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2011 American Cheese Society Awards ::: Northwest Winners

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Results are in once again for this year’s 2011 American Cheese Society competition. The contest has been growing steadily each year and set yet another record in 2011 with over 1,600 cheeses entered. One of the stories this time around was the Canadian dominance in many categories. Perhaps because the contest and conference were held in Montreal this year, Canadian cheesemakers felt empowered to enter  – and as the results show, the cheese up north is that good! I can certainly vouch for the cheeses of British Columbia, which are consistently outstanding…but more on that later.

Because there’s other big news for local cheese lovers of the Pacific NW – HUGE honors go to owners David Gremmels & Cary Bryant and all of the folks at Oregon’s Rogue Creamery, who took the coveted Best in Show for the second time in three years for their fantastic and amazing Rogue River Blue.

Pacific Northwest cheesemakers took 25 ribbons overall this year – 26 if you count the Best in Show award. That’s down quite a bit from 42 last year, when the competition was held in our backyard, i.e. Seattle. (See last year’s results here).

Here are the 2011 local winners:

Overall Best in Show

Rogue River Blue – Rogue Creamery (OR)

♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣

 

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese (WA)

3rd Place – Original Recipe Sheep’s Milk or Mixed Milk – Flagsheep

2nd Place – Cheddar (Extra Mature 25-48 mo) – 4 yr Flagship Reserve

1st Place -   Cheddar w/ Peppers  – Marco Polo Reserve

3rd Place -  Smoked Cheeses, Cheddar – Flagship (smoked)

3rd Place – Cheddar, Wrapped in Cloth – Flagship Reserve

 

Briar Rose Creamery (OR)

1st Place – Fresh Goat’s Milk Cheese/Flavor Added – Chocolate Goat Cheese Truffles

 

Goat’s Pride Dairy (BC)

3rd Place – Feta (Goat’s Milk)

3rd Place – Feta (Flavor Added) – Cranberry Caprabella

 

Happy Days Dairies (BC)

2nd Place – Marinated Cheeses – Goat Cheese in Herbs & Oil

3rd Place – Cultured Products (Goat’s Milk) – Goat’s Milk Kefir

3rd Place -  Cheese Spreads – Probiotic Cheese Spread

 

Lark’s Meadow Farm (ID)

3rd Place – Aged Sheep’s Milk – Dulcinea Extra Reserve

1st Place – Open Category Sheep/Mixed Milk – Dulcinea

 

Mt. Townsend Creamery (WA)

2nd Place – Smoked Cheeses (Cow’s Milk) – Campfire

 

Rivers Edge Chevre (OR)

2nd Place – Smoked Cheeses (Open Category) – Up in Smoke

 

Rogue Creamery (OR)

1st Place – Blue Vein w/ Rind or Exterior Coating – Rogue River Blue

3rd Place – Rindless Blue Vein, Sheep’s Milk/Mixed Milk – Echo Mountain Blue

3rd Place – Cheddar, Sweet Flavorings – Chocolate Stout Cheddar

 

Samish Bay Cheese Co. (WA)

2nd Place – Hispanic/Portuguese Cheese, Flavor Added – Queso Jalapeno

 

Tillamook County Creamery Association (OR)

3rd Place – American Originals – Monterey Jack (cow’s milk)

1st Place – American Originals – Colby (cow’s milk)

3rd place  – Cheddar (Extra Mature 25-48 mo) – Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar

3rd Place – Light/ Reduced Fat – Reduced Fat Monterey Jack

 

Tumalo Farms (OR)

1st Place – Farmstead Cheese (Open Category) – Classico

2nd Place – American Made/International Style – Rimrocker

 

♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣

 

For a complete list of all winners in all categories, see here.

Steve Jones of Portland’s Cheese Bar Wins 2011 Cheesemonger Invitiational

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Steve Jones of Portland’s Cheese Bar was declared the winner of the 2011 Cheesemonger Invitational last night in New York City. West coast enthusiasts followed the #cmi11 hashtag on twitter for blow by blow updates through the rounds of intense competition. Steve went into the final round in 7th place but emerged triumphant, beating 39 other cheesemongers from all over the world. Congratulations to Steve!

Beecher’s New York Set to Open June 24, 2011

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Beecher's to Open June 24 in New York CityAt last, the opening is immiment…..according to owner Kurt Dammeier, the New York outpost of Seattle’s Beecher’s Handmade Cheese will open its doors June 24, 2011.

Enthusiasm has been slowly building – most recently, Eater NY announced the arrival of a giant stainless steel bulk tank and other cheesemaking equipment at the new facility. Like its Seattle outpost, the NYC store will make cheese in-house while-u-watch as well as sell cheese and other goodies. They’ve even got their own cheese in the works – Beecher’s Flatiron cheese, a washed rind cheese aged on premises.

Seattle Cheese Festival May 14-15th 2011

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Seattle Cheese Festival 2011

It’s that time of the year again – time to head down to Seattle’s Pike Place Market this coming Saturday and Sunday May 14 & 15th, 2011 for the Seattle Cheese Festival. This is the seventh year (can you believe it?!) that DeLaurenti’s has put on this big cheese event and I’ve no doubt that this year it will be bigger and better than ever.

What you can expect: great seminars (sign up now, before they’re sold out!), lots and lots of cheese, a chef’s stage where you can pick up some tips for cooking with cheese, a wine tent where you can sample lots of great local wine – with a mind to pairing with cheese, of course. There will also be a mozzarella making demo stage and it’s happening basically every hour and a half on both days (schedule here). This is a big, enthusiastic festival brimming over with lots and lots of people with whom you can share your passion for all things cheese.

For the full rundown of events, schedules and/or to volunteer, see the website here.

California’s Marin French Cheese Co. Acquired by French Company

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The Cheese FactoryMarin French Cheese Co. of Petaluma, California, the oldest cheese company in the United States, has been acquired by French cheese conglomerate Rians. Rians (click on the link to hear their cheery theme song) is the same company that purchased Laura Chenel’s Sonoma County, California operation in 2006.

Marin French has been operating for over 100 years in the San Francisco Bay area making mostly French style bloomy rinded cheeses. Starting in 1865 as Thompson Brothers Cheese Co., the company made its name selling a ‘breakfast cheese’ (which it still sells) in San Francisco. The company later reorganized into Marin French Cheese Co. Previous owner Jim Boyce, who purchased the company from the founding family in 1998, had apparently been searching for a buyer for several years. His untimely death from liver cancer late last year contributed to his family’s search for a new owner that could preserve the company and its commitment to Marin County’s land and dairy farmers.

This marks the second California cheese company to be acquired by a larger European company in less than a year – Cypress Grove Chevre of Humboldt, California was acquired by Emmi, a Swiss Company, in August of 2010. I think this is indicative of a number of things including the strength of the cheesemakers and cheese industry in California; I am also curious whether or not this is a trend that will continue. Which cheesemaker do you think will be next?

Seattle’s Calf and Kid Cheese Shop Celebrates its 1st Anniversary this Weekend

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The Calf and Kid Artisan Cheese ShopCongratulations to Sheri LaVigne, proprietress of The Calf and Kid in Seattle! This weekend (that’s April 23rd and 24th, 2011) marks the first anniversary of the shop’s opening. Keeping a retail shop open is hard anywhere in any economic climate and keeping a cheese shop open has to be even harder but Sheri has managed to capture the hearts and minds of Seattleites hungry for good cheese.

Stop by and congratulate Sheri and staff….especially on Saturday April 24th at 3pm, when Sheri will crack an 80-ish pound wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano. I’ve talked about the experience of watching the opening of one those babies here; it’s one of those revelatory food moments that you’ll never forget.

—-> See my prior interview with Sheri LaVigne here.

BC Cheesemakers Take Awards at 2011 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix

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      Last night the Dairy Farmers of Canada announced the winners of the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix, a biannual event that celebrates the best cheeses made in Canada. This year, two great British Columbia cheeses took top prizes.

Soft Cheese with Bloomy Rind  - Little Qualicum Cheeseworks Island Brie

Flavored Cheese - Natural Pastures Cheese Co. Smoked Boerenkaas

Overall Grand Champion: Louis D'or from La Fromagerie du Presbytère in Sainte-Élizabeth-de-Warwick, Quebec.

Among the judges was BC's own Allison Spurrell, owner of Vancouver's great cheese shop Les Amis du Fromage. For the full slate of winners see here.

2011 United States Cheese Championships – Northwest Winners

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And results are in for the 2011 United States Cheese Championships…held every other year (opposite the World Cheese Championships) in Wisconsin, this is a big deal to those in the cheese world because it's a chance to be judged by experts against your peers. In addition to the Northwest entrants, many familiar names took awards including Cypress Grove Chevre and Jasper Hill Farm, which won in the category of Smear Ripened Soft Cheeses (that's 'washed rind' to you and me) for its fantastic Winnimere. Congratulations to all of the winners!

To see the complete results, click here (then click through each category).

Monterey Jack

    Best of Class & 2nd Place – Tillamook (Boardman Plant)

Marbled Curd (Colby Jack)

    Best of Class & 2nd Place - Tillamook  (Boardman Plant)

Blue Veined/ Exterior Molding

    2nd Place – Rogue Creamery Flora Nelle

Pepper Flavored American Style Cheese (Cheddar, Colby, Jack)

    3rd Place – Tillamook  (Boardman Plant)

Hard Goat's Milk Cheeses

    3rd Place – Rivers Edge Chévre Astraea

Soft & Semi-Soft Mixed Milk Cheeses

    2nd Place – Rogue Creamery Echo Mountain Blue

 

*** Bonus: See the 2009 Northwest results here.

Northwest Cheese Top Stories of 2010

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Recalls, Seizures Without a doubt, the biggest NW cheese story of 2010 – in fact, the biggest cheese story of the year, period – was the series of events that started in February with Estrella Family Creamery's first recall of cheese. The Estrellas continued to make headlines throughout the year, culminating in the FDA seizure in October and its ongoing aftermath. Later in December, we witnessed the e coli outbreak that was eventually traced to cheese made by Sally Jackson. But the overall food safety story is much bigger than these two producers (others were also caught up in the recall net, including Bravo Farms in California) – I think we are going to see regulatory changes in the future that will have wide reaching effect on the cheese we love to eat. Stay tuned.

Oregon State University Bequest  This news has flown largely under the radar but I think its effects will be HUGE for the cheese industry in Oregon. OSU announced in early December that it received a $860,000 donation that will be devoted to developing an OSU Dairy Center. OSU is reviving its shuttered creamery as a cheesemaking incubator for new cheesemakers and I'm looking forward to the promised Beaver Cheese coming in 2011. The state's cheesemaking community will benefit from this for years to come. Watch out Vermont!

Beecher's Expands to NYC  Seattle's favorite urban cheesemaker announced in March of 2010 that they will open a new satellite store in New York City in early 2011. This represents a significant expansion of Kurt Dammeier's cheese empire and provides a new growth model for the industry. Will other small-mid sized cheesemakers follow suit? Will New Yorkers love their new Flatiron cheese as much as Seattleites love Flagship? Only time will tell.

Artisan Cheese Renaissance Ongoing in the NW  I keep thinking that at some point the rapid increase in numbers of small cheesemakers in the Pacific NW will decline or at least slow down but that's not been the case…2010 was a banner year for the business. New cheesemakers in the region this year included Yarmuth Farms and Tieton Farm and Creamery in Washington, Cheese Louise Creamery in Oregon and two new sheep's milk dairies in Idaho, Lark's Meadow Farm and Blue Sage Farm. Another demonstration of the region's ongoing love affair with cheese was the opening of a new cheese shop in Seattle in May: Calf & Kid.

Closures/Evolutions  Despite an ongoing recession, only a few cheesemakers left the fold this year, including Siskiyou Crest Goat Dairy in Southern Oregon (which voluntarily surrended its licensed cheesemaker status in favor of selling goat shares) and Sally Jackson in Washington. The loss of industry pioneer Sally Jackson's cheeses is a blow for the entire cheesemaking community and represents, on a number of levels, the end of an era.

Awards Keep Rolling In The awards for cheeses made in the Pacific Northwest continue. At the American Cheese Society Conference held in Seattle, NW Cheesemakers took 42 awards in a wide range of categories. I was especially pleased to see tiny Mystery Bay Farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington pull out top honors for flavored chevre – that's among 1400+ entries! While you might be inclined to think that awards are solely about marketing (and that's true to an extent) they are also about having your products judged alongside those of your peers. These awards demonstrate that our region's cheeses are as good or better than any cheese in the nation.

In Memoriam  This year saw the passing of two bright lights in our region's cheesemaking community: Chuck Evans of Rollingstone Chevre in Idaho and Kathy Obringer of Ancient Heritage Dairy in Oregon.

Happy New Year!

** Reminisce with the Northwest Cheese Top Stories of 2009