasies, just like yours—but Fourme d'Ambert is not Maytag is not Picon."
(a) The "yours" means "your family."

(b) Fourme d'Ambert, Maytag and Picon are all minor blue cheeses.
(i)
(A) Fourme d'Ambert. CheeseOnline, undated.
http://www.cheeseonline.fr/frenc ... ourme-d-ambert.html
("The word « fourme » comes from the latin « forma » (form), which also gave birth to the word « fromage » ([']cheese['] in French)")
(B) Ambert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambert
(a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France)
(ii) Maytag Blue cheese
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maytag_Blue_cheese
(In 1938, Iowa State University developed a new process for making blue cheese from homogenized cow's milk instead of the traditional sheep's milk)

(A) In 1893 Frederick Louis Maytag I founded predecessor of Maytag Corp, which was sold to Whirlpool in 2006.
(B) Maytag Dairy Farms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maytag_Dairy_Farms
(established in 1941 by Frederick Louis Maytag II[, grandson of Frederick Louis Maytag I and son of Elmer Henry Maytag])
(C) Maytag Corp was and Maytag Dairy Farm is based in Newton, Iowa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton,_Iowa
(iii) Picón Bejes-Tresviso
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pic%C3%B3n_Bejes-Tresviso
(a blue cheese from Cantabria, in the north of Spain; A mixture of cow's, sheep's and goat's milk is used in its production; production is restricted to the municipalities of [among other names] Tresviso)
(A) Picón is a Spanish Adjective that means "touchy" or "peevish." Here it means "spicy."
(B) Bejes is a village in Cantabria. See Spanish Wiki
Bejes
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bejes

(iii) Fourme d'Ambert is not Maytag is not Picon. The structure is similar to
Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_is_a_rose_is_a_rose_is_a_rose

(2) Penicillium roqueforti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillium_roqueforti
(widespread in nature; The fungus has been a constituent of [French] Roquefort, [English] Stilton, Danish blue, [Spanish] Cabrales and other blue cheeses; blue cheese is mentioned in literature as far back as AD 79, when Pliny the Elder remarked upon its rich flavour)
(3) Clifton Fadiman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Fadiman
(1904-1999; American)
(4) terroir (n; French, 'land', from medieval Latin terratorium):
"the complete natural environment in which a particular wine is produced, including factors such as the soil, topography, and climate"
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/terroir
(5) Fairway Market
http://www.fairwaymarket.com/about-fairway/
(not "Fairway Markets" which is a grocery chain in Vancouver) is a grocery chain started in 1933 with Nathan Glickberg and headquartered in Manhattan.
(6) Illustration:
(a) Roquefort
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roquefort_cheese
(European law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may bear the name Roquefort)

(b)
(i) Gorgonzola is made from unskimmed cow's milk. Wikipedia
(ii) Gorgonzola
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgonzola
(a comune in the province of Milan)
(iii) The report refers to "The buttery, gently haunting funk of Gorgonzola dolce."

funk (n; probably ultimately from French dialect (Picard) funquer to give off smoke):
"a strong offensive smell"
www.m-w.com
(c) Stilton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stilton
(a village in Cambridgeshire, England)
(d) Cabrales
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrales
(a municipality in the autonomous community of Asturias, northwestern Spain)