Raleigh, N.C. – At the 28th Annual American Cheese Society Judging and Competition in Raleigh, Rogue Creamery blue cheeses won two more awards. Oregon Blue Cheese, won 1st Place in the Rinded Blue Cheese category & Flora Nelle Blue Cheese won 2nd Place in the Natural Rinded Blue Cheese category. ACS is the largest cheese competition in North America, and is often referred to as the “Academy Awards of Cheese“. Both of these exquisite artisan cheeses also won recognition @ the June 2012 NASFT (National Association for the Specialty Food Trade) sofi Awards held in Washington, D.C.
Oregon Blue has won 10 national and international awards over the years, and it was recognized less than 2 months ago as a Silver Finalist in the Classic Category in June @ the sofi Awards. Created more than 55 years ago by Rogue Creamery’s founder, Thomas Vella, Oregon Blue Vein was the first blue cheese made on the West Coast. This is the cheese that sparked Rogue Creamery’s enduring passion for blue cheese. It is a raw milk blue cheese that is aged at least 90 days in caves. 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,briney 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.”I love honoring Rogue Creamery’s foundation raw milk cheese these awards recognize Rogue Creamery’s past & present”, said co-owner David Gremmels. Flora Nelle, named for the grandmothers of co-owners Bryant (Florence) & Gremmels (Nelle) is a new cheese, less than 2 years old, but it has already won 4 national & international awards including Gold @ the sofi NASFT Awards in Washington, D.C. in June 2012 for Outstanding USDA-Certified Organic Product & Gold @ the 2011 World Cheese Awards, London, UK for Best New Blue Cheese in the world. Flora Nelle is the only Rogue Creamery blue made with pasteurized cow’s milk ;this cheese was created to support the Australian market. It has a distinct appearance with many veins of blue mold that are encouraged to develop throughout the paste. The result is a robust and piquant blue with subtle hints of blueberry and a crumbly but creamy texture.
Flora Nelle is a naturally rinded blue set with calf rennet. The paste is speckled with beautiful blue blooms and blue green veins and creates savory, tropical & sweet cream flavors. The dusty rind enhances the spicy nutty and intensely blue flavors framing the Rogue Valley Terroir. After more than five years in the making, the recipe was finalized in September 2010 and first released just after Thanksgiving.“It is a cheese that is closest to my heart”, said co-owner Cary Bryant.
Rogue Creamery’s Blue Cheese is 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) 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 1935. 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