October 5, 2007
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BLUE IS GOLDEN THIS YEAR — In 2007, Rogue Creamery celebrates the golden anniversary of its Blue cheese. Fifty years ago, the company began making Oregon Brand Blue Vein Cheese, best known as Oregon Blue, a cheese that today is well known in artisan cheese circles.

By Kate Sander

CENTRAL POINT, Ore. — This year marks the 50th anniversary of Oregon Brand Blue Vein Cheese, referred to as Oregon Blue, one of the first Blue cheeses ever produced on the West Coast. The flagship brand of Rogue Creamery, Oregon Blue’s anniversary is being marked with increased promotions and tastings at retailers across the country, including at well-known specialty grocery chains such as Whole Foods. Rogue Creamery owner David Gremmels also is working on a book about both the history of the cheese and the historic creamery where it is made.

Rogue Creamery dates back more than 70 years when cheesemaker Tom Vella, who owned and operated Vella Cheese in Sonoma, Calif., acquired a plant in southern Oregon to make Cheddar. In the mid-1950s, he added a cave-like structure where the Blue cheese still is produced today.

Gremmels and Cary Bryant purchased the plant from Tom Vella’s son, Ig Vella, in 2002. Ig Vella, who still is an active cheesemaker in his late 70s, serves as master cheesemaker and consultant to Rogue Creamery while he operates Vella Cheese in California.

One of the reasons Ig Vella believes the brand has had such endurance is that it is made using the same techniques that his father learned in Europe. Before launching the cheese, Tom Vella went to Europe and studied how traditional Roquefort is made from sheep’s milk. He then carried his newfound knowledge back to Oregon, where he built a factory and cave-like structure for aging the Blue and applied the cheesemaking techniques and cultures he had learned about to cow’s milk and making a cheese that would prove popular to the American palate.

In its prime, Rogue Creamery was producing Blue cheese for Borden as well as making its own branded cheese, Oregon Brand Blue Vein Cheese. Eventually, though, the Rogue Creamery plant fell into a bit of a slump. Borden was no longer an account, Tom Vella died, and Ig Vella — busy with the plant in California — couldn’t make the trek to Oregon as often as he would have liked. Ig Vella did introduce a new Blue — Oregonzola — in the late 1990s but he just didn’t have the time to devote the attention he believed the plant needed.

Then along came Gremmels and Bryant. Vella says that he received several offers to purchase the plant but Gremmels and Bryant were the only people interested in keeping the plant and its brands going. That sold him on the duo, even if it meant they didn’t offer him the highest price.

The two bought Rogue Creamery July 1, 2002, and for the past five years they have immersed themselves in the business, the cheese industry and the community around them.

Interestingly, Gremmels and Bryant entered the cheese business with very little in the way of formal cheesemaking knowledge. However, Gremmels possesses a strong marketing and brand management background, including a stint as a vice president at Harry & David, and Bryant has a degree in microbiology. Together they have used their backgrounds to develop new products and propel Rogue Creamery and its cheeses into well-known entities in cheese circles from France to New York to San Francisco.

“It is an exciting time to celebrate Oregon Blue’s 50th anniversary as it is the first American raw milk cheese to receive EU certification and receive a USDA health certificate for raw milk cheese for export to Europe,” Gremmels says. “This commemorates 50 years and three generations of proprietors focused on preserving the recipe and Rogue Creamery’s dedication to making fine, delicious and healthful raw milk cheese.”

About the time Gremmels and Bryant bought the cheese plant, there was a surge in the number of cheesemakers making specialty Blue cheeses. But Francis Plowman, marketing and merchandising director, Rogue Creamery, says the vast variety of Blue cheese now available has had no effect on Rogue’s sales except to raise the profile of artisan cheeses in the minds of chefs and consumers. The company’s longevity and consistent quality help.

“We’re continuing to make cheese here the way it’s been made for 50 years,” Plowman says. “We’ve been here so long, it has given us some expertise.”

“After all these years, it’s the formula that my father brought back to Oregon from Roquefort,” Vella adds, noting that the Oregonzola that he developed also is made with cultures that he obtained from one of his father’s friends in Italy.

• Adding new Blue twists

Since acquiring the company, Gremmels and Bryant have branched out as well, adding four more cheeses to their Blue cheese lineup. In addition to Oregon Blue and Oregonzola, there is now Crater Lake Blue, Rogue River Blue, Smokey Blue and Echo Mountain Blue, each a distinctive variety reflecting a sense of place inspired by Oregon’s lush Rogue River Valley and traditional European Blue and American molds. The Blue cheeses are available in full wheels which are 5 pounds, as well as 1/2 wheels which are about 2 1/2 pounds,1-pound crumbles and 1/12 wheels, which are approximately 7 ounces.

Oregon Blue is noted for its rich creaminess and approachable Blue flavor. Oregonzola is a milder sweet and savory Blue different than pure Roquefort or Danish-style Blues. Meanwhile, Crater Lake Blue’s intensity makes it the Blue for Blue cheese lovers, chefs and cheese mongers, Plowman says. This recipe is a montage of Blue flavor, making it a true American original.

Echo Mountain Blue is an “earthier” Blue cheese made from a blend of all-natural, Food Alliance-certified cow’s milk and goat’s milk. It’s this balance of milks that makes Echo Mountain Blue a subtle, unique treat.

Rogue River Blue is Rogue Creamery’s original recipe put through a signature aging process. These wheels are hand-wrapped in local Carpenter Hill Vineyard Syrah leaves and Troon Vineyard Zinfandel leaves that have been macerated in Clear Creek Pear Brandy. The cheese was the winner of the London World Cheese Award for best Blue cheese in 2003.

And Smokey Blue … well, some people in the company say it is “just plain addictive.” This Roquefort-style cheese is cold-smoked over local hazelnut shells which impart a rich, sweet, caramel flavor that balances the Blue’s sharper tones. The world’s first smoked Blue cheese, Smokey Blue was named “Outstanding New Product” at the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade’s (NASFT) competition in 2005 and awarded the Food Service Innovation award in Paris in 2006.

One of the company’s most gratifying moments came last year when Rogue Creamery’s six artisan Blues received an Outstanding Product Line Award across all product lines, not just dairy, from NASFT.

“We are very proud of this recognition by the members of NASFT. It was the first time a dairy line has been recognized for outstanding product line,” Gremmels says. “It reaffirms the quality, hard work and flavor of our Blues. It also verified the importance of artisan cheese to the specialty and gourmet food industry.”

This year, additional accolades have followed. In the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, Crater Lake Blue won best of its class with a score of 99.75 out of 100. Then, at the American Cheese Society’s (ACS) annual competition, Echo Mountain won first place in the mixed-milk blue-veined cheese class and Crater Lake Blue and Rogue River Blue tied for second in the cow’s milk blue-veined class.

Most recently, Oregon Blue placed second and Crater Lake Blue placed third in the blue-veined cheese class of the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest.

And while Blue cheese is what Rogue Creamery is best known for — about 80 percent of its cheeses are in the Blue family — the company still gets creative with Cheddars and wins awards with those, too.

This past year, the company introduced two new Cheddars: Lavender Cheddar and Morimoto Soba Ale Cheddar.

Lavender Cheddar combines organic lavender blossoms with a creamy, buttery Food Alliance-certified cheese curd for a Cheddar that is mild and sweet with a floral back note. Morimoto Soba Ale Cheddar uses a toasty, buckwheat-rich ale made by Rogue Ales, Newport, Ore., to penetrate and create a marbling in the cheese. The cheese is named for Chef Masaharu Morimoto of the Food Network series Iron Chef, who was involved in the cheese’s production. The Cheddars are available in 5- and 40-pound blocks as well as 8-ounce sizes.

• Collaboration and sustainability

Two of the driving forces at Rogue Creamery are collaboration and sustainability. To that end, Gremmels and Bryant have worked extensively with other specialty food producers in Oregon, partnering, for example, with Rogue Ales to create cheeses and pairings using Rogue Ales’ products.

This year, Rogue Creamery’s Smokey Blue cheese also became the main ingredient of a new gourmet truffle produced by artisan company Lillie Belle Farms Hand Made Chocolates. Smokey Blue Truffles are made by combining Rogue Creamery’s cheese with fresh cream, organic milk chocolate and toasted almonds. The truffle was named “Best New Product” at the International Chocolate Salon in San Francisco in July.

Later this fall, Lillie Belle Farms also will open a new facility on property owned by Rogue Creamery.

“Rogue Creamery saw this as an opportunity to bring like-minded agricultural-based manufacturers together,” Gremmels says. “We both have an interest in sustainability, responsible stewardship of the land, artisan production of the highest quality and community involvement.”

These are only some of the ways Rogue Creamery has collaborated with others. Actively involved on the board of ACS, Gremmels also was instrumental in starting the Oregon Cheese Guild, bringing together artisan cheesemakers across the state to promote their products and address issues of interest and concern to them as a group.

In addition, the company supports local non-dairy interests, among them the United Way, the Boys and Girls Club of Jackson County, Habitat for Humanity and the Ashland Film Festival.

“I give a lot of credit to the owners for the work they’re doing,” says Plowman, who notes that it is expected of company employees that they donate time to community service; it is even addressed in reviews.

That’s just one of the ways the company is distinctive, Plowman notes. Another way is that most of the 40 people within the company have come by their jobs through a family or friend connection to the company. Plowman once worked with Gremmels at Harry & David, for example. There also is a husband and wife team on staff, and Gremmels’ own mother works for the retail store.

As a corporate philosophy, Rogue Creamery values sustainable wages for its employees and sustainable agriculture.

The value Gremmels and Bryant put on sustainability also helps make the company’s cheese a success, according to Vella, who notes that the milk comes from one principal herd of Holsteins and Brown Swiss and that pays off in consistent milk.

As the company moves into the 51st year of Oregon Blue, Gremmels says he and Bryant are focused on exporting to new markets across the Atlantic and Pacific. At the same time, the company is committed to sustainability by decreasing its carbon imprint in its factory by incorporating alternative energy, paperless systems, 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper and soy ink in its retail catalog as well as building a flexible distribution system.

“We have garnered more than 30 international accolades since making our first vat of Oregon Blue cheese with Ig Vella on July 1, 2002,” Gremmels says. “We are thankful for assistance we have received along the way from fellow cheesemakers of the ACS, members of Slow Food, staff of the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, vendors, customers, the mentorship and friendship from Ig Vella and the commitment and loyalty of our Rogue Creamery team members.”

CMN