As the weather begins to flip between 60s and 70s, and freak Nor’easters, we start to see a shift from the precious fresh Summer chevres to a variety of robust cheeses to help keep you warm.  Two super seasonal cheeses, Rogue River Blue and Vacherin Mont d’Or are designed to return to market at this time of year.

Rogue River is a multi-award winner, including taking home the Best in Show at the American Cheese Society the last two years.  Made in Oregon, from luscious raw cow’s milk, they’re wrapped in grape leaves from the Rogue River Valley.  The leaves themselves have been macerated in Clear Creek’s Pear Brandy, imparting a fruity hint to the complex, heady mix of morels, hazelnuts and pine.

Vacherin comes to us from Alpine Switzerland, made only from late Summer through Winter milk, when cows have a much more restricted diet. Vacherin is the extreme in pure pungent pleasure, as its near-liquid center is barely contained by a surrounding strip of Spruce bark. Peel back the top of these 1 lb babies, and let the FUNk begin!

We’re also extremely excited to have two new American cheeses at our counter, Consider Bardwell Rupert and Haystack Mountain Snowdrop. The first, a massive rounded wheel that references the great Alpines of the world such as Gruyere and Beaufort, with it’s grassy, brazil- and hazelnutty, stone-fruity flavors. Snowdrop is the total opposite, a tiny 7oz ball of pure goat’s milk, silky and smooth, tangy and sweet, with a tart bloomy rind. A match made in heaven!