Five years ago, goat-cheese pioneer Laura Chenel sold her business to a family-owned French firm that makes Epoisses, Selles-sur-Cher and other AOC (appellation d'origine controlee, or name-controlled) French cheeses.
The family sent two young French women to Sonoma to run the company: Marie Lesoudier as general manager and Isabelle Dion as cheesemaker. What alterations to this trailblazing California creamery would these two foreigners initiate?
One major change occurred this year with the premiere of an all-new and larger creamery. The Sonoma facility now has maturing rooms that will allow Dion to produce more aged goat cheeses, a category that has not been significant in the Laura Chenel repertoire to date. So while we wait for those creations to debut, we can sample some of the fresher chevres coming out of the new plant.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: San Francisco Chronicle