Rogue Creamery adds Oregon wine to a gold medal-winning cheese

Rogue Creamery’s Bluehorn Blue was named one of many prime 96 cheeses on the planet on the 2022 World Cheese Awards held final November in Newport, Wales. How do you enhance on a Tremendous Gold medal winner? Simply add Oregon wine.

Rogue Creamery in Central Level isn’t any stranger to profitable main worldwide cheese awards. Its natural Rogue River Blue was topped World Champion on the 2019/2020 World Cheese Awards. It was the primary time an American-made cheese had earned the coveted title.

Will the Bluehorn Blue carry the most effective world cheese title again to Oregon sooner or later? It simply would possibly with some assist from Troon Winery in Grants Move.

Rogue Creamery began making its Bluehorn Blue in small portions in 2017. In line with Rogue Creamery’s Marguerite Merritt, who holds the most effective job title ever of Cheese Emissary, the corporate spent the previous yr and a half researching the methods wanted to “make the Bluehorn actually spectacular.”

The Bluehorn Blue that earned the Tremendous Gold Medal final yr was cave-aged for six months and soaked in an natural crimson wine made in California. Merritt described the profitable cheese in a November press launch as having “distinctive berry notes, a sweet-and-savory brown butter end and delicate rose blush coloring on the rind.”

Rogue Creamery decided the “candy spot” for the brand new restricted version Bluehorn Blue they launched this month remains to be six months of cave ageing, however with a soak in Troon Winery’s Block 14 syrah as a substitute of the California wine.

“We decided there was an enormous alternative to make use of a greater high quality wine that was sourced regionally and made in a very sustainable environmentally accountable method,” Merritt stated.

Merritt stated she appreciated that not solely was Troon Winery farmed organically, which Rogue Creamery must make their natural cheese, however “they take it a step additional by being Biodynamic and now a regenerative licensed farm. We all know they’re ‘greatest at school’ in terms of the therapy of their land, their sustainable methods and the standard of their wines.”

On their web site, Troon Winery describes Regenerative Natural Licensed as “a revolutionary new certification that champions farmers who go above and past within the three pillars of this certification: soil well being, animal welfare, and social equity.” Troon is among the first two wineries on the planet to earn this certification.

Troon Winery additionally provides Rogue Creamery with the syrah grape leaves used to wrap their famend Rogue River Blue.

This spring’s restricted launch of the brand new and improved Bluehorn Blue is proscribed to roughly 1,000 wheels. “We needed to see how the market reacts to the value, which has elevated due to the standard of the wine and the prolonged ageing course of,” Merritt stated.

This batch of Bluehorn Blue is at present obtainable on Rogue Creamery’s web site for $25 for a 6.5-ounce wedge and $200 for a five-pound wheel. The Bluehorn Blue is on its solution to distributors this week, so Merritt expects it to be obtainable in cheese retailers nationwide “inside the subsequent month or so.”

Describing the response to the Bluehorn Blue as far as “extraordinarily optimistic,” Merritt hopes Rogue Creamery will be capable of produce one other restricted run of the Bluehorn Blue this winter.

Merritt stated Rogue Creamery additionally deliberate to double, if not triple, manufacturing for subsequent spring’s launch. “Releasing the Bluehorn in Might feels proper, given it’s Oregon Wine Month. We needed to spotlight our regional/native partnership with Troon,” Merritt stated.

And if this new Oregon wine recipe propels the Bluehorn Blue to higher heights? That may be simply nice with Craig Camp, the overall supervisor at Troon Winery.

“We’d like to consider that the fervour and intentionality we put into our wines will give them an edge in achieving one other world title. It’s our honor to contribute even a small half to their cheesemaking artistry. Troon and Rogue Creamery share the imaginative and prescient to craft world-class agricultural merchandise in Southern Oregon. It’s a pure partnership,” Camp stated.

10 a.m.-5 p.m. day by day, 311 N. Entrance St., Central Level, roguecreamery.com or 541-200-2353.

— Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Wine Fanatic Journal. He could be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To learn extra of his protection, go to oregonlive.com/wine