When second-generation cheesemaker Ig Vella, of family-owned Vella Cheese Company, died last June, cheesemakers around the country referred to him as the godfather of the artisan cheese movement.
In 2006, Vella’s accomplishments in the field were honored with the first-ever lifetime achievement award by the American Cheese Society. He had not only won countless gold and silver medals for his cheeses over the years, he also had been a tireless champion of younger, small-production cheesemakers.
Vella’s death left people in Sonoma Valley wondering if the Vella Cheese Company, the oldest artisan cheesemaker in Sonoma Valley, could survive his loss.
“Everywhere I went, people were worried,” Vella’s daughter, Chickie, said last week. “People would come up to me, wondering if we’d be able to continue the business. Or I’d be sitting in my office with the door open, and I’d hear customers asking the girls behind the counter: ‘So, are you going to close? What’s going to happen?’”
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