Rogue Creamery’s cheeses won 4 Medals @ the 2013 World Cheese Awards in Birmingham, England. The winning cheeses are Oregon Blue (Silver), Echo Mountain Blue (Silver), Caveman Blue (Bronze) and Chocolate Stout Cheddar (Bronze). The World Cheese Awards, run by the UK’s Guild of Fine Food, is the world’s largest cheese event and the most respected competition of its type in the world. 250 judges gathered to taste and score over 2700 cheeses from 34 different countries this week. “Cary and I are so proud to bring home 2 bronzes and 2 silvers for a total of 4 medals this evening”, said David Gremmels Co-owner and Cheesemaker along with Co-owner and Cheesemaker Cary Bryant. Both Gremmels and Bryant were also judges @ the World Cheese Awards. Congratulations to another Oregon cheesemaker, River’s Edge Chevre, from the Central Coast Range; Patricia Morford’s “Up in Smoke” cheese was named Best American Cheese & won Supreme Super Gold honors.
OREGON BLUE – SILVER MEDAL
Oregon Blue has won 11 national and international awards. Created over 55 years ago by Rogue Creamery’s founder, Thomas Vella, Oregon Blue Vein was the first cave-aged blue cheese made on the West Coast. Oregon Blue is the foundation for Rogue Creamery and has sustained three generations of cheesemakers. This signature blue is approachable in flavor with a firm but buttery paste and a bouquet of flavors to satisfy a range of palettes. Bite into Oregon blue and find a clean, briny flavor, with notes of sweet cream and veins of mellow, earthy blue molds blooming throughout. It is commonly recognized, because it is called out on menus across the United States.
ECHO MOUNTAIN BLUE – SILVER MEDAL
Echo Mountain Blue has won 14 national and international awards
In the last 7 years-; it has a montage of rich flavors from a blend of sustainable raw cow and goat’s milk. The flavor is clear, crisp, brilliant and complex in its subtle hint of goat’s milk. Brightly hued veins traverse the body of this cheese, infusing it with a bold, earthy flavor. This unique blue cheese has a semi-soft texture with a silky smooth mouth feel & a tangy finish.
CAVEMAN BLUE – BRONZE MEDAL
Caveman is an American original blue with a rugged natural rind that allows the Caveman to release a bit of moisture during its cave aging and develop a thick, buttery texture. During its maturation, a period of at least 4 months and up to 1 year, luscious raw cow milk and blue cultures are transformed into a golden-hued paste that tastes of sweet, fresh buttermilk with hints of tropical fruit, grass and vanilla with a texture full of butter and crystals.
CHOCOLATE STOUT – BRONZE MEDAL
Chocolate Stout is a classic Cheddar made with pasteurized cow’s milk .The cheese is a perfect combination of hand cut and hand milled Cheddar supplemented with Rogue Ale’s Chocolate Stout Ale. The beer is poured over the curd and allowed to meld before it is hand dipped and pressed into blocks for aging. Savory and tangy cheddar notes are tempered by the sweeter chocolate and coffee flavors of the stout.
About Rogue Creamery
Rogue Creamery’s blue and cheddar cheeses are handmade using milk from Brown Swiss and Holstein cows’ milk, certified sustainable by Food Alliance. The cows graze in 1650 foot elevation pastures along the Rogue River, where they eat a variety of grasses, wild herbs, and wild flowers supplemented with grass hay, alfalfa and grain grown on the ranch. The five pound (2.2 kg) blue cheese wheels are made by hand and aged in specially-constructed caves. The cheese ripens from naturally occurring molds found in the Rogue River Valley and, therefore, reflects a deep connection to the land. The creamery also made history in 2007 by becoming the first American exporter of raw milk cheese to the EU; their cheese is carried in Whole Foods Market, Neal’s Yard Dairy, London and Fromagerie Laurent Dubois, Paris. Rogue Creamery was founded in 1933. The Vella family from Sonoma, California acquired it from a co-op in Southern Oregon. In the 1950s it began making some of the country’s best blue cheese. In 2002, Ig Vella selected Cary Bryant and David Gremmels as the new owners, and they now produce a variety of award-winning blue, cheddar & TouVelle cheeses. They offer the only vertically integrated third party certified sustainable cheese in the U.S. Its local dairy, Rogue View, and creamery, Rogue Creamery, are both certified sustainable by Food Alliance, Steritech and organic by Oregon Tilth.
Source: Rogue Creamery