Rogue River Blue stacked photo courtesy Rogue River Creamery
This week we will receive a special delivery at the Chicago store where I work. It’s a blue cheese, but instead of a foil wrapper it will arrive robed in grape leaves that have been soaked in pear spirits. Of course, we are talking about no lesser a cheese than Rogue River Blue, and for me, and many of the cheese people I know, its release is a much-anticipated annual event.
Spreading Rogue River Blue photo courtesy Rogue River Creamery
A Seasonal Cheese
Oregon-based Rogue Creamery is justifiably proud of the limited-run cheese, noting again in a recent press release that Rogue River Blue is the “reigning World Champion Cheese,” having earned that distinction in the 2019/20 World Cheese Awards, held in Bergamo, Italy. For cheese retailers like me, the mystique of Rogue River Blue often goes much further back than 2019 (the cheese was created in 2002 and released in 2003) and it was more of a reaffirmation than a surprise when the extraordinary cheese became the first American entry to ever take the prestigious global award. The excitement surrounding the kickoff of Rogue River Blue season (in recent years timed to the Autumnal Equinox) has long been palpable, but since the World Cheese victory, it has become even more intense. I have ordered three wheels from two different distributors and Rogue River Blue will be our Blue Cheese of the Month in November at Potash Markets.
Rogue River Blue on a plate photo courtesy Rogue River Creamery
Getting a Taste
In a week or so, when I cut into the first wheel, I expect that it will bring back memories. I was first hired as a novice cheesemonger in 2010, and I still recall a cheesemonger I worked with describing flavors of bacon, chocolate, and booze in that year’s release. Before I first met Rogue River Blue, just a few years prior, I had never imagined a cheese could taste of bacon and chocolate, and to this day, I have tasted only a couple of other cheeses that match Rogue River Blue in terms of taking cheese flavors so far beyond our expectations.
Rogue Creamery President David Gremmels will probably tell you that Rogue River Blue is his favorite of the cheeses his company makes. It’s a no-holds-barred effort, using sweet fall milk from the company’s own organic herds, hand-picked organic grape leaves, and it’s aged for more than a year. It’s a labor-intensive, time-consuming process, and it results in a cheese that retails for nearly $50 a pound. “The release of Rogue River Blue is our favorite time of year,” Gremmels says. “It’s always exciting to taste a recipe I’ve been working on for 19 years and see what unique flavors arise in each year’s vintage.”
In the recent publicity, Gremmels shared that the 2021 vintage “exhibits sweet and spicy flavors with heady notes of fermented fruit, comice pear, and brown butter. Fudgy and rich, it boasts ample brushite (calcium phosphate) crystals that develop with age, providing a textural complexity that makes Rogue River Blue distinctive.”
A couple of the wheels I have pre-ordered will come from Zuercher & Co., a top-notch family-owned importer/distributor based in Niles, IL. The company is seriously focused on great cheese and specialty food, and its sales manager, Helder dos Santos, has been in the cheese business for 30 years. He loves tasting cheese at work almost as much as he loves snacking on it at home. He’s also pretty good at talking about cheese and happy to talk about Rogue River Blue. “I’m usually not a big fan of cheeses with booze in them,” dos Santos says. “I like to enjoy my booze and cheese separately. Rogue River Blue fell into that category for me for a long time.” That was up until about five years ago when he had an encounter with Rogue River Blue at a reception at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.
Rogue River Blue photo courtesy Rogue River Creamery
“We had worked all day, and I was tired, and I was literally ravenous. The event was starting to break up, and there was a good-sized wedge of Rogue River Blue just sitting on the table, so I started with a little nibble. When I took the bite of this cheese there was this big umami and some sweet caramel and a bit of earthiness, and I was suddenly reminded of how good it is—the flavors! And the texture had this crystalline bite. I didn’t taste brandy. I tasted port, which I really like.” dos Santos remembers that there might have been more than an eighth of a wheel, which would be about a third of a pound. “And it was so good I just kept going back, and I ate the whole wedge. This kind of re-set my whole perspective on Rogue River Blue how enjoyable it really is,” he says.
Demand for a Champion
From a wholesaler’s perspective dos Santos has watched the market for Rogue River Blue evolve from being a difficult sell outside of upscale small cheese shops that are able to sample to customers. Now demand comes from all quarters. “Customers come to us now, including some large retailers,” he says, “The price has become less of a barrier for retailers as consumers have become more aware. (Consumers) realize this is something that comes out just once a year, and they are excited about it and they celebrate it.”
I’ll be among those celebrating this great, original cheese, as part of the American artisan cheese renaissance. I’ll make a point of pairing it with a variety of bold dance partners this season.
At Potash we will sell it through the fall, and hopefully into the winter holidays, and once it is gone I will have the memories, and next season to look forward to.