Cheese that Warms the Winter Chill
Winter cheese
Around 25 years ago, as I was becoming acquainted with the world of artisan cheese, I attended the 10-year anniversary celebration of Roth-Kase, the Wisconsin-based company that has become Emmi Roth. A centerpiece of that event was a massive, wood-fire stoked pot of traditional fondue made with Roth’s Alpine-style cheeses. Now, I had enjoyed fondue before, but never in such a memorable context. In the subsequent decades, I have dined on and helped to serve traditional Raclette dinners. Throughout the many winters I have spent in the Midwest, I have revisited fondue on occasion, I’ve baked a brie or two and treated my friends to Burger King fries anointed with Rush Creek Reserve.
Welcome to the realm of winter cheeses and their traditions. Most of these cheese styles are enjoyed year-round, but take on new expressions after the trees shed their leaves and the cold winds start to blow. Others are truly seasonal cheeses, driven by the changes in cheese agriculture that result in richer milk suited to a different kind of cheese. Additionally, many producers will pace the aging of special batches, in order to release special, extra-aged cheeses to coincide with seasonal celebrations.
A Cheese Shop Puts on Its Winter Coat
Beautiful Rind interior photo by William Kallenborn
Kellie Freemire, ACS, CCP, is General Manager at one of my favorite cheese shops, Beautiful Rind, near Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. The temperature dropped to near zero in Chicago in the first week of December, and that has an impact on what cheese lovers are seeking, Freemire says.“Something a little more decadent, something that can be heated and served warm.” Those special release cheeses, including Rush Creek Reserve, Brabander Reserve, and Rogue River Blue have their own special appeal. “For those who buy cheese regularly and those of us who work in cheese, we have these special cheeses to look forward to every November,” Freemire says.
Beautiful Rind, launched in 2020, also includes a cheese-centric restaurant, and a classroom that is utilized three to four times weekly for fun classes that entertain and educate the shop’s customers. In December,one of those classes included five different Vacherin Mont d'Or style cheeses from U.S. makers. For its dining-in menu, Beautiful Rind offers a Raclette and ham sandwich and a Raclette, potato and onion dish during Chicago’s long, cold season.
How France 44 Winterizes
France 44 Cheese Counter photo courtesy France 44
France 44, a wine and cheese store in Minneapolis, also changes with the seasons, says Public Events & Education Director Austin Butler. “Upland’s Rush Creek Reserve really marks the arrival of the holiday season for us,” Butler says. “There's palpable anticipation for it at the end of October and this is quickly followed by the arrival of L'Amuse Brabander Reserve.” Goat cheese specialties from Blakesville Creamery in Port Washington, Wis. have recently entered the store’s holiday rotation. “And of special interest this year is the arrival of Raclette de Compton au Poivre, Quebec-based Fromagerie La Station,” Butler says. “This pink peppercorn Raclette won Best in Show at ACS (American Cheese Society) two years ago and is an exceptional cheese.”
Fondue and Raclette take off this time of year at France 44, and the shop offers melty cheese events and classes into the Spring, Butler adds. So, while winter can be cruel, take heart, and read on to learn more about great winter cheeses and cheese traditions. Read more about France 44 and other Minneapolis cheese shops.
Mont d’Or Style Cheeses to Savor this Winter
Vacherin Mont d’Or
Imported AOP Vacherin Mont d’Or may not be common in the U.S., as the cheeses are typically made with raw milk and aged less than 60 days. However, through its mail order service, Murray’s Cheese of New York offers a cheese made with thermalized milk under the name Chaudron d'Or. This silky Swiss number weighs in at a little over 12 ounces and I hear that it is delightful, delicious, and well worth a splurge in winter.
Ebenezer
Hailing from Tennessee’s outstanding Sequatchie Cove Creamery, Ebenezer is a larger (1.5 lb) spin on the spruce-banded tradition. This cheese is washed, for a full flavor with notes of country ham. Sequatchie, a farm-based maker of a variety of excellent cheeses, releases Ebenezer in early November, and it is typically available until the end of December. The pasteurized milk used for Sequatchie cheeses comes from a single farm.
Harbison photo credit Jasper Hill Farm
Harbison comes from Jasper Hill Farm, Vermont, an American pioneer of the style. The company describes it as woodsy and sweet, balanced with lemon, mustard, and vegetal flavors and suggests an oak-influenced white wine or a sour barrel-aged beer as accompaniments.
Quinta
Quinta one of the newest cheeses from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese of California, is a Mont d’Or style accented with a California herb. Its spruce band is infused with essence of Bay Laurel, and Laurel leaves adorn the top and bottom of the wheels.
Quinta comes in two sizes and both are available year-round.
Rush Creek Reserve
Rush Creek Reserve from Uplands cheese is aged for two months, and made from the raw milk of Upland’s own mixed-breed herd during the season when they are eating hay. Introduced in 2010, this luscious cheese is shipped only twice each fall/winter season.
Winnimere
Winnimere, also from Jasper Hill, helped introduce the Mont d’Or style to many American consumers. Wrapped with spruce and washed in a cultured salt brine, this winter seasonal, made from the milk of the farm’s Ayrshire cows, exhibits notes of bacon, cream and spruce.
Raclette Style Cheeses
Raclette
Raclette is both the name of the cheese, and the name of the lovely warming dish made with that cheese. Both enjoy a long history in the Swiss region of Valais, and the Jura Mountains in France. The semi-soft cheese is similar to other Alpines, but with higher fat (45%) and moisture levels that give it a famously good melting ability. Imports are readily available in North America, year round, but winter is arguably the best time to enjoy the dish, which involves melting the cheese over roasted potatoes, and serving with things like slices of ham and cornichons. The Raclette dinner is typically meant to encourage a relaxed, long sociable gathering. A handful of American artisans produce cheeses that are great stand-ins for the cheeses that cross the Atlantic: Leelanau Raclette, Leelanau Cheese, Michigan, Mount Raclette, from Alpinage Cheese Co., Wisconsin, Whitney, Jasper Hill Farm, Vermont and Reading Raclette, Springbrook Farms also in Vermont (read more about Reading Raclette).
Do the Fondue
Fondue pot with bread
In the Americas, Fondue may be forever associated with the 1970s. Indeed, the Melting Pot restaurant chain was launched in 1975, and in a recent survey, had nearly 100 locations. A couple years back, The Cheese Professor highlighted seven restaurants focused on dipping morsels into a pot of melted cheese. For at-home fondue-ing, several makers and online retailers offer kits. Some of these include blocks of authentic cheeses as a starting point, and others offer everything you need in a single package that can be emptied right into an avocado-colored fondue pot. For more nostalgia, try making a brie en croute (a bloomy baked in a puff pastry dough), perhaps adorned with fruit. Imported, small format brie, or Camembert, will work for this, or cheeses like Jasper Hill’s Little Hosmer or Sequatchie’s Walden. Jasper Hill's Harbison can be baked into a mini fondue, and Vermont Creamery's St. Alban comes in a small ramekin for that purpose as well.
Cheeses Only Available in Winter
In addition to the aforementioned Rush Creek Reserve, these cheeses are only available during the winter season. Enjoy them while you can!
Comté
Comté is the most popular cheese among French consumers, and during the winter holiday season, both French and American consumers can expect to find special Comté that has been aged for up to 24 months. Sometimes referred to as Sagesse Comté, from the French word for “wisdom”, these special wheels are full of crystals and big savory flavor notes.
Brabander photo credit Essex Street Cheese Co.
L’Amuse Goudas, imported to the U.S. by Essex Street Cheese, are among the best of the Netherlands. Brabander is a goat milk Gouda with an outstanding balance of sweet, savory and tangy notes. Each winter L’Amuse releases a special, extra-aged version called Brabander Reserve. The reserve offers even more complexity, and is found for just a while, in great shops coast to coast.
Blakesville Creamery Holiday Cheer cheese
In Port Washington, Wis., Blakesville Creamery has produced fantastic farmstead goat’s milk cheeses since 2020. Holiday Cheer is Blakesville’s nod to winter—a creamy, bloomy goat cheese flavored with orange peel and wrapped in brandy-marinated cherry leaves.
Rogue River Blue photo courtesy Rogue River Creamery
One of the most awarded and talked-about artisan cheeses in the world is Rogue River Blue from Oregon’s Rogue Creamery. If you have never tried this blue cheese wrapped in spirit-soaked grape leaves, you'd better move quickly, it’s only released once each year.