Rogue Creamery Wins Big at US Cheese Championship

(03/19/15) Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue and Smokey Blue won 1st Place Gold and 2nd Place Silver respectively in the Blue Veined Cheese category at the 2015 United States Championship Cheese Contest. The largest cheese, butter and yogurt competition in the nation was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the contest featured a record 1,885 entries from 28 states.

Rogue River Blue

On top of winning Gold at the US Cheese Championship, Rogue River Blue has also won Best American Cheese and Super Gold @ the 2012 World Cheese Awards in London and is a two time winner, 2009 and 2011, of the Best of Show Award @ the American Cheese Society Competition & Judging.

Rogue River Blue is produced at the turn of the season, made with late-season milk produced after the autumnal equinox.  At this time, the cows graze on grasses renewed by cooler temperatures and make milk that is richer and higher in butterfat due to the advanced stage of the lactation cycle. It is this special milk, reflective of the unique seasonal influences of the Rogue River Valley, which is the very essence of terroir. This is the French concept that well-crafted foods represent a certain special essence of a region: the soil, the climate and the interaction of herd and pasture.

Smokey Blue

In addition to Smokey Blue’s 2^nd Place finish at the US Cheese Championship, it has also taken home Best American Cheese at the World Cheese Awards, 1^stplace at the  2009 American Cheese Society Awards, and 2^nd place: Open Cow’s Milk, at the 2013 ACS Awards.

A long, gentle cold-smoking over shells from Oregon hazelnuts infuses Rogue Creamery’s Smokey Blue cheese with an added layer of rich flavor and terroir. Sweet cream flavors and caramel notes balance earthy flavors of smoke and hints of roasted nuts. The result is a cakey yet smooth blue cheese reminiscent of candied bacon. Smokey Blue’s sweet, nutty, and savory flavors envelope the sweet, rich milk creating a Crème Brûlée with a hint of the toasted, sweet richness of a campfire.

About Rogue Creamery

Rogue Creamery’s Blue Cheese is handmade using milk from Brown Swiss and Holstein cows; the milk is 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) 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, ASI Food Safety  and organic by Oregon Tilth.