Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue earned recognition as the world’s best at the 2019-20 World Cheese Awards in Bergamo, Italy, when a panel of more than 250 of the globe’s foremost cheese connoisseurs chose it as Grand Champion, a first for an American-made cheese. “When we got that news from Italy, I don’t think any of us believed it,” David Gremmels recalls. He bought the long-time cheese company in Central Point with a partner in 2002. “Being the world’s best, that doesn’t happen overnight. It’s really about building upon each day.” Rogue Creamery has a long history in Southern Oregon. It began as a co-op in the Rogue River Valley in 1933, before Tom Vella and a partner purchased it in 1935.

John Shuman was in search of quality raw milk cheeses when he decided to make his own. “I couldn’t find one that I liked,” recalls John, who with his wife, Marci Ebeling, made Cascadia Creamery a reality, specializing in aged, raw, certified organic cow’s milk cheeses. Located in the foothills of Mt. Adams in Trout Lake, Washington, the family-owned Cascadia Creamery enjoys a geologic advantage in aging its four year-round cheeses. “We age our cheeses in a lava tube cave,” John says. “The cave is a wild space with its own character and soul.” The natural cave air, flowing in from one side of the cave and out the other side, helps to age the cheeses to perfection, Marci explains. The air is “full of microflora and fauna” that helps create the cheeses’ distinct flavors.