I put in an inquiry to Springbank Cheese Co. in Canada (they have stores in Alberta and Ontario) and will let you know what I find out from them about the Oka. As for the Charlevoix, the availability I found is listed below, so feel free to contact them. I admit I have no idea about Canadian laws, as I always assumed they just did whatever they were asked to do, politely.

Le Migneron de Charlevoix availability:
Quebec
Montreal: Fromagerie Atwater
Ontario
Toronto: Loblaws, Whole Foods, Thin Blue Line, McEwan Fine Foods, Summerhill Market, Fiesta Farms
Aurora: Maunders Food Shop
Ottawa: Serious Cheese
Kingston: Cooke's Fine Foods
Kitchener: Vincenzo's
Saskatchewan
Saskatoon: Souleio Food
Alberta
Calgary: Janice Beaton
Edmonton: Paddy's International Cheese Market
British Columbia
Vancouver: Les Amis de Fromage, Benton Brothers

Oka
https://springbankcheese.ca/catalog/index.php/cPath/15_17_167

Sally Jackson has been making cheese in our state for years(25+). She makes delicious goat cheese wrapped in grape leaves, sheep cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves and oh! ... the cow cheese is a featured item at the Herb Garden. You can find all three of them at Quality Cheese in the pike place market.

Safeway has great wine deals, especially if you buy 6 bottles at a time. I love Rex Goliath, especially the merlot and cab sav although the shiraz is also decent. With the six bottle discount you are out about $4.50. Barefoot is also ok. Better than $3 chuck, which gives me heartburn and tastes pretty terrible the next day. The black label boxed wines are also decent, although uncomplex, and only the reds. Somebody else said Covey Run and I second that, although if I remember right they have real corks so I try to stay away.

Mouton Cadet bordeaux. ~$10/bottle, and it manages to actually drink like a bordeaux for that price.

There's also an organic red boxed wine that's perfectly nice. Forget the name, but there aren't a lot of those, so. It's $18/box, which is the equivalent of four bottles. Cheap!

For a surprisingly good crumbly cheddar, I'm a sucker for WSU's Cougar Gold

Roaring 40's is almost always in stock at DeLaurenti. It is right now, in fact.

If you want to get stuff that you can't get here, I think the best rule of thumb is seek out the young, fresh cheeses because the vast majority, at least in France, will likely be raw milk. Raw milk cheeses have to be aged 60 days or more to be sold domestically, imported or not, thus no raw milk Camembert, Brie and countless other soft ripened cheeses. It's worth it to experience raw milk versions of your favorite soft French cheeses.

The Fine Cheese Co. is a brand of crackers that are very good and even recommends on the packaging what cheeses go well with the different varieties of crackers they offer. Aside from trusting packaging recommendations, I think it's best to ask your cheesemonger when you buy the cheese -- it's part of their job to be able to make those kinds of suggestions. I'd also second Julia Wayne's suggestion above for La Panzanella's Croccantini. Also, Macrina's Sardinian Flatbread is fantastic, as well.

La Tur is almost always in stock at DeLaurenti -- and I'd agree, it's in a class by itself. Aside from the great suggestions already made, you might explore some different Italian soft-ripened cheeses made in a different style than La Tur. Artivaggio is a fantastic washed-rind Italian cow's milk cheese than looks like a mini-Taleggio but is dramatically softer, barely contained by the rind. It's decadently rich, tart with a savory tang, nice salty finish with a really enticing aroma. In addition to the lovely Robiola due latte and tre latte, there are single milk Robiola like Roccaverano, a Piemontese goat Robiola. Rindless, unlike it's mixed milk counterparts, with an absolutely velvety consistency, it's a punchy, rich, tart/sweet floral flavor bomb. On the French side of things, you'd probably love St. Marcellin, made in a style closer to that of La Tur. It's a petite cow's milk round in it's own ceramic cup, gorgeous bloomy rind, semi-pungent, when ripe it's almost liquid -- salty, sweet, lactic, bitter and of course rich.

Germany: kaese mit bier
France: fromage avec vino

Smoking Loon.

Vendange if you want a decent Cabernet Sauvignon - you can usually get it for $7 to $8 for a 1.5 liter bottle at Fred Meyer.

Most of what you pay $50 a bottle for here in the US is really table wine going for 5 EU over in Europe anyway.

Now, if you want a decent dessert wine, a nice Gewurztraminer from around here will do fine. Get the Private Reserve, it's worth the extra buck, cause it's that much better.

Bandit is a new label of boxed wines. The thing that sets Bandit apart is that its a bottle and 1/3 of wine and its only 8 bucks. The wine is great (the white is not full of sugar, and the red is really mellow) and its got a screw top so if you don't finish it all at one sitting, you can take it to go. They sell it at QFC, next to the Franzia.

Covey Run Syrah is consistently good, and you can buy it at most grocery stores for under $10 (often on sale for around $7). I find it to be a medium-bodied, fairly mellow, easy sipping wine.

Welcome, new food and cheese lover! My first and last recommendation is always the same: sample, sample, sample.

The best way to find new cheese that you love, and to expand your palate, is to taste as many as you can. I often have people coming to my counter wide-eyed and obviously overwhelmed, and it's my job to help them find a few selections that sit well with them.

No matter where you buy your cheese, you should find someone who knows something about the selection and tell them "I normally like such-and-such, but want to branch out, what can you suggest?" Any competent cheesemonger should be able to point you in the direction of a handful of delicious cheeses that will be along the lines of what you like, hopefully just different enough to open your eyes and tastebuds to something new.

Case in point: today a couple came by my shop looking for something "Jack-like" for chile rellenos. I don't carry any Monterery Jack style cheeses per se, but I do have a great selection of excellent melting cheeses that I recommend for cooking with. I gave this couple four to choose from and they went with a mild Fontina, a classic and an excellent choice for holding up against the hot, mouth-watering kick of grilled chiles. Now please excuse me while I drool on myself.

Mmmm... La Tur! I must say this cheese is in a class all it's own in my opinion. But it is expensive, and sporadically available (which makes it worth the high price point IMHO), however there are a few other comparable cheeses out there that may assuage your need for creamy, punchy, bloomy rind goodness.

On the import side, I love Robiola's. These are Italian mixed milk cheeses that may be found in two forms: due latti (cow and goat), or the less available tri latti (cow, goat and sheep). They come in a small square form, are less ooey gooey than La Tur but once set out for 20 - 30 mins. become a drippy lovliness that will make your knees shudder.

For domestics cheeses, go go go get yourself a round of Adelle or Valentine from Ancient Heritage in Oregon. Adelle is a cow & sheep mix, Valentine sheep on it's own. Both are very beautiful, bloomy rind mounds of lactic orgasmic discovery. You will not be disappointed!

try visiting delaurenti's. i just purchased some a couple of months ago and it was completely worth every penny.

Creeping Jesus on a cross, I'm just glad this wasn't a question about wine.

I agree with The French on the liberalism side.

To throw conservatives a bone, I'd say the match of Stilton cheese and vintage Port can't be beat.

Once I ran a Port tasting, and people showed up from Bellingham, and then drove home in their Volvo. There. I didn't card them to see if they were liberals or neo-liberals.

That looks fascinating! I am super interested in the science behind cheese - there is a ton I don't know but I'm learning more every day, through reading and through simply handling it on a daily basis and watching the composition change over time under different environmental factors.

This book looks pretty damn hefty, so while I'm adding it to my "to read" list, it's probably going to have to wait for a while until I have the new business trolling along well enough that I can take a few solid hours here and there to delve into it.

Since you're interested, here is a link to a fantastic bit from NPR a while back about the chemistry of cheese: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120890754

And another book on my list: http://www.amazon.com/Cheese-Chemistry-Physics-Microbiology-Groups/dp/0834213397

Vive la fromage!

I often say that I'm a cheesemonger, not a politician. While I'm happy to talk politics over a few beers, I make an effort to keep it out of my cheese consumption. And I have no idea where the volvo reference fits in here, but it sounds like you already have an answer for that one and are just checking to see if anyone can guess it.
Next!

This is actually an issue that I have talked about a little bit with fellow cheesemakers and cheesemongers in Australia via twitter: why can't we get each other's cheese in our respective countries easily?

I think it mostly comes down to transportation. Importing cheese from another country is never easy, and is often expensive as it needs to be shipped in a climate-controlled environment, ideally handled by people who understand the fragile nature of cheese along the way. Consider some cheeses from the UK and Western Europe - they often need to be ordered over a month in advance to allow time for shipping, receiving and going through customs on the East Coast, then air-shipping to our neck of the woods. We pay a pretty penny for these cheeses because they're worth it, and many of the importers who work with them have done so long enough that they have their procedures down solid and it's thankfully rare to wind up with damaged or spoiled cheese by the time it makes it's way to the West Coast. Add in the extra time and expense it would take to get delicate cheese like a blue from Australia, and it just becomes too expensive and too risky.

On the upside, there are so many amazing blue cheeses available from Western Europe, and so many great blue's being made in our own country to keep any big blue lover satisfied! I usually have about 8-10 blue cheeses to choose from in my deli case and less than half of them are from beyond the giant pond. Rogue Creamery in Oregon produces some of my all time faves like Caveman Blue, Oregonzola, and their award-winning Rogue River Blue. I also deeply love Bayley Hazen Blue from Jasper Hill in Vermont, as well as some striking newer blues being made by Estrella Family Creamery and Willapa Hills in Washington.

Because people who prance around worrying about nuances of flavor and bouquets and how this or that is made in France vs Switzerland vs England are obviously not going to make it through freedom defender boot camp.

I'm also a freak for Gothberg Farms and Estrella, but since Julia already hit upon them, I'll wax poetic about a few others.

River's Edge Chevre in Logsden, OR - some of the most impressive cheeses I've come across in the PNW are coming from Pat at River's Edge. Cape Fowlweather is a gorgeous little pyramid of complex goat cheese with a vegetable ash coat and a delicate bloomy rind, let this one sit out for 30 mins. and it turns into an ooey gooey puddle of yum! Also her Sunset Bay, with a line of smokey paprika running through the middle, is faboo.

Tumalo Farms in Bend, OR is making Pondhopper, a semi-hard goat cheese that is washed with Mirror Pond Pale Ale. It's a real crowd-pleaser cheese, but really flavorful and interesting so it's something different for those with very experienced palates.

Juniper Grove in Redmond, OR is making a gorgeous Buche that has a piece of wheat stuck in it, making for a beautiful presentation and amazing flavor that stands up to it. His Dutchman's Flat is also knocking my socks off, sweet, dense chevre coated in vegetable ash with a thin line of ash running through the center. It is drool-worthy.

And always, Seastack from Mt. Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend, WA. I tasted this cheese for the first time at a restaurant years ago and it was one of those cheeses that made me wake up and go "WOW. I can't believe this is being made in my backyard!"

My personal favorite would be Dinah's Cheese from Kurtwood Farms on Vashon. Kurt Timmermeister's Camembert-style cheese is perfect, simple, luscious.

These guys covered it all:

http://saltandfat.com/post/518330719/the-grilled-cheese-sandwich

I am often asked why American artisan cheeses are more expensive than their European counter parts, and the answer is subsidies. In Europe, they actually subsidize real farmers, while here in the good ol' Corporate States of America we subsidize big agri-business. Billions for Monsanto, zero for the family struggling to create wholesome, nutritious cheese. Hence your ability to purchase really cool, unusual farmstead european cheese for 16 - 20 per pound, but the local cheese you love is 25-35 per pound.

cast iron skillet, good cheese, and good bread. brush olive oil or clarified butter onto the bread, grill on medium-low heat (preheat the skillet). another alternative is mayo, but i find that i prefer this for "shitty" grocery store bread moreso than the "good stuff" i get at local bakeries.