Expeditions: The Cheese Explorer Blog 11/21
The star of the fall + winter season, Rush Creek Reserve.
It’s the time of the year when some of our favorite cheesemakers start rolling out their holiday cheeses. Traditionally, wintertime (I know, are we there already?) was when cheesemakers would release more hearty cheeses, and in France and Switzerland, this was the perfect time for Vacherin' Mont D’Or, a rich raw milk cheese that is slightly washed - not Epoisses level funky, and bound in spruce. But that style of cheese took a while to translate here- in no small part due to our reluctance to have younger raw milk cheeses from abroad.
Like many poor decisions, this one was made in the 1980s, after it was discovered that raw milk had been connected to a rise in human diseases. Of course, the fine print was that raw milk itself was the issue, while raw milk cheeses often went through more stringent protocols to ensure that any potential outbreaks are nipped in the bud, but I digress.
Rush Creek Reserve is the closest we get to true Vacherin Mont D’Or. It’s not that the cheeses we can get from the Savoie and Jura regions -where it originated - are inferior, but soft-ripened cheeses are not typically designed to sit on a boat for a week or two, nor are they happy with rapid temperature changes that a much pricier air freight would require. Vacherin Mont D’Or is a cheese that likes to ripen slowly, until it becomes cheese pudding, a decadent treat that deserves to be part of anyone’s Thanksgiving.
Farmstead means that they only source milk from their own farm - an increasingly rare practice when the burden of farming is only getting more difficult to keep financially viable.
Rush Creek Reserve is one of two cheese made by the Uplands Cheese Company, a farmstead producer in Dodgeville, Wisconsin helmed by Andy and Caitlin Hatch and Scott and Liana Mericka. They had taken over the farm from the previous pair Mike Gingrich and Dan Patenaude, cheese legends in their own right, back in 2014.
Farmstead means that they only source milk from their own farm - an increasingly rare practice when the burden of farming is only getting more difficult to keep financially viable.
The other cheese that Uplands makes is Pleasant Ridge Reserve, the most awarded cheese in American cheesemaking, it is an approach to classic alpine styles, and one of my all time favorite cheeses we carry, but Rush Creek is its own special category, a limited cheese that goes beyond the hype. While Pleasant Ridge is made from the summer grass-fed milk, Rush Creek is made from the milk in the early fall, when the cows switch to hay. The result is an unctuous, flavorful masterpiece.
While Rush Creek Reserve is the star of our show, no star is without a strong supporting cast, and this month also finds us featuring the likes of other great farmstead producers, the Von Trapp Farmstead in Waitsfield, and the Sage Farm Goat Dairy in Stowe.
I grew up going to Mad River - their motto of Ski It If You Can may as well been my father’s family crest, but in the valleys lay alongside the snow-capped mountains, you’ll find a thriving farming community. The Von Trapp’s are well-renowned, as anyone with a brief knowledge of musicals could easily tell you, and their commitment to ethical farming practices sets the bar in Vermont.
Their most famous cheese is Oma, a washed-rind cheese that is co-developed with perhaps Vermont’s most well known cheese affineur, The Cellars at Jasper Hill. They’re also steadily getting recognition for their Mad River Blue, thanks to its fudgy and friendly nature as far as blues are concerned.
But I have a soft spot for Savage, an alpine style cheese that is aged at least 12 months before release, putting it in the flavor wheelhouse of good Comte, it’s a little savory, a little brothy, but still milky enough that it doesn’t overwhelm your palette. It also makes a mean grilled cheese.
Travel some 25 miles north of Waitsfield and you’ll find yourself in Stowe, where Molly Pindell and her sister Kate have been steadily producing some of the best farmstead goat’s milk cheeses in the country at Sage Farm Goat Dairy, with a nod to the nearby mountain peaks, Morse, Madonna, Sterling, along with classics like Fresh Chevre and a funky, Vermont inspired washed rind called Lightning Knoll. You can’t go wrong if you find any of them, but Madonna is my favorite, a Loire Valley influenced chevre that is ripened for 2-3 weeks with a geotrichum rind that puts more of a emphasis on creamy than on tangy.
As a sign of things starting to get better, air freight has become more of a thing again, which means we have better access to fresh cheeses from across the pond, including the likes of true robiola from La Casera, located in the northern reaches of Piedmont in Italy.
Started in 1991 as as small cheese shop, La Casera has established itself as a affineur of classic Italian cheeses, including my favorite among the classic stracchino style cheeses, Robiola. In true Italian tradition, we’ve got a Robiola Tre Latti, made with a mixture of cow, goat, and sheep’s milk.
Some of you may have also received a special edition of Jasper Hill Farm’s classic washed rind Willoughby, a classic pudgy round that was created by Ploughgate Creamery’s Marisa Mauro. This seasonal special edition comes to us from our friends at Saxelby Cheesemongers and Transmitter Brewing. This special batch has been washed with Transmitter Brewing’s F4 3 x Brett Farmhouse ale. Three strains of brettanomyces are combined in primary fermentation to create a complex web of aromas with notes of ripe stone fruit, fresh cut hay, and earth. The wheels of Willoughby are washed twice weekly with beer for a period of six weeks to allow the cheese to ripen, and for the pungent flavors to express themselves. The finished product is briny, nutty, and just the right amount of funky.
We appreciate you sticking with us for this long and winding road of renovations, and finally, we can get back to where we once were, with fresh cuts of cheese starting next month! As always, don’t hesitate to reach out with any further questions or concerns.
Cheers to great cheese!
Hugh