Featured Cheese - November 2020

Vignotte is made in the picturesque region of Champagne-Ardenne in Normandy, France. This brie-like cheese is a high-fat, triple cream cheese that is basically a more intense version of brie, but don’t let that scare you! This cheese is loaded with flavor, and even though it isn’t like a traditional brie and is more solid, it’s still spreadable. The wheel itself is also a little different, being smaller in diameter and and taller in height than a traditional brie.

Using old-world techniques, all of their cheeses are hand-ladled to preserve the delicate characteristics of the curd. They also use uncommonly-long sets to draw out a full, complex flavor, and a low-heat, long pasteurization to maintain that flavor. Many a food critic have observed that if it’s got the Zingerman’s brand on it, you will be able to “Taste the Difference,” and the creamery is no exception.

Winner of the 2016 World Cheese Championship Contest, Roth Cheese’s Grand Cru Surchoix was the first Wisconsin-produced cheese to do so in nearly 30 years. In 1999, the cheese you’re about to taste this month also took Best in Show at the American Cheese Society competition. Grand Cru Surchoix is a small-batch, washed-rind, Alpine-style cheese, made with the freshest raw cow’s milk in imported copper vats and aged in Roth Cheese’s cellars for at least 9 months.

Made by master cheesemaker Walter Räss at Käserei Tufertschwil in the St. Gallen region of Switzerland, Chällerhocker has achieved cult classic status and is on every cheesemonger’s short list. Chällerhocker is an Appenzeller-inspired cheese and has consistently placed 1st or 2nd in Walter’s region for 15 of the last 20 years. The name Chällerhocker is translated roughly as "sitting in the cellar," a reference to the cheese’s extended aging on wooden boards for a minimum of 10 months.