Rogue River Blue is only made in the autumn when the farm's organic milk is at its best. After 9 to 11 months maturing in caves, the team at Rogue Creamery team hand-wraps each wheel in organic Syrah grape leaves that have been soaked in pear liqueur.
Location
Central Point, Oregon, USA
Our work with this cheese
It may sound like a gimmick for a cheese shop which specialises in British Farmhouse Cheese to sell an American cheese, but our connection to Rogue Creamery has been a longstanding one. The Creamery was set up by Ig Vella who is an old friend of ours. His family have one of the few longstanding cheesemaking traditions in the USA. Renowned cheesemaker David Gremmels and his team are now at the helm.
We were the first company to import the cheese into Europe, and have sold it seasonally for the last 12 years. It is a privilege for us to show our customers that excellent raw milk cheese can be made in America.
On October 18, Rogue River Blue was named World Champion at the World Cheese Awards in Bergamo, Italy, besting 3,800 of the world's finest cheeses from 42 countries on 6 continents. This is the greatest honor a cheese can receive, and the first time an American-made cheese has been honored with this distinction. Our sales director Jason was one of the judges and on hearing the news, he FaceTimed David from the awards ceremony. It was a surreal and wonderful moment for them both. David was in a field full of cows, whilst Jason was standing behind a wheel of Rogue River Blue as the paparazzi descended and it rapidly became the most photographed cheese in the world.