Laura Chenel Crottin Better Than Ever

Most American cheese enthusiasts know that Laura Chenel no longer makes the goat cheese with her name on it.

The woman who introduced California to chevre sold her Sonoma County company in 2006 to a large French dairy firm, which promptly sent a French team to Sonoma to assume the reins. What changes did the French have in mind for this iconic creamery?

We can all exhale now. Under French management, Laura Chenel's Chevre continues to produce goat cheeses that I have to believe Chenel herself would applaud.

In the six years since the purchase, the deep-pocketed owners have built a creamery in Sonoma that allows better control over aging. The creamery took two blue ribbons at this year's American Cheese Society competition – one for Mélodie, a new cheese; and the other for Crottin, an aged cheese that has been part of the company's repertoire for years.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: San Francisco Chronicle