I made a batch of Cabra (muncho) al vino last weekend, exactly according to the recipe in Tim Smith’s book. Just like the first time, it is starting to crack immediately after it dried after being soaked in the wine. It had it in the wine for 24 hours, dried for 6 hours and it was in the wine again (except for the small one) for 12 hours. First time I made them I coated them with a transparent coating directly after they started to crack and they turned out to be excellent cheeses, so no real worries about this, cause I coated them now also. But still I’m wondering why this happens. To be honest, until now I have no other experience with goat milk than making feta and cabra al vino, so the question is: Is it the recipe that’s causing the curd being too dry, is it something common for pressed goat cheeses or is it a reaction on the wine?

I have no answers for you Herman; but I’ll commiserate.  Those were some very pretty cheeses before the cracking developed.

Thanks Rich, as you can see on the picture in the middle, the wine did mark the crumbles of curd in the rind, although after pressing it looked liked a pretty closed rind to me.

Herman,

There is some gas producing element that causes the cracks. This may be in your culture, in the milk due to silage in the food or just contamination during your making process that caused gas production

Wine will dry out things that are soaked in it,alcohol will do that. I would try “washing” with wine, this way your also wiping potential cracks.
Cheese looks great !!

@Alex: Not very likely, because it is clearly on the outside and not coming from the inside, and it started a couple of hours after I got them out of the wine. At that moment the rind felt very dry, almost dusty, so I guess Neil is right…

@Neil: Yes, apparently it dries out the rind Now I coated them with a transparent coating it looks that it’s under control. Washing is not an option I’m afraid: The real Cabra al Vino or Muncho al Vino is soaked for 2x 24 hours. This way the color and flavor of the wine really becomes a part of the cheese. With the one’s I made earlier you get a sensation like you had a bite of goat cheese in your mouth and chew it and flush it away with a sip of read wine. But I’m waiting for B. Linens that I ordered, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be washing with alcohol in the near future. Probably I will give Epoisse a try…

The other thing to try is using a sweeter wine, the sugar will glue the contents

Yes, sweeter wine would be an option. And I should have thought myself about alcohol drying out things. Because that’s the reason why I am thirsty the morning after a party

LOL, yup I learned that in my teen years to drink lots after partying (water that is).