Gourmet News • Spring Cheese Guide 2021

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KIMBERLY OSER Publisher

LORRIE BAUMANN Editor In Chief

Bardwell 6 Consider Plans for a

JULES DENTON-CARD Senior Associate Publisher

Better Tomorrow ANTHONY SOCCI Associate Publisher

Making 10 Widmers Cheese the Family

YASMINE BROWN Art Director

Way in Wisconsin JEANIE CATRON Associate Editor

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Fiscalini Family Speaks in Cheese

SUSAN STEIN Customer Service Manager

TARA NEAL Circulation Director

the Big Picture 14 Living in Vermont

JAMIE GREEN Circulation Manager

The Cheese Guide is a product of Gourmet News, published by Oser Communications Group ©Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

Reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher, is expressly prohibited.

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The Cheese Guide

PLANS FOR A

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

better tomorrow

2020 was supposed to be a comeback year for Consider Bardwell Farm, a celebrated producer of fine raw milk cheeses. Things didn’t quite work out that way, but co-Founder and Owner Angela Miller, like the rest of us, is hoping for better in 2021.

Over the years since Miller and her husband and business partner, Russell Glover, bought their farm and revitalized a cheesemaking history that had lapsed around the time of the Great Depression, Consider Bardwell’s cheeses, including Rupert, Dorset, Goatlet and Pawlet, have won a shelf full of awards. Then in September, 2019, Listeria monocytogenes was discovered in a cave filled with $200,000 worth of Dorset, Slyboro and Experience cheeses, and Miller ordered an immediate recall of all the cheeses in those batches that had already gone to the market and then destroyed all of the cheese that had shared either space or equipment with the wheel that had been found to be contaminated.

“In 2019, we were trying to scale beyond our physical limitations,” Miller said. “We found listeria on one of the washed-rind cheeses 6

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and did a voluntary recall. Nothing happened. No one got sick. We were in constant touch with regulators.” Her response has been called a model for how to navigate a food safety issue.

But though consumers suffered no apparent ill effects from the disaster, it nearly shuttered the cheesemaking operation that had begun with Miller’s and Glover’s decision to buy a second home in rural Vermont. At the turn of the 21st century, the couple had been living in New York City, where Miller has a career as a literary agent and Glover pursues his architecture practice. Miller had grown up on a small specialty crops farm next door to a dairy farm outside out Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and she had vague dreams of a quiet country escape from city life. “Living in New York made the world open to me…. That wonderful world of international cheeses just dazzled me,” she said. “I wasn’t envisioning a nationally known cheese brand. I wanted to have farm animals and liked the idea of cheesemaking.”

After they bought the farm in West Pawlet, Vermont, about 200 miles north of New York City, Miller and Glover discovered that

the property had a rich history in the dairy industry, starting with the original Consider Bardwell. He was a 19th-century entrepreneur who realized during the Civil War that most of the local farmers were off fighting for the Union, leaving their farms to be worked by their wives, who needed an easier way to get their milk to market.

He reorganized the local economy by founding the first cheesemaking cooperative in Vermont, so that farms in the neighborhood could bring their morning milk to his farm, where he and his team made it into cheese. Every couple of weeks, he’d ship the cheese to Boston, Massachusetts; Albany, New York; and New York City on the railroad that ran through his farm, now owned by Miller and Glover.

The cheese cooperative collapsed during the Great Depression. The family discontinued making cheese and ran the farm as a large cow dairy, which passed down through the family until 2000, when it was put up for sale, and Glover and Miller bought it. Through Miller’s literary agency, she’d been working with chefs and food writers, so she knew something about gourmet food and the specialty foods market, and that history intrigued her. “I had always been very interested in cheese,” she said. “We thought, What a great thing to revitalize! We did a lot of due diligence and learning the cheese business, and we were licensed in 2004. We thought, Who better to name this cheese for than Consider Bardwell?”

She made arrangements with local cow dairies to pay them a premium price for grass-fed milk from Jersey cows, prized for their milk’s butterfat content, and bought the foundation animals for a small herd of goats from a farm in New Hampshire. They converted a barn on the property into goat housing and a creamery with cheese caves in the hayloft above the barn floor, all to Glover’s design. Miller hired experienced cheesemakers and asked Peter

Dixon to come in and refine the product line and recipes for Dorset and Rupert. “We hired cheesemakers who could be taught by him.

Over the years, the recipes really got perfected,” Miller said. “By 2007, two cheeses won medals at ACS [the American Cheese Society Judging and Competition]. Ever since then, our cheeses have won multiple awards.”

Rupert, one of Consider Bardwell’s original cheeses, is a semi-hard Alpine-style cheese in the style of a gruyere. It’s made from raw Jersey milk and has won multiple awards at the ACS and U.S. Cheese Championship competitions. It’s made in 20pound wheels and it’s a chefs’ favorite. Pawlet is a cheese in the style of an Italian Toma.

It’s made in 10-pound wheels and aged four to six months for a creamy texture similar to a fontina. Pawlet is a crowd-pleaser that’s responsible for 40 percent of Consider Bardwell’s usual production and revenues. Dorset is a washed-rind French-style tomme, aged for three months to an assertive pungency.

Goat cheeses from Consider Bardwell include Manchester, a natural rind tomme; Danby, an Alpine-style cheese that’s aged for 18 months; and Slyboro, a washed-rind cheese made in a 1.5pound wheel. Goatlet, a mixed-milk cheese made in collaboration with Crown Finish Caves, is a 10-pound wheel that’s 80 percent cow milk and that has won gold awards from the ACS over the past few years.

Adulation from chefs and the multiplicity of awards built a national reputation and consequent demand for all of them over the years. “Every year that we were in business, our cheeses were prize-winning,” Miller said. “We’d make a little money, and we’d plow it right back into growing the business.”

And then came September, 2019 and the discovery of a pathogenic microorganism that’s capable of causing serious illness and even death, resulting in the recall and a shutdown to identify the source of the contamination, to disinfect the entire plant and to review production and sanitation practices. After a lot of help from friends who admired what Consider Bardwell had done in its past and wanted the business to have a future, Consider Bardwell was just getting ready to resume normal operations again when COVID-19 crashed into New York and the local market for handmade cheeses collapsed. “Our employees really wanted to go home and be with their children, who were out of school. We just didn’t open again until July,” Miller said. “It was very sad for the whole world and specifically for businesses like ours.”

“We’ve spent a lot of time cleaning the creamery, cooking up a new five-year plan and we’ve used it to gather our wits,” she added.

“We’re now looking to stabilize and grow and, maybe in the fourth year, build a new facility…. “We’re still as excited as we ever were. I feel really blessed to have restarted this in July.”

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cheese

Widmers making

the family way in Wisconsin

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Joey Widmer grew up in the cheesemaking business at Widmer's Cheese Cellars, which was founded by his great-grandfather, who came to the U.S. from Switzerland in 1905, when he was 17 or 18 years old. After starting work in the plant in Theresa, Wisconsin, when he was 12 years old or so, at first just cutting labels and not officially on the payroll, and then taking on more complex responsibilities as he grew, he's now putting his MBA to work for the business that's now headed by his father, Joe Widmer, and spending less time with his hands in the cheese vat. The weight of those responsibilities along with the turmoil created by a pandemic coupled with the local civil unrest that followed the death of George Floyd has him questioning both his future in the business and the future of Widmer's Cheese Cellars itself. “After things settle down, I'll have a little better idea of whether I want to do this for the long term,” he said. “Cheesemaking is fun, but there's a lot more pressure running the business. The more I'm taking on, the less cheese I'm making. I'm at the point where I just want to make it through the pandemic.”

Last year was the hardest that Joey can remember. Widmer's Cheese Cellars has long been a popular stop for tourists visiting Wisconsin as well as local residents who enjoyed stopping in to pick up some cheese and spend a few minutes watching the cheesemakers at work, but Widmer's was forced to close its retail store on Friday, March 13, as the pandemic began its sweep across the nation. “Our main concern was that we wanted to keep making cheese, and we didn't want to shut that down,” Joey said. “We opened it up again in June.... People love the fact that they can see the cheese being made right from the store.”

Despite the re-opening of the retail store, Widmer's' sales slid 10

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during June and July as local restaurants – an important market for the business – struggled to stay open around both the pandemic and civil unrest that had many local business owners boarding up the window glass they wanted to keep. Internet orders, which increased, have helped Widmer's stay afloat, Joey said. “We've had a lot of Internet orders – more than usual. Those are coming from all over the U.S.,” he said. “People are just ordering online instead of going in person to buy stuff.”

Widmer's boosted its online business with an enhanced marketing effort, including both online advertising and local television spots. That helped the bottom line, but it brought along its own complications. “We saw a huge influx of Internet orders from people in very warm climates. We were shipping to these places, and it was very expensive,” Joey said. The company worked with UPS to negotiate a new second-day air rate for customers who needed faster shipping to get their cheese before it started sweltering in their warmer temperatures. “That did help out a lot, because it was cheaper for our customers who live in places where it takes four days to go ground,” Joey said.

For the holiday season, Widmer's added a new Gourmet Cheese Spread box to its line of six different gift boxes. The Gourmet Cheese Spread box includes 8-ounce cups of its famous Brick, Green Olive Brick and Jalapeno Brick as well as 8 ounces of Cheddar Spread. The boxes range upwards in price from there to the Widmer's Cheese Cellars Gift Box A, which contains pieces of practically everything Widmer's makes along with a pound of summer sausage. The selection includes Mild Brick, Pepper Cheddar, Colby Cheese, Aged Brick Cheese, Mild Cheddar Cheese and a cup of Widmer's Aged Brick Spread. “We make them ahead

of time, so we have a stock of them,” Joey said. “That's pretty well making up the difference for the restaurant sales. We had a record number of Internet sales this year, which is good. It will help out a lot.”

When he can get to the vat, Joey is still making his family's cheese the way that his great-grandfather did, right down to using the same bricks that his great-grandfather used to weight the Brick Cheese, probably one of America's first washedrind cheeses, in its forms.

Brick was invented in Wisconsin, not far down the road from where Widmer's is making it today, for the local residents of German descent, who liked a cheese with a lot of funky flavor to it. “We make cheese like the Flintstones,” Joey's father has been known to tell visitors to his shop, along with the story of how Joey's great-grandfather married the woman who would become Joey's great-grandmother on the dock of the

ship that brought her to the United States because that was the only way he could get her through immigration after the authorities announced that their day's quota had been filled, and everyone who hadn't been processed already would be sent back on the ship that had brought them into the country. In 1922, Joe's grandfather bought the building in which Joe and Joey still work today, and Joe's family was still living there in the apartment above the shop when Joey was a child. Joe's family later moved into another house a couple of blocks away, but Joey moved right back into the apartment in which he'd lived as a child when he came back from college. “I always remember people pulling into the retail store out front,” he said. “I also remember people coming to the back door saying that they'd driven 250 miles for cheese, and my dad saying, okay, he'd open up the store.”

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speaks Fiscalini Family

in cheese

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in California in 2020, it found a generation of dairy farmers already well trained in responding to disaster. Brian Fiscalini and Laura Genasci have responded by taking over responsibility for sales and marketing for their award-winning cheeses, now rebranded as Fiscalini Farmstead. Before the pandemic, Brian Fiscalini had focused on day-to-day operations of the family’s dairy farm while his sister had focused on business administration, but the pandemic forced them to rethink their roles, and they’ve found that the business skills they’d already learned are adapting readily to the new challenge.

Brian and Laura are the fourth-generation family members operating the company founded by their great-grandfather John Baptiste after he emigrated from Switzerland to California and started a dairy farm outside Modesto with 12 Holstein cows in 1914. Their father, John, expanded the operation with a cheese plant in 2000, and Mariano Gonzalez joined the company as its Head Cheesemaker in 2001. Together, they established a reputation for Fiscalini Cheese, winning multiple awards along the way.

Alex Borgo replaced Gonzalez at the helm of the cheesemaking operation following Gonzalez’s 2019 decision to return to Vermont to be closer to his wife’s family. Borgo, a fifth-generation cheesemaker who had spent the previous 11 years making cheese for Marin French Cheese, is now well settled in at Fiscalini Farmstead, and the company has invested in new machinery that streamlines the cutting and wrapping process for cheeses that are still hand-made. “We just purchased a wheel cutter to speed up the 12

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process. This machine will cut the wheels into exact-weight pieces.

Doing that by hand has been challenging. While it’s an investment, we’re definitely thankful that we’ve made some of these decisions,” Genasci said. “Together with him [Borgo], we’re creating something magical. What we’re feeling right now is something truly beautiful for our future.”

The latest change for the business has been a rebranding, with a name change from Fiscalini Cheese Company to Fiscalini Farmstead. “The cheese didn’t change; it’s always been the same high-quality product,” Genasci said. “It’s just that the packaging now matches what’s in the inside.”

While the rebranding only goes package-deep for the cheese itself, it’s having a much more pervasive effect on the company as a whole, particularly in view of the new sales responsibilities that the brother and sister have undertaken as a result of the pandemic.

“For so many years we’d always had a sales team doing everything for us,” Genasci said. “Sure, we knew we’d won the awards, but now it’s resonating more. It’s hitting home. This new packaging and the excitement that everyone has about it is making it all that more special and more intimate. It feels more real.”

“The two of us have looked at each other and decided that we can do this,” she added. “We are just connecting so much more and really growing together to build this business. We’re encouraging one another. We’re both working towards that same goal, to grow our cheese and tell our story.” Last fall, Brian Fiscalini concluded a deal to sell cheeses to Walmart, which put them on the shelves in more than 1,300 stores nationwide. “When we got the Walmart

deal, it was a huge celebration,” Genasci said. “It’s a huge accomplishment – a fun moment to celebrate with us and our whole team.”

“My dad, while he is mostly enjoying his retirement these days, he is very proud of the two of us,” she added. “He would never have been able to retire and have peace of mind unless he truly believed in us…. I know that he’s very proud and confident in his decision to leave this business to the next generation.”

While cheesemaking is a very important part of the business at Fiscalini Farmstead, it’s just one aspect of an operation that includes a dairy farm with a mixed herd of 1,500 Holsteins, Jerseys and Brown Swiss cows that require daily care and feeding as well as careful management of their environmental impacts. California’s dairy farms have made the state the country’s largest milk producer, but their environmental impacts have aroused concern in a state where years of drought and wildfires have been a nagging reminder of the hazards of global warming.

Like the state’s other dairy farms, Fiscalini Farmstead and the methane emissions from its cows were specifically targeted by the state legislature in 2016 when it passed a law mandating that the state reduce emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases to 2013 levels by 2040. Then in 2018, the state went even further by legislating a reduction of greenhouse gases to levels 40 percent below those 2013 levels.

Fiscalini is complying with those requirements with a methane digester installed in 2009, which produces the electricity that runs the entire Fiscalini operation, with some to spare that’s sold to the local power utility. Waste from the methane digester is spread on fields that grow most of the farm’s feed. Overseeing the farming operation and the renewable energy plant had occupied most of Brian Fiscalini’s attention before the pandemic hit, but with his attention diverted to sales, the farm’s staff has been augmented with a full-time herd manager who is also a veterinarian. With the herd under the management of Dr. Bryan Welly, Fiscalini will be spending more time generating new business and keeping both his name and his face in front of the buyers for major retailers. “We just think that’s where we need to be. We need to have more time to build relationships with buyers, so that we are always in front of them, and that Fiscalini is on their minds,” Genasci said. “Brian and I have been enjoying it. We’ve got this speed and momentum with us…. We’re realizing that we can do this. We’ve got this. We definitely want to be more involved and have these relationships with these buyers.”

“That has made us all closer, and it has made the family bond stronger,” she added. “We will at some point have to hire some sales people to help us, but we are not going to take a back seat – we will continue to be involved.”

For more information, visit www.fiscalinifarmstead.com.

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living BIG PICTURE

the

in Vermont

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

If you’re looking for Big Picture Farm, you can get there – Louisa Conrad and Lucas Farrell are very welcoming when a pandemic isn’t an issue – but you can’t really get there from cheese.

“Are you sure you want to talk to me? We don’t make much cheese,” Louisa said when I’d told her that I was looking to write a story for the Cheese Guide.

“I know, but I’m always trying to get hold of you during sofi Award season, and you’re always too busy on the farm then to talk much to me,” I answered. “But the theme for this isn’t cheese; the theme is Vermont, and so I figured this might be my chance.” So here we are.

If you just had your mouth set for Vermont cheese, though, you’re not far off – consider Bardwell’s just a few pages along the way. But if you regard your arrival here as a happy accident, just settle back and relax for the story, because a series of happy accidents is how Louisa and Lucas got here themselves.

“Here” is a 100-acre hillside goat dairy in Townshend, Vermont, where Lucas and Louisa and a handful of others on their team take loving care of their herd of dairy goats, raise their daughters Maisie and Minna, make award-winning Big Picture Farm Farmstead Goat Milk Caramels and welcome guests who come to experience their farm as agritourists. “You have to work super-hard to have a business as integrated as we are,” Louisa said. “It’s sort of an insane 14

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part of what we do, but it’s why we do what we do.”

Their own road to Big Picture Farm started in 1999 and 2000, when Lucas and Louisa both came to Vermont to attend college, where the two met. After graduate school elsewhere – Lucas studied environmental science and writing, while Louisa studied art – they decided that Vermont was where they wanted to make their home and moved back to Middlebury, where they both started teaching. Then the economy cratered, leaving the two of them looking for a way to support themselves until jobs became less scarce again.

Louisa got in touch with the parents of some of her art students, the owners of Blue Ledge Farm in Salisbury, Vermont, where Greg Bernhardt and Hannah Sessions raise goats, make cheese and pursue their fine artwork. They invited Louisa and Lucas to Salisbury to take a look at their farm and their life. “It was a way to pass the time until our real careers took back off,” Louisa said.

“Lucas said this was what we wanted to do. It was something – a life experience – instead of what the plan was.”

After an internship at Blue Ledge Farm, Louisa and Lucas moved to the farm where they live now to become the caretakers and cheesemakers for the farm’s former owners, who ran a sheep dairy on the property. “As part of that, we were allowed to start our own business,” Louisa said.

On their own account, the couple brought a few goats to the

farm and began making the milk into goat milk caramels that they sold at the Brattleboro Farmers Market. The couple’s caramels took off in the market, generating enough revenue to enable them eventually to buy the farm from its former owners. “For us, it kind of started with a love of goats and then to what we can do to make a living,” Louisa said. “How do we make a go of this?”

After their start at the farmers market, the couple moved their retail sales online and started developing a wholesale market, and multiple sofi Awards brought national attention to Big Picture Farm. Big Picture Farm goat milk caramels are now sold in around 1,200 shops around the country, including cheese shops, gift shops and food co-ops, as well as in the farm’s online store. “That set us on the map,” Louisa said. “We never set out to want to be confectioners, but it just started to take off.”

The Farmstead Goat Milk Caramels, including those that won the couple’s most recent sofi Awards, Maple Milk and Raspberry Rhubarb, combine the milk from the family’s goats with other local ingredients to make a taste of the farm’s hilly acres, where the goats browse among the boulders whenever the ground isn’t covered with snow. “We’re a hillside farm in Vermont. It’s extremely beautiful, up a steep road. Our land is very bony and rocky. It’s not good growing land, which makes it perfect goat land,” Louisa said.

“They’re very picky about getting their feet wet on dewy mornings.”

The herd combines Saanen, Alpine and Nubian goats – Louisa prizes each for their distinct traits. “We really like the Saanens for their steady milk flow. The Alpines are beautiful and have personality,” she said. “The Nubians are your ridiculous glamour goat…. They’re just very svelte and beautiful. A lot of ours are very silvery, this peppery kind of coat.

They have a very distinct call. They definitely let you know what’s going on.”

“It’s fun to have a couple around,” she continued. “I don’t know if I could have a whole herd of Nubians.”

Mothers and kids browse together in the fields and sleep together in intergenerational families. “Piles of families,” Louisa said. “They definitely have an amazing ability to remember intergenerationally who their team is.”

The goats are guarded by Elvis and Josie, the two dogs who got the only names left after the family had named the 50 goats who got names in themes that matched their goat families. There’s a line named after Louisa’s and Lucas’ friends from high school, a line named after story book characters, another line named after

musicians. “The story book characters are an Alpine-Saanen mix.

Some of the younger ones might be a little bit Nubian. They’re all related to each other,” Louisa said. “There’s Gertrude Stein and Cy Twombly, then Eva Hesse, then Laura Owens – all of her goats warble. They have a sing-song-y tone when they’re talking.”

“A big central part of what we do is the animal welfare of our goats,” she added – unnecessarily. “Spoiling our goats rotten is something we pride ourselves on.”

The human members of the farm’s team include seven full-time staff members and a couple who work part time, each with roles that shift through the seasons.

“Everybody does everything,” Louisa said. They make caramel and clean the kitchen, milk goats and make a little cheese, repair the farm equipment and change the sheets in the farm’s guest house as the season flows from kidding season and milking season through summer tourism season and on to making and packaging gourmet caramels ahead of the winter holiday season. “It makes a great gift,” Louisa said.

“It’s a nice way of being able to send something to somebody that’s not really expensive. It’s sort of a decadent, affordable thing.”

“It’s really nice to be able to have a business that supports us, and we can work from home and be able to create a few good jobs,” she added. “It’s very much of a plan. We’re very entrenched. Our tentacles run long and deep into the land. It’s not an easy life. Even in non-COVID times, you don’t just randomly decide to go for a vacation or pop off for a weekend.

Now we have a good team that allows more personal time away from the farm. It’s not easy, but it’s really rewarding. We’re where we want to be; we feel so lucky.”

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growth Rumiano Cheese positions for

Rumiano Cheese Company has started construction on a new 46,766 square-foot cheese processing and packaging plant in northern California, that the company's Chief Executive Officer believes will springboard innovation for the 102-year-old pioneer in California cheese-making.

Rumiano is California's oldest family-owned cheese company, with a business that relies on retail, ingredients and foodservice sales. The new plant will add to the range of retail packages that the company offers for sale, and Rumiano projects that its current packaging volume will double by the end of 2025 as retail demand continues to grow. The company is also planning to scale up its direct-to-consumer products, including its Board at Home program, which supports California's artisanal community. The program offers curated cheese board kits that can be shipped overnight to consumers across the country. The company started Board at Home in March of 2020 as a way to bolster sales for local artisanal producers suffering from the impacts of COVID-19 as restaurants were forced to suspend their indoor dining operations.

The program accelerated through the summer as it became clear that consumers were hungry to learn about local artisanal products along with the nourishment from the products themselves, and that the companies that made those products were eager to provide the education, said Joe Baird, Rumiano's CEO. “What we are also able to do for this community of artisans, we're trying to bring, not just the experience, but the story of these artisans as well,” he said.

“Long term, we're thinking about experience and education – how we can give people those things back in brick and mortar.”

The new facility will also enhance Rumiano's ability to collaborate with other northern California artisans by adding capabilities to offer more efficient wheel-cutting and packaging of artisan cheeses. As some of the operations currently taking place in Rumiano's existing facilities are moved into the new Willows location, the company will have the space in the existing facility to add to its aging caves. That expansion will offer collaborative opportunities for affinage of young cheeses produced by other artisanal cheesemakers. “We're listening and working with some of them. We do see some things we can do [together with fellow members of California's artisan cheese community],” Baird said.

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“We see a deepening of the relationship through these things we're doing with Board at Home and direct-to-consumer capabilities.”

The company is also thinking about product line extensions to attract corporate clients, cater to small gatherings and offer new pre-packaged options for grocery retailers looking for new options to upgrade their cheese cases, although the execution on those ideas is not imminent, according to Baird.

Located a short distance from the existing plant, the new site will occupy four acres of a new 38-acre commercial industrial park being developed by the city of Willows. The facility is expected to be operational by the second quarter of 2021.

“The city’s assistance with this industrial development site made it possible for us to remain here in Willows where we’ve been successfully operating for 102 years,” said John Rumiano, Vice President and third-generation co-Owner at Rumiano Cheese Company. “We are eager to deepen our long-standing contribution to this wonderful community, and we remain committed to our dedicated employees, many of whom have been with us for 30 to 40 years.”

Construction of the new facility is supported by a $1.8 million economic development loan from the city of Willows along with private funding. Rumiano will retain all 150 current employees and is actively recruiting for additional employees to support the new growth plans. Rumiano currently employs more than 200 people between its production plant in Crescent City, California, where the cheese is made, and its facility in Willows, where all products are processed and packaged for distribution.

In line with Rumiano’s ongoing commitment to reducing energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions through sustainable and ecofriendly practices that mitigate the effects of climate change, the new Willows plant, like the company’s existing facilities, will eventually run on renewable solar energy generated on-site. The new plant will also be Safe Quality Food standards (SQF) certified.

“The city of Willows is proud to work with a family-run and community-oriented business,” said Willows City Manager Wayne Peabody. “We look forward to the continued growth of the business and the opportunities that will arise from Rumiano Cheese being in the city of Willows.”

fun profit cheesemaking for

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Making cheese is a passion project for Terry Woods, who along with his wife Denise, has operated Highfield Farm Creamery for the past six years. The farmstead is located just across the Wisconsin border from Illinois, near Lake Geneva, which draws tourist traffic in the summertime to stop by the farmstead shop, buy some cheese curds and enjoy the shop as one of the area’s local attractions.

Terry learned to make cheese as a hobby project after he retired from a busy career as a computer engineer. He’d been working in California fixing computers when he sold his company after the birth of his daughter, Aubrey. “Being Midwesterners, we weren't going to raise her in L.A.,” Terry said. “She was born in the Valley, and I was concerned her first word would be 'totally.'” He started a new company in Chicago with offices in seven cities nationwide as well as a software network called The Computer Repair people. When he was ready to look for a home in the country, a real estate agent showed him an old dairy farm, and as they walked around the property on a brutally cold winter day, the sun came out, the temperature shot up, and Terry took out an option to buy the farm.

He went on working in the computer industry through the Y2K transition that had him doing software repairs for banks around the country, but after the turn of the century, he decided that he needed to try something new. “I decided to do something with the farm,” he said. “My wife was out of town visiting folks in Cleveland, and I bought a cow.”

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Denise came back home, and the couple’s still married, so that must have been all right. The two of them did a little hand milking, and then Terry decided that it might be fun to make cheese on a small commercial scale. He found a course in cheesemaking taught

by Kathy Biss in her family’s small processing dairy in Scotland’s Western Highlands. “I had been to Scotland many times – just not that far north,” he said.

Then he came back to Wisconsin and learned only then that Wisconsin requires commercial cheesemakers to be licensed. The license required both more coursework and practical experience working at a cheese plant. But Terry didn’t want to make cheese for another company – he just wanted to make a little cheese with the milk from a tiny herd and sell it in a small way, so that he’d have a real working farm. So, he asked the University of Wisconsin, where he’d taken the classes required for his license if he couldn’t just do an apprenticeship in their dairy plant. “I talked to bosses until I got up to the top guy,” Terry said. “He said, ‘You want to know why you can’t get your hours working with our cheesemaker? No one had ever asked.’ It’s a standard class now. Two people a semester can do that now.”

With his license in hand, Terry went back home and built his creamery and a milking parlor where he can milk two cows at a time, which is all he needs for the six Jerseys that live on the farm. “I looked at all the different cows. Jersey’s produce much better for the amount of feed you give them. They’re a much better choice if you’re not just interested in volume,” Terry said. “I had Ayrshires for a while.

They’re a bigger cow, and my wife was afraid of them, so I got the Jerseys. They recognize their names. I can call them, and they’ll come around the corner. It’s interesting.”

Their milk goes directly from the milking parlor to the 400-liter cheese vat where a chiller keeps it cool. “We never pump the milk because pumping is very hard on milk,” Terry said. When the vat’s got about 110 gallons of milk in it – or 60 gallons if summer’s over

– the milk is pasteurized in the vat, and Terry and Denise make cheese. “I only want to make cheese twice a week,” Terry said.

“This is a retirement thing for me.”

Terry and Denise make cheddar on Thursdays. “That’s a Wisconsin normal. Cheese curds is a big thing here,” Terry said.

“We make hand-cut cheese curds.

We sell a ton of them.” The cheddar that isn’t sold as curds is made into wheels and sold beginning at 30 days of aging for Highfield’s Early Bird Cheddar.

Stir Crazy is a stirred-curd cheddar from 30 days to six months old. Stir Crazy that’s been aged longer than six months becomes Cabin Fever.

On Saturdays, Terry and Denise make something that isn’t cheddar. There’s Village Square, which is made from a Brie recipe except that it’s cooked a little bit to drive out some of its moisture; Roundabout, which is a Camembert-style cheese; and Stinky Scotsman, which is a washed-rind cheese washed in single-malt Scotch whisky. “We make a couple of blues – Button’s Bay Blue and

a blue cheddar called Barely Blue for people who aren’t really high on blue cheese, which is me,” Terry said. “I put blue in some of the Village Squares. I didn’t make any of the soft cheeses this year, but we’ve had people calling and asking about it. It was kind of an accident.”

The cheese is sold to local restaurants around the lake and a few local groceries as well as the farm store, which is open during the tourism season – this year only as pandemic conditions have permitted. “After December 31st, we normally close the store. The place is totally dead. The Chicago people have gone home,” he said. After the store is closed for the season, the cows go on maternity leave and Terry and Denise take it a little easier until the middle of May, when milking season begins again. “I have to milk,” he said. “I’m the only one that milks. It’s just she [Denise] and I. I don’t ever want to have an employee again.”

“Everything doesn’t have to be about money,” he added. “This isn’t the place to make a lot of money. The dairy industry – it’s just tough to make a lot of money in the dairy industry.”

The Cheese Guide

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A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

FEATURED PRODUCTS Widmer's Aged Brick Cheese

Monti Trentini Aged Black Truffle Caciotta

Brick cheese is an American original and is among the first washed rind cheeses produced in the U.S. It was developed in 1877 by John Jossi, a Swissborn cheesemaker.

As Jossi did, Joe Widmer uses real brick to press his cheese, the same bricks his grandfather used in 1922.

After pressing, the cheese is placed in a salt brine for 11 hours, then moved to a warm, humid curing room where it is washed and turned daily for seven days. It

Monti Trentini Aged Black Truffle Caciotta is the creamery's new product introduction for 2021. It's an evolution of the company's best-selling Caciotta Tartufo. It's aged for a minimum of three months. During that time, it's hand-rubbed weekly and cured by expert affineurs.

The flavor of the aged cheese and texture of the curd are perfect complements to the truffle flavor that's endowed by the real Italian black truffle pieces within the cheese. Beyond that, the Aged Truffle Caciotta is differentiated by a black coating all around the wheels, which average 5 pounds each, and the en-

is then packed in parchment paper and foil. It reaches peak flavor at four to five months. This semi-soft cheese has a pleasant, earthy flavor that intensifies with age. Widmer’s Aged Brick is also available with c a r a w a y seeds.

Suggested retail price is $12.99 to $15.99/pound.

Widmer's Cheese Cellars 888.878.1107 www.widmerscheese.com

I Siciliani Primosale with Pistachio Primosale with Pistachio is a fresh sheep’s milk cheese stuffed with dried and shredded pistachios, which add a slightly salty taste to the primosale’s delicate and sweet flavor.

I Siciliani is produced by Biopek, which creates authentic and traditional cheeses from Sicily following the centuries-old experience of the shepherds. This safeguards the rich gastronomic, environmental and cultural heritage of the region. The company sets itself apart with its enthusiasm and desire to create new solutions by of-

fering experience in the development of partnership projects to bring value to all of its customers.

The company cherishes its products, and remains faithful to its standards, while continuously trying to improve.

The fresh primosale cheeses combine a delicate taste with a surprising versatility that makes them protagonists of the table in all dishes, either alone or in combination with other ingredients.

Savello USA Inc. www.savellousa.com

Entremont French Brie Discover the incredibly creamy French Brie Entremont, made with fresh milk collected from 250 family farms in a 60-mile radius around the dairy in the Auvergne hills, at an altitude of 2,000 feet high or more. This milk is transformed into cheese in an open tank by a team of expert cheesemakers and flipped by hand in the fromagerie in the small village of Saint-Mamet.

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The Cheese Guide

This delicious pasteurized cow milk cheese is enriched with cream for a luxuriously smooth texture and a creamy flavor. An indulgent treat for your cheese platter, your sandwiches or wrapped in a pastry crust and baked!

Product available in different pack sizes. Entremont cheeses are imported into the U.S. by Atalanta.

Atalanta Corporation 908.351.8000 www.atalantacorp.com

graved (not painted) logos and main information. Each small logo on the outer part is placed to help cut wedges of approximately half a pound. The wheels come vacuum packed, with one per box. The box can be either generic or more luxurious. The luxury box version, ideal for gifts or display, presents the same pattern of the Caciotta and can also be personalized.

The product has 180 days of shelf life.

Monti Trentini www.montitrentini.com

SnackUPs Cheese Dip Snack Packs Dairyfood USA has taken its Cheese Dip & Pretzel Snack Pack concept to another level with a major redesign under the SnackUps brand.

SnackUps provide a more elevated snacking experience by combining Wisconsin made cheese dip and crispy pretzels together for a satisfying snack. The eye-catching design now properly reflects the quality of the product inside while allowing the customer to visually see more of the product. Addi-

tional benefits of the new package design also include functionality that allows retailers to doublestack the product for improved merchandising opportunities both in and out of the cooler as well as visual appeal for the shopper.

SnackUps provide a robust 8g of protein and 170 mg of calcium with only 210 calories.

Dairyfood USA Inc. www.dairyfoodusa.com/snack-packs /snack-packs.aspx

Gayo Azul Edam Balls Gayo Azul Edam Balls have been crafted in Holland for decades, combining the rich heritages of Dutch and Hispanic cheesemaking. Edam cheese is one of the most famous Dutch cheeses, traditionally produced in a ball shape. It is named after the small Dutch town of Edam, where it was first produced. Imported from The Netherlands, Gayo Azul Edam is a young cheese made with partskim milk for a rich, buttery flavor

and a smooth, creamy texture.

Edam is a traditional table cheese, and it tastes great in sandwiches or simply as a snack.

Gayo Azul Edam melts beautifully in baking dishes, and it's delicious cubed in salads and vegetable dishes.

FrieslandCampina 201.655.7730 www.gayoazul.com

The Cheese Guide

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A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

FEATURED PRODUCTS Cheese Straws from J&M Foods

Valbreso Sheep Milk Cheese

J&M Foods proudly continues its family tradition and passion for good food by providing customers with the best-tasting cheese straws and cookies in the market. The company currently offers 21 products as well as additional seasonal offerings, and new possibilities to tickle the taste buds and provide something new for customers' enjoyment are always being explored in the kitchen.

In keeping with the 100-yearold family recipe that inspired J&M's great-tasting Original Cheese Straws, J&M Foods is committed to maintaining its her-

itage of providing great products made from the finest ingredients available. All of its products are trans fat free and baked with care.

J&M Foods is flexible enough to handle all its customers’ needs. Located in a 32,000 square foot facility residing on 21 acres, J&M Foods has room to grow along with its customers. It's centrally located and nationally recognized for being an award-winning market leader within the specialty foods industry.

Coming from the Causses plateaus surrounding the Mediterranean Sea in the southwest of France, one of the wildest and most spectacular regions of France, Valbreso Feta® cheese is made with the same 100 percent pure sheep milk used for the famed Roquefort Cheese.

Valbreso cheese is distinctively delightful because it's made with only sheep milk; it is not aged and never fermented at 70 degrees for 10 days. This gives Valbreso

J&M Foods 800.264.2278 www.janis-melanie.com

Point Reyes Farmstead Toma

Fontina Aosta DOP Fontina Aosta DOP is a semi-soft cow’s milk cheese made exclusively within the Aosta Valley. The area’s particular combination of flowers, herbs and pure water gives the cow’s milk its special fragrance and flavor.

Fontina is made from the unskimmed milk of separate milkings.

The milk is placed in a cauldron, clotted and processed according to age-long techniques.

All thermic treatments aimed at reducing microbes (pasteurization) are excluded, to allow for a richer taste, aroma and quality.

The cheese is then salted and left to age for a maturation period of about four to five months. During this phase, the cheese is treated daily, almost completely by hand. In the first three months,

the cheese is placed on pine shelves and turned over every other day, as well as being salted and brushed with salty water.

Then, regular cleaning of the cheese’s surface continues until the product is matured. The result is a cheese that acquires a soft-textured paste with the typical sweet and delicate flavor.

Fontina is cylindrical and flat in shape. The rind is thin, ranging from reddish yellow to dark brown in color; the paste is soft but compact and springy. The sweet taste varies considerably depending on the degree of aging.

Savello USA Inc. www.savellousa.com

Caputo Crafts Elevated Distinction Founded in 1978 by René and Pasquale Caputo, Caputo Cheese, in Melrose Park, Illinois, has been crafting award-winning fresh Mozzarella and Ricotta cheeses using Old World tradition and recipes.

While some things stay constant, Natale Caputo, secondgeneration President of Caputo 22

The Cheese Guide

Cheese, is always looking for new and innovative ideas, and with that in mind, the company is proud to introduce its newest addition to the Caputo portfolio, Elevated Cow. Made with the same high-quality milk and with the same attention to detail as Caputo's other cheeses, the Elevated Cow line of

cheese a unique creaminess and a mild, clean flavor that has made it a staple for cheese fans across the world.

Va l b re s o 100 percent pure sheep milk cheese is now available in a reusable 14-ounce container with brine. It's the perfect packaging to maintain its moisture and allow for convenience.

Lactalis America 212.758.6666 www.valbresocheese.com

Point Reyes Toma is about more than just cheese. Roughly translated to “wheel of cheese made by the farmer herself” in Italian, Toma represents a sense of community and family heritage.

It’s about honoring, preserving and living off the land. Toma is as much an approach to cheese and cheesemaking as it is a type or variety. It's an American Original that's also part young Gouda, part traditional Havarti, part philosophy and core value and totally delicious.

In creating Toma, the Point Reyes Farmstead team was looking for something with a complex, sophisticated taste, in a completely approachable style. The result is a cheese for snacking on all day or incorporating into

recipes at breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Head Cheesemaker Kuba Hemmerling’s process includes pasteurizing the very freshest whole milk, bringing the wheels immediately out of the forms and aging the waxed wheels for 90 days.

The intoxicating aroma and addictive flavor is full of fresh, rich creamery butter, purposefully balanced by a slightly herbaceous, grassy tang finish.

To fully appreciate Toma, however, you have to think about the role cheese plays in your home.

Point Reyes Toma is truly an any time, any table cheese. For snacking, topping and melting into (and on to) pretty much anything, its versatility is legendary.

fresh cheeses is infused with organic, independently tested and verified CBD. Each batch of Elevated Cow is then sent to be tested at an independent lab to ensure accuracy in product and to allow accurate labeling for you and your cus-

tomers. Use Caputo's Elevated Cow line of cheeses on pizza, caprese salads or any dish that highlights fresh Mozzarella.

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. 800.591.6878 www.pointreyescheese.com

Caputo Cheese 708.450.0074 www.elevatedcow.com

A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

FEATURED PRODUCTS Fruit-Infused Mozzarella Appetaggios from Fiorucci Foods Fiorucci is the brand of specialty meats that delivers the true taste of Italy. For more than 170 years, the brand has used Old World recipes to produce a full line of authentic Italian charcuterie meats, cheeses and premium snacking products using only handtrimmed cuts of premium pork and the finest ingredients, then slowly aging them to perfection.

Since 1850, the Fiorucci family has been creating authentic Italian meats, honoring the tradition of the Italian dinner table.

Fiorucci has introduced the perfect balance of meat, cheese and fruit with all-natural Appetag-

gios. Each product consists of individual strips of peach or cranberry mozzarella that are hand wrapped with a slice of perfectly aged prosciutto or hard salami.

The fruit flavors infuse sweetness into mild, milky mozzarella, and the smoky meat further complements this mouthwatering combination, creating an irresistible, one-of-a-kind snack. Appetaggios are available in 16/1.5ounce packages and are ready to eat, making them an excellent option for snacking and entertaining.

Fiorucci Foods www.fioruccifoods.com

Le Gruyère AOP Reserve Matured for at least 10 months, Le Gruyère AOP Reserve has the same pedigree as real Swiss Gruyère produced in western Switzerland for more than 900 years. Rich in flavor and packed with nutrients from the milk of cows grazing in pristine pastures, Le Gruyère AOP Reserve has a more assertive and intensely aromatic character than its younger counterpart. It has a complex nutty, buttery taste with a firm, slightly crumbly texture. It’s perfect for everyday eating and at home in fondue or any recipe that calls for a great melting cheese.

Today, anyone can label a

cheese “Gruyère,” but Le Gruyère AOP Reserve is the real deal, tightly upholding the tradition of the cheese-making process, the regions where it is produced, and the strict guidelines followed by the dairy farmers, cheese makers and affineurs.

Pure, unpasteurized milk is gathered from 170 farms and brought to expert cheese makers to produce 80-pound wheels, which are then aged in local cellars. Only the wheels passing the highest standards are allowed to be sold as Le Gruyère AOP. Le Gruyère www.gruyere.com

Calabro Introduces Full Line of Formaggi di Bufala New products from Calabro Cheese include Mozzarella di Bufala, Ricotta di Bufala, Burrata di Bufala and Bufarella. Calabro brings in the freshest, never frozen, buffalo milk and hand makes a truly unique line of cheeses in its New England facility. All of the bufala cheeses are made fresh to order, which assures customers a 24

The Cheese Guide

much longer shelf life than the traditional imported frozen product.

The Mozzarella di Bufala is made using a natural lactic culture imported from Campania, Italy, and is available in all the traditional sizes including Ciliegine, Bocconcini, Ovoline and 8-ounce.

Ricotta di Bufala is delectably rich and creamy and has been

Buholzer Brothers Slices for the Deli Case Klondike Cheese Company’s new Buholzer Brothers® slices are crafted by Wisconsin Master Cheesemakers at a family owned plant that has been making cheese at the same location since 1925. The two new varieties of Muenster and Havarti cheeses are available in 7ounce and 8-ounce retail peg packages with 10 slices per pack. Adding these two new options extends out the family of the other Buholzer Brothers varieties, which mainly include chunks. Now you can have Buholzer Brothers Brand both in your deli and dairy cheese cases.

Havarti is a great melting cheese with its creamy, rich buttery flavor, great for a quick char-

cuterie board or your next sandwich. You can bet the same for the Muenster which has an appetite appeal to a wide range of consumers, as it is a mild and delicious snacking cheese, great for kids and adults of all ages.

The secret to Klondike’s exceptional quality is the combination of using state-of-the art equipment, proprietary recipes and time-honored traditions of cheesemaking. The company sources local cow’s milk and high quality ingredients, and the cheese is made in Wisconsin.

Klondike Cheese Company www.buholzerbrothers.com

Marieke Golden Inspired by the great Dutch cheeses, this creamy, semi-soft American Original boasts a flavor profile rich in nuttiness with hints of sweet fruit. Handcrafted by award-winning Cheesemaker Marieke Penterman and her team, this raw milk beauty is carefully aged for a minimum of six months on Dutch pine planks. Marieke® Golden is crafted with vegetable rennet and farm fresh cow’s milk piped straight after the first milking of the day into the processing vat where it is made into cheese within five hours. Its freshness is unrivaled.

This unique Golden cheese is created with both Gouda and Parmesan cultures. Its soft, buttery texture, creamy mouth feel and pleasantly sweet aroma result in a new American classic that is sure to be a standout in awarded top honors in the sofi Awards by the Specialty Food Association and in the World Championship Cheese Competition.

The newest addition to the lineup is Calabro's hand-made Burrata di Bufala, made with bufala cream and bufala mozzarella.

The outer shell is soft and smooth, while the inside bursts with fresh crèma di bufala and hand pulled strands of mozzarella di bufala.

Lastly, Calabro’s Bufarella is a blend of bufala and cows milk and

any cheese department. Pair with cured meats, honey, dried fruits and spiced nuts. Marieke Golden has won nine awards including a best of class award in the World Cheese Championship Contest. Available in 20pound wheels, pre-cut wedges and exact weights. Marieke Golden is suitable for vegetarians.

Marieke Gouda 715.669.5230 www.mariekegouda.com

was formulated specifically for use on artisanal pizza.

Calabro Cheese Corporation 203.469.1311 www.calabrocheese.com

A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

FEATURED PRODUCTS Artisan Wraps from Formaggio Brand

Bonnie's Jams Red Pepper Jelly

Formaggio Brand has a reputation for innovation and timely responses to consumer demand. A few years ago, Formaggio Brand introduced its Artisan Wraps, delistyle meats wrapped around sticks made of award-winning fresh mozzarella.

Initially, this product was presented as a 22ounce tray offering three kinds of meats: prosciutto, pepperoni and soppressata. Since then, demand has grown for different meats and a greater variety of package sizes. Formaggio brand has answered that demand by offering two new sizes, an 18ounce version of the larger variety tray and also smaller grab-and-go

Red Pepper Jelly has always been a favorite in the American South. Bonnie created this signature flavor based on a delicious version from a dear friend in Alabama. After a lot of experimentation in her kitchen, and a lot of tasty samples shared with friends, Bonnie created her signature Red Pepper Jelly for folks to enjoy at home. Made using fresh sweet red peppers, seeded habanero, cider vinegar and sugar, it’s the perfect combination of sweet and heat.

Always a top seller, Bonnie’s Red Pepper Jelly is an ideal accompaniment to a sandwich, pairs well with a creamy cheese, and is spectacular when used as a glaze

5-ounce and 6-ounce trays (depending on flavor), each of which features its own deli meat. The meat choices have grown as well. Offerings now also include Hard Salami, Genoa Salami, Chorizo, with Jamon Serrano on the way.

What sets Formaggio Brand apart is not only the wide range of meat choices but also – and importantly – the creamy, silky, handmade quality of the company's award-winning fresh mozzarella cheese, from which the sticks are formed. Two words describe them best: artisan and gourmet.

Formaggio Brand www.formaggiocheese.com

for ham, poultry or roast pork. For an easy appetizer, simply drizzle red pepper jelly over cream cheese and serve with buttery crackers. Available in eight distinctive flavors crafted to pair perfectly with a r t i s a n cheese, B o n n i e ’s Jams have been recognized by the editors of many international publications and blogs, including the New York Times, Food & Wine, The Washington Post, and most recently, Bon Appetit, all of which inspires customers and drives sales. The suggested retail price is $8.99.

Bonnie’s Jams 209.814.2871 www.bonniesjams.com

The Cheese Guide

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A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

FEATURED PRODUCTS Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese Marinated Fresh Mozzarella Let the marinade flavors of this Crave Brothers’ specialty work to your advantage.

Crave Brothers marinated fresh mozzarella features ciliegine, cherry-size balls of mozzarella, and it's the perfect addition to a charcuterie board, pasta salads or served with fresh vegetables on an antipasto platter or included in shakshuka, where the cheese shines in this hearty breakfast. The marinade features a delicious olive oil and canola oil blend with a custom mix of herbs

and spices. The marinade alone makes a drizzle for toasts or salads.

A firstplace award winner at the 2018 World C h e e s e Awards, Crave Brothers Marinated Fresh Mozzarella Cheese comes in 6/8-ounce retail cups or 2/3-pound foodservice tubs.

Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese 920.478.4887 www.cravecheese.com

Odyssey Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Dip Klondike Cheese Company introduces a healthier alternative to a traditional sour cream-based dip with its new Odyssey® brand Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Dip. This is a gluten-free and rBST-free cow’s milk dip that has crunchy cucumbers and a zest of garlic and dill.

Odyssey Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Dip has only 30 calories per serving, two times the protein, and five

live and active cultures compared to traditional sour cream-based dips.

The Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Dip is an addition to the family of other Odyssey Greek Yogurt Dips available in these delicious flavors: Southwest, French Onion and Bell Pepper.

Klondike Cheese www.odysseybrands.com

Colby Cheese from Widmer’s Cheese Cellars Widmer’s Cheese Cellars, Inc. Colby is a first-place blue ribbon winner at the at the 2020 World Championship Cheese Contest.

The cheese is an American Original developed in Wisconsin in 1885.

Widmer's Cheese Sellers crafts its Colby in small batches using original family recipes to achieve a sweet, semi-soft cheese with milky flavors. Similar in flavor to Cheddar, Colby is softer and has a more open texture and higher moisture content. Cheese makers spray the curds with cold water and stir 26

The Cheese Guide

them while they are still in the vat to prevent the curds from knitting together. This procedure gives Colby a more elastic texture than Cheddar.

Perfect for shredding, melting or slicing, it complements burgers, fajitas, chili, rye bread, apples or pears. Widmer’s Colby is available in four flavors: Plain, Jalapeno, Caraway Seed and Vegetable and Herb.

Widmer’s Cheese Cellars 888.878.1107 www.widmerscheese.com

Trentingrana DOP Trentingrana DOP is a 100 percent Italian cheese made using only milk, rennet and salt. It is produced in Trento, a region characterized by immense valleys, vast mountain forests and pure water resources.

This mountainous area of northern Italy is known for its great passion for gastronomic culture and the uniqueness of its products.

The milk used to produce this cheese comes from cows that are healthy and strong, mainly the Brown Alpine breed. Once processed, the cheese is aged for a minimum of 18 months. For the

first nine months of that, the cheese is ripened in the dairy. It is a semi-fat cheese, and therefore has a reduced lipid content, making it ideal for the modern diet. Only 100,000 cheeses are made per year.

Famous for its sweetness, Trentingrana is a cheese suitable for every meal. It can be enjoyed with cocktails or as an appetizing and nourishing second course. It is also an excellent cheese to be grated, suitable for making refined dishes even tastier.

Savello USA Inc. www.savellousa.com

Maytag Farm Reserve The newest cheese from the artisan cheesemakers at Maytag Dairy Farms: Maytag Farm Reserve. It's meticulously created and aged with milk from local Iowa dairy farms. Encapsulated in a natural rind, the buttery taste and texture give way to new earthy flavors. Available in wheels or wedges, this cheese comes from the makers of Maytag Blue Cheese.

Maytag Dairy Farms 800.247.2458 www.maytagdairyfarms.com

Litehouse Simply Artisan Blue Cheese Center Cut Litehouse Simply Artisan Blue Cheese Center Cut is the premium selection of the blue cheese wheel, cored from the center and where the flavor is most rich and developed.

This cheese is sustainably produced, meaning that any whey left over after the cheese is cored is then used to produce buttermilk, and eventually, Litehouse dressings.

Litehouse Simply Artisan Cheese is handcrafted and aged a minimum of 100 days, making it the perfect elevated appetizer or snack. Consumers will love that this center cut is rbst free and gluten free.

This Blue Cheese Center Cut is

perfect for the upscale and distinguished consumer who cares about sustainability and premium products. These customers primarily use the center cut when entertaining and buy the cheese to include in appetizers like charcuterie boards. The center cut pairs well with nuts, crackers, meats, fruits and vegetables. Consumers also love Litehouse Simply Artisan Blue Cheese Center Cut for snacking. It’s a convenient snacking product that can be enjoyed with crackers, apple slices and almonds.

Litehouse Foods 800.669.3169 www.litehousefoods.com/contact

CHEESE LISTINGS PRODUCT NAME

COMPANY

AWARDS

DESCRIPTION

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Bonnie's Jams are available in eight distinctive flavors crafted to pair perfectly with artisan cheeses.

ACCOMPANIMENTS Jams

Bonnie's Jams 209.814.2871 www.bonniesjams.com

AMERICAN-MADE INTERNATIONAL STYLE Odyssey Tzatziki Dip

Klondike Cheese Co. 608.325.3021 www.odysseybrands.com

Ashbrook

Spring Brook Farm 802.484.1226 www.sbfcheese.org

Caciocavera (Caciocavallo style)

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This is a gluten-free and rBST-free cow’s milk dip that has crunchy cucumbers and a zest of garlic and dill. Odyssey Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Dip has only 30 calories per serving, two times the protein, and five live and active cultures compared to traditional sour cream-based dips.

2nd place at 2018 American Cheese Society Judging & Competition, 2016 Good Food Award, 1st place at 2015 U.S. Cheese Championships

Ashbrook is Spring Brook Farm's version of the French Morbier cheese, made with natural raw Jersey cows milk with a distinctive layer of vegetable ash running through the center and a natural washed rind. This semi-soft cheese has damp, dark cellar notes with a mild funkiness on the rind and a milky sweet flavor in its paste. It's offered in 18-pound full wheels or 4.5-pound quarter wheels.

Lovera’s Italian Market 918.423.2842 www.loverasmarket.com

World Cheese Award Winner 2012; American Cheese Society Winner 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, and 2018

Lovera's flagship cheese made with fresh, locally sourced Jersey cow milk. A beautiful cross between a smooth mozzarella and an earthy provolone, great for melting and grilling. Caciocavera is available in traditional, aged, smoked, Italian Herb and Diavolo (spicy) varieties.

Chocolate Mascarpone

Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese 920.478.4887 www.cravecheese.com

1st place American Cheese Society 2019

Crave Brothers Chocolate Mascarpone is made with sweet cream fresh from the farm and chocolate Irish cream flavoring. It is luxurious and velvety, perfect for sweet and savory culinary applications such as a dip for strawberries or a filling for cannolis.

Elevated Cow Fresh Mozzarella

Caputo Cheese 708.450.0074 www.caputocheese.com

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Each batch of made-to-order Elevated Cow is sent out for independent lab testing to ensure accuracy. Results of the tests are put on the Elevated Cow website and can be accessed by scanning the QR code on the package, so both retailer and customers can be sure of the cheese's cannabis content.

Fiorucci Aged Parmesan and Mild Provolone Cheese

Campofrio Food Group America 800.520.7775 www.fioruccifoods.com

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Fiorucci’s new line of authentic, premium Italian cheeses includes Aged Parmesan and Mild Provolone. Sweet, savory, 10 month-Aged Parmesan adds a punch of flavor to nearly anything it's added to and the Mild Provolone is aged for more than 60 days, and is full in rich flavor and is gluten-free and rBST-free.

Marieke Gouda Mature 6-9 months

Holland’s Family Cheese LLC 715.669.5230 www.mariekegouda.com

14 National and International awards including: gold, silver and bronze Most notable award to date: grand champion at U.S. Cheese Championship

Marieke Gouda Mature is rich and full-flavored with a subtle bite and caramel notes. Aged for six to nine months on Dutch pine planks, honoring the Old-World cheesemaking methods from the Netherlands. Marieke Gouda is handcrafted by licensed cheesemakers using fresh raw cow’s milk from Peterman Farm. A true farmstead Gouda made in Wisconsin.

Locarno

Nicasio Valley Cheese Company 415.662.6200 www.nicasiocheese.com

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A uniquely delicious, creamy Brie, Locarno ripens from the inside of the rind through the tangy, chalky interior. Available in 2.5-pound 8-inch wheels or in 6-ounce rounds with a 90day shelf life and newly available in 3-ounce exact-weight rounds.

Odyssey 4-ounce Traditional Crumbled Feta Cheese

Klondike Cheese Company 608.325.3021 www.klondikecheese.com

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Odyssey® Traditional Crumbled Feta is a healthy addition to salads and main dishes. The smaller size 4-ounce packaging will allow retailers more shelf space to display a wider variety of flavors that are available, and give the consumer a better price point.

Premium Italian cheeses

Calabro Cheese Corporation 203.469.1311 www.calabrocheese.com

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For over half a century, Calabro Cheese has been a leader in manufacturing Italian artisanal cheeses, including fresh mozzarella, hand dipped ricotta, impastata, organic cheese and much more. The company is a family of cheese makers that are committed to the highest production standards, resulting in the highest quality cheeses.

Reading

Spring Brook Farm Cheese 802.484.1226 www.sbfcheese.org

Multiple national awards, including a 1st place at the 2018 American Cheese Society Judging & Competition and gold medal and best in show awards at the 2018 Big E Cheese Competition

Reading is Spring Brook Farm's artisan raclette-style cheese. It's made with natural raw Jersey cow milk and aged at least three months for a versatile semi-soft cheese with nutty, grassy undertones that's ideally suited for melting. It's available in random-weight wheels between 18 and 20 pounds or in 4.5-pound quarters for food service and retail applications.

St. Helga's

Prairie Farms 563.468.6600 www.cavesoffaribault.com

New Product

European-style Swiss cheese with complex nutty flavor and larger holes, cave-aged in the fabled Caves of Faribault.

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The Cheese Guide

CHEESE LISTINGS PRODUCT NAME

COMPANY

DESCRIPTION

AWARDS

AMERICAN-MADE INTERNATIONAL STYLE (continued) Tarentaise

Spring Brook Farm Cheese 802.484.1226 www.sbfcheese.org

Multiple awards including a best in show for Tarentaise Reserve at the 2017 American Cheese Society Judging & Competition, a bronze medal at the 2018 World Cheese Awards and a 1st place at the 2018 American Cheese Society Judging & Competition

Made from raw Jersey cow milk, Tarentaise is a farmstead cheese made using traditional Alpine cheesemaking techniques. It's a semi-hard cheese with a natural washed rind that's been aged at least nine months. Flavor depends on the season, ranging from a complex, nutty flavor for the winter cheese to a bright floral taste in summer. It's offered as a 20pound wheel and a 5-pound quarter wheel.

Toma

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. 800.591.6878 www.pointreyescheese.com

Multiple awards from American Cheese Society, California State Fair, Good Food Awards and World Cheese Awards from 2010 to present

The perfect any time snacking cheese, Point Reyes Toma is creamy in texture and full of rich buttery flavor with a grassy-tang finish. Toma is an all-natural, gluten-free, pasteurized, semi-hard table cheese with a waxed rind. Aged for 90 days, Toma is available in 10-pound whole wheels and 6-ounce exact-weight, pre-wrapped wedges.

Multiple awards including a super gold medal at the 2014 World Cheese Awards

A naturally-rinded blue with hints of vanilla, truffle and savory bacon. It's made from all natural grass-based organic whole cow milk and vegetarian enzymes.

New Product

A cow milk cheese that's a cross between gorgonzola and a creamy mascarpone for a very creamy texture. The flavor is intense yet very sweet. This cheese would be perfect for a cheese plate after a meal and in pasta dishes or risotto.

BLUE CHEESES Caveman Blue

Rogue Creamery 866.396.4704 www.roguecreamery.com

Dolce Paradiso

Savello USA Inc. 570.822.9743 www.savellousa.com

Litehouse Simply Artisan Blue Cheese Center Cut

Litehouse Simply Artisan 800.669.3169 www.litehousefoods.com

Maytag Dairy Farm Reserve Blue Cheese

Maytag Dairy Farms 800.247.2458 www.maytagdairyfarms.com

Oregon Blue

American Cheese Society and United States The Blue Cheese Center Cut is the premium selection of the cheese wheel. It is cored from Championship Cheese Contest awards the center, where the richest and most developed flavor is found. Simply Artisan Reserve Cheese is handcrafted and aged a minimum of 100 days.

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The newest cheese from the artisan cheesemakers at Maytag Dairy Farms, Maytag Farm Reserve, is meticulously created and aged with milk from local Iowa dairy farms. A tangy blue cheese encapsulated in a natural rind, the buttery taste and dense texture give way to earthy flavors.

Rogue Creamery 866.396.4704 www.roguecreamery.com

Multiple awards dating back to a 1st place at the 1987 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest and up to a 3rd place at the 2017 United States Cheese Championships and a silver medal at the 2013 World Cheese Awards

Rogue Creamery's signature classic blue, Oregon Blue has been artisan-made since 1955.

It's made from pasteurized organic milk from the Rogue Creamery mixed-breed dairy herd and has Rogue Creamery's signature sweetness and spice with a regional fruit finish.

Penta Creme

Carr Valley Cheese 608.370.4144 www.carrvalleycheese.com

1st place at 2018 L.A. International Dairy Competition

Blue cheeese with extra cream for a rich, creamy flavor and a texture that's almost spreadable at room temperature.

Point Reyes Original Blue

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. 415.663.8880 www.pointreyescheese.com

Multiple awards including, most recently, a 2019 Good Food Award

Classic-style raw cow milk blue cheese that's rindless, all natural and gluten free. It's made with microbial rennet and aged 3.5 months to produce a milky white cheese with blue-green veins throughout. It has an ultra-creamy texture with a medium-strong blue mold flavor.

Rogue River Blue Cheese

Rogue Creamery 866.397.4704 www.roguecreamery.com

Multiple awards, including a sofi award in the Specialty Food Association's 2018 competition

This distinctive cheese has Oregon's regional flavors of brandy, truffles, butter and hazelnuts, a creamy texture and green-blue veins. It's made from organic pasteurized milk from the Rogue Creamery's mixed-breed dairy herd and aged a minimum of nine to 12 months.

Roth Buttermilk Blue

Emmi Roth 608.285.9800 www.rothcheese.com

2nd place in 2017 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, bronze in 2016 World Cheese Awards, best in class at 2014 World Championship Cheese Contest

Roth Buttermilk Blue is crafted with raw milk from Jersey and Holstein cows and cellar-aged for two months or longer. Tangy, yet mellow and creamy, this blue was recently ranked Top Crumbled Blue Cheese by Cook's Illustrated.

Smokey Blue

Rogue Creamery 541.665.1155 www.roguecreamery.com

Over a dozen awards since its debut in 2004, including a SIAL Paris Innovation Award in 2006 and most recently a 3rd place at the 2018 American Cheese Society Judging & Competition

Playfully inspired by Smokey Bear, this American original blue cheese is cold-smoked for many hours over Oregon hazelnut shells. This process infuses the cheese with unique aromas of barrel-aged vanilla, bread pudding and candied bacon. The cheese exhibits spicy-sweet flavors of honey, apple and nectarine, plus a mild “blue” finish.

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CHEESE LISTINGS PRODUCT NAME

COMPANY

AWARDS

DESCRIPTION

Silver award for a new cheese at the 2018 World Cheese Awards

Tolman Blue has subtle, rich, buttery and savory flavors with a natural rind and an interesting texture. It's made from pasteurized organic cow milk and aged a minimum of three months.

BLUE CHEESES (continued) Tolman Blue

Rogue Creamery 866.396.4704 www.roguecreamery.com

CHEDDAR & COLBY CHEESES Cave Aged Cheddar

Cellars at Jasper Hill/Cabot Creamery www.jasperhillfarm.com

Deer Creek The Carawaybou

1st place at 2019 ACS Competition & Judging

Made from a modern cheddar recipe by Cabot Creamery and selected by Jasper Hill Farm for cave-finishing with a specially calibrated vault. Flavors are characterized by savory depth balanced by lactic brightness and salt caramel sweetness.

The Artisan Cheese Exchange 920.803.8100 www.cheese-exchange.com

Gold medal from the 2018 L.A. International Dairy Competition; silver medal and best USA cheese from 2018 International Cheese Awards

The Carawaybou is an old-fashioned Caraway Wisconsin Colby based on a vintage recipe.

The aromatic bouquet of the caraway gives way to a perfumed anise flavor that penetrates the Colby without overpowering it. The slight crunch of the caraway seeds adds a pleasant contrast to the firm, yet openly curdy body of the cheese.

Deer Creek The Stag

The Artisan Cheese Exchange 920.803.8100 www.cheese-exchange.com

Gold medal, International Cheese Awards; four-time first place winner, American Cheese Society Competition & Judging; gold medal, Best USA Cheese from 2018 International Cheese Awards, silver medal from 2018 World Cheese Awards and many more

The Stag, a Wisconsin original from Deer Creek Cheese, is a traditional bandage-wrapped 22-pound daisy wheel cheddar with intense, bold toffee and butterscotch notes and a sweet finish.

Face Rock Aged Cheddar

Face Rock Creamery 541.347.3223 www.facerockcreamery.com

2nd place award at 2019 ACS Competition & Judging

12-month aged cheddar that's creamy with a slight nutty flavor. Low in moisture, this is a medium cheddar – flavorful but without the bite of a sharp cheddar.

Flagship

Beecher's Handmade Cheese New York www.beechershandmadecheese.com

2019 ACS Award Winner

Flagship is a semi-hard cow milk cheese with a uniquely robust, nutty flavor. Aged for 15 months.

In Your Face

Face Rock Creamery 541.347.3223 www.facerockcreamery.com

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Jalapeno, habanero and sweet red peppers decorate In Your Face like confetti. In Your Face is Face Rock Creamery's spiciest cheddar.

Paradise Reserve

Alpine Heritage Creamery 717.847.3291 www.alpinheritagecreamery.com

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Approximately two years old. A full bodied cheddar with a complex flavor. Smooth and buttery up front but with the classic cheddar bite on the finish, all with a tangy aroma that comes from the milk of 100 percent grass-fed Jersey cows.

Vampire Slayer

Face Rock Creamery 541.347.3223 www.facerockcreamery.com

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Tangy and smooth garlic-infused cheddar.

Widmer Artisan Aged Cheddars

Widmer's Cheese Cellars 888.878.1107 www.widmerscheese.com

Widmer's has won 22 various awards for its cheddars over the last 14 years

The Widmer Family has been handcrafting Cheddar since 1922. In recent years, these cheddars have been aged longer to satisfy the distinctive palate of lovers of artisan-style cheeses.

Original family recipes and select cultures (with no shortcuts) gives these Cheddars a more sophisticated and complex flavor profile. The super-aged Cheddars have an intense flavor with hints of caramel and are known for being very smooth without the bitterness associated with some aged Cheddars. Also available with added red and green jalapenos.

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Buholzer Brothers™ slices are crafted by Wisconsin Master Cheesemakers at a family-owned plant that has been making cheese at the same location since 1925. The two new varieties of Muenster and Havarti cheeses are available in 7-ounce and 8-ounce retail peg packages with 10 slices per pack.

CHEESES FOR SNACKING Buholzer Brothers Slices

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The Cheese Guide

Klondike Cheese Co 608.325.3021 www.buholzerbrothers.com

CHEESE LISTINGS PRODUCT NAME

COMPANY

CHEESES FOR SNACKING

AWARDS

DESCRIPTION

(continued)

Artisan Wraps

Formaggio Brand 845.436.4200 www.formaggiocheese.com

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Formaggio's distinctive innovation, Artisan Wraps, is a grab-and-go, snackable twist on classic meat and cheese rolls but with the meat hand-wrapped around a stick of award-winning fresh mozzarella. Meats include: Prosciutto, Applewood Smoked Prosciutto, Chorizo, Genoa Salami, Hard Salami, Jamon Serrrano, Pepperoni and Soppressata. Three sizes are offered.

Cheese Straws

J&M Foods 800.264.2278 www.janis-melanie.com

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Made from up-state New York aged cheddar, J&M Foods' Original Cheese Straws are a traditional Southern delicacy combining a light crisp texture with just a hint of hot. Serve them anytime as a snack, appetizer or hors d’oeuvre. They’re a delicious counterpart to soups, salads, fruit and wine.

Elevated Cow Fresh Mozzarella

Caputo Cheese 708.450.0074 www.elevatedcow.com

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Each batch of made-to-order Elevated Cow is sent out for independent lab testing to ensure accuracy. Results of the tests are put on the Elevated Cow website and can be accessed by scanning the QR code on the package, so both retailer and customers can be sure of the cheese's cannabis content.

Fiorucci 1.5-ounce Appetaggio Snacks

Campofrio Food Group America 800.520.7775 www.fioruccifoods.com

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A perfect balance of meat, cheese and fruit, Fiorucci’s new all-natural Appetaggios consist of peach or cranberry mozzarella that are hand wrapped with traditionally aged prosciutto or hard salami. The fruit flavors infuse sweetness into milky mozzarella, and the smoky meat further complements this mouthwatering, irresistible, one-of-a-kind snack.

SnackUPs Grab and Go Snack Packs

Dairyfood USA, Inc. 608.437.5598 www.dairyfoodusa.com

Smoked Gouda flavor took 2nd place in the pasteurized process cheese spread category for the 2017 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest

SnackUps provide a more elevated snacking experience by combining Wisconsin made cheese dip and crispy pretzels together for a satisfying snack. SnackUps provide a robust 8g of protein and 170 mg of calcium with only 210 calories.

Tillamook Cheeseboards

Tillamook County Creamery Association www.tillamook.com

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A craveable combination of Tillamook cheese, olive oil crackers and artisanal fruit spreads, Cheeseboards are Tillamook’s solution to a premium snack for the busy individual to savor.

Tillamook Cheeseboards will launch in four unique flavor combinations, including Sharp Berry Crunch, with sharp white cheddar cheese, marionberry spread and rosemary crackers; Spicy Berry Bite, with Pepper Jack cheese, marionberry spread and multigrain crackers; Smoky Apple Crisp, with smoked medium cheddar cheese, apple spread and olive oil crackers; and Sharp Strawberry Heat, with sharp white cheddar cheese, spicy strawberry spread and rosemary crackers.

Best of class at 2004 World Championship Cheese

Imported from Holland and made with a special recipe and production method by Dutch cheesemakers. Rembrandt® is traditionally ripened for one year. This award-winning Dutch cheese has a firm texture and a rich, tangy flavor. It can be merchandised in an unrefrigerated display.

IMPORTED CHEESES A Dutch Masterpiece Rembrandt

FrieslandCampina 201.655.7730 www.frieslandcampina.com

Aged Truffle Caciotta

Monti Trentini USA LLC 516.507.9658 www.montitrentini.com

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Made with real Italian black truffle, this Caciotta is the natural evolution of Monti Trentini's consumer-loved Caciotta Tartufo. Aged for more than three months and carefully handled only by the hands of expert affineurs, this cheese has a precise flavor that perfectly combines with the pleasant truffle taste. The texture of this product is rich, lightly grainy with small scattered pieces of truffle that give the cheese its unmistakable flavor. To clearly distinguish this particular product, a black coating is placed on the rind, and a sophisticated graphic is engraved on the upper flat surface. The wheel weight is about 5 pounds.

Cabecou

Remond Freres by Le Pic Dairy www.fromages-de-chevre.fr

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Small in size at 2.5 ounces, this lactic goat milk cheese develops a flavor that refines until its crust blooms. Newly available in the U.S. from World's Best Cheese after the company achieved its U.S. Food and Drug Administration license late last year.

Carozzi Taleggio Naturale DOP

Savello USA Inc. 570.822.9743 www.savellousa.com

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Taleggio Naturale DOP is a typical table cheese made of high quality raw cow’s milk from Lombardia, and is a well-known ingredient of many Italian dishes. Its sweet and delicate taste becomes tangier towards the middle; and its soft, spreadable center is ideal with fresh bread, or as a pizza topping.

Entremont French Brie

Atalanta Corporation 908.351.8000 www.atalantacorp.com

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Entremont Brie is made with fresh milk collected from 250 family farms from a 60-mile radius around the dairy in the Auvergne hills, at an altitude of 2000 feet high or more. This milk is transformed into cheese in an open tank by a team of expert cheesemakers and flipped by hand.

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The Cheese Guide

CHEESE LISTINGS PRODUCT NAME

COMPANY

AWARDS

DESCRIPTION

IMPORTED CHEESES (continued) Fiorucci imported Italian cheeses

Campofrio Food Group America 800.520.7775 www.fioruccifoods.com

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Fiorucci’s new line of authentic, premium, Italian cheeses includes Aged Parmesan and Mild Provolone. Sweet, savory, 10 month aged Parmesan adds a punch of flavor to nearly anything it's added to, and the Mild Provolone is aged for more than 60 days for full, rich flavor and is gluten free, rBST free.

Gruppo Formaggi del Trentino Puzzone di Moena DOP

Savello USA Inc. 570.822.9743 www.savellousa.com

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Puzzone di Moena DOP is a hard cheese made in the valleys of Fiemme, Fassa and Primiero of northern Italy. The cheese owes its name to its accentuated scent and strong aroma. It is produced using raw cow’s milk, salt and rennet; with no additives or preservatives. It has a creamy, semi-cooked paste and moist rind.

Gruppo Formaggi del Trentino Ubriaco D’Alpeggio

Savello USA Inc. 570.822.9743 www.savellousa.com

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Ubriaco D’Alpeggio is a semi-hard cheese made with raw cow’s milk, salt and rennet and soaked in Enantio red wine. The cheese is immersed for a period of 15 to 20 days and rotated daily to ensure the wine is absorbed evenly. The result is an opaque, purplish rind and a paste that is soft with a fruity and aromatic scent.

Gruyère AOP Classic, Gruyère AOP Reserve, Le Gruyère d'Alpage AOP

Le Gruyère AOP Switzerland +41(0)26 921 84 10 www.gruyere.com

Many international awards, including four times as a world champion at the World Cheese Awards

Gruyère AOP, a PDO product (Protected Designation of Origin), can be produced only in the Gruyères region of western Switzerland. It has been produced from raw cow milk, with the same recipe, since 1115 AD. Gruyère AOP is 100 percent natural, 100 percent additive free, and naturally free of lactose and gluten.

İçim Labneh

Lactalis American Group 212.758.6666 www.icim.com.tr/EN/15-products/ 17-cheese/341-labneh/

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Its soft and light texture makes İçim Labneh a delightful pair with breakfast toast, either with or without jam. Its superior flavor was certified by the Belgian International Taste and Quality Institute (ITQI), which described it as “remarkable.”

Jarlsberg

Norseland 203.515.6588 www.jarlsberg.com

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A mild semi-soft cow milk cheese, Jarlsberg is known for its sweet and nutty flavor and its large round holes.

Kaltbach Le Cremeux

Emmi Roth USA 608.285.9800 www.emmiroth.com

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Kaltbach Le Cremeux is a smear-ripened semi-firm cheese with a unique, complex flavor and texture that's reminiscent of a soft-cooked egg yolk. Flavor has a strong, caramelized butter flavor on the front and a hearty finish that's reminiscent of chicken stock.

Lagorai

Monti Trentini USA LLC 203.340.5415 www.montitrentini.com

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Lagorai has a creamy texture that suggests a fresh cheese but a savoriness that reflects its 90 days of aging. A traditional regional cheese from the Trentino region of Italy, it has scattered holes and a flavor that's intense but not too strong.

Le Gruyère AOP

Le Gruyère AOP 707.321.8094 www.gruyere.com

Multiple awards at the World Championship Cheese Contest

Today, anyone can label a cheese “Gruyère,” but Le Gruyère AOP is the real deal, tightly upholding the tradition of the cheese-making process, the regions where it is produced, and the strict guidelines followed by the dairy farmers, cheese makers and affineurs. Pure, unpasteurized milk is gathered from 170 farms and brought to expert cheese makers to produce 80-pound wheels, which are then aged in local cellars. Only the wheels passing the highest standards are allowed to be sold as Le Gruyère AOP.

Ossau Iraty

Murray's Cheese 888.692.4339 www.murrayscheese.com

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Ossau Iraty is a sheep milk cheese made in Aquitaine, France, They feature an amber rind with an ivory paste that offers toasted wheat aromas and nutty, grassy-sweet flavors. It's a superb melter.

Shaved Goat Cheese

FrieslandCampina 551.497.7300 www.frieslandcampina.com www.frico.com

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Imported from Holland. Naturally matured for 20 weeks, this flavorful, distinctive goat's cheese has a slightly crumbly texture. It's freshly shaved to enhance salads, soups, pastas and flatbreads. Packaged in a 5-ounce cup.

Valbreso 100% Pure Sheep Milk Cheese in Brine

Lactalis American Group 212.758.6666 www.valbreso.com

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Valbreso® cheese is distinctively delightful with a unique creaminess and a mild clean flavor.

It is delicious diced on salads or crumbled on bruschetta and pasta. It’s perfect with spinach or can simply be topped with olive oil and accompanied by bread.

Vezzena Cheese

Monti Trentini LLC 516.507.9658 www.montitrentini.com

Gold at World Cheese Awards 2018-2019

The Vezzena Cheese is often referred to as “the Gold of the Alps” because of its color. Its unique golden color is given by the milk that is collected daily in the mountain farms where cows are free to live outside and graze on grass. In order to reach perfect maturation, the Vezzena Cheese is aged at least six months. If needed, it can be aged more depending on how much flavor and sharpness is desired in the cheese.

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The Cheese Guide