Rogue Creamery makes an astounding number of blue cheeses, most of them award winners and some of them like Rogue River Blue, cult favorites. A seasonal blue cheese available only in the spring is Flora Nelle. First introduced in 2011, it was discontinued in 2017 and is back this season for a very limited time.
Flora Nelle photo credit Beryl Striewski
Inspiration
While Rogue Creamery’s blue cheeses are all American originals, Flora Nelle was inspired in part by traditional blue cheeses from France and specifically the consistency of Bleu de Gex and the flavor of Bleu d’Auvergne. Bleu de Gex is a creamy, semi-soft blue cheese made from raw milk from the Jura region in the east of France. A mild and young cheese, it has a lot of blue veining and is not available in the US. Bleu d’Auvergne is made from pasteurized milk and is available in the US. It’s a creamy and buttery blue cheese also from the Jura region of France. An AOC-protected cheese, it has a meaty flavor that is more mellow than Roquefort and works well in recipes.
The name Flora Nelle is in homage to families and grandmothers, namely Nelle, the grandmother of David Gremmels president and head cheesemaker, and Flora for Florence, the grandmother of Rogue’s former partner and cheesemaker, Cary Bryant.
How it’s Made
Made in February and cave-aged for 60 days, Flora Nelle is similar to Rogue Creamery’s year-round classic Caveman Blue. Flora Nelle has a natural rind but unlike the rest of Rogue’s blue cheese it is made with traditional rennet rather than vegetarian rennet. Rogue Creamery’s cheese emissary and marketing manager Marguerite Merritt explains, “We chose to use traditional rennet in this recipe rather than the vegetarian alternative which we use in all our other recipes, in order to create a different style of blue.” She adds, “Traditional rennet reacts slightly differently with the milk during our cheesemaking process, and this results in a different curd set, texture, and ultimately a different pattern of blue veining after the cave-aging period is complete. As he was developing the recipe, head cheesemaker David Gremmels felt it appropriate to introduce traditional rennet in Flora Nelle to set it apart from our other offerings and further connect it to the classic French blues that inspired him.”
The use of raw or pasteurized milk is often the subject of debate. Flora Nelle is made with pasteurized milk rather than raw milk. While initially the reason for using pasteurized milk was to allow for export to Australia, it’s worth noting that the cheese has a lot of the complexity and umami you might associate with raw milk cheeses.
Although there was a time when most Rogue cheeses were made with raw milk, these days Rogue only makes small quantities of raw milk versions of Oregon Blue, Smokey Blue, Rogue River Blue, and their classic Oregonzola is always made with raw milk, the rest are made with pasteurized milk.
Tasting Notes
A very “meaty” blue cheese, Flora Nelle has some crunch and notes of spice. It is dense and fudgy and becomes more crumbly as it ages making it a particularly good choice for topping salads or a steak. It won awards right out of the gate in 2011, but has it been eclipsed by other blue cheeses? You’ll have to try it to decide for yourself. It’s not an easy cheese to find but can be purchased directly from Rogue Creamery.