Featured Cheddar: Plymouth Hunter

Plymouth Cheese Co. is a family-run cheese factory in Plymouth, Vermont crafting heritage raw milk cheddar in an inspired array of distinctive artisanal flavors.
“Hunter, our sharpest cheese, won’t waste your time. It’s the cheese that wants you to grasp the essence of what sharp cheddar means—with your soul. As the lactose content decreases during the two-year aging process, crystallization occurs, which makes its consistency more brittle to the bite. The result is a robust, mature, ivory-hued, no-nonsense sharp Vermont cheddar that would wear a plaid flannel shirt, chop your wood and build you a fire if it could.” 8 oz. block.
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Featured Farmstead Cheese: Jasper Hill Moses Sleeper

Moses Sleeper by Jasper Hill Farm
A soft, brie-style cheese
Greensboro, VT
Moses Sleeper is a Jasper Hill Creamery original, inspired by classic, French Brie. This cheese’s historic namesake, Moses Sleeper, and his compatriot, Constant Bliss, were Revolutionary War scouts killed while defending a blockhouse along the Northeast Kingdom’s legendary Bayley Hazen Military Road.
Moses is an approachable and nuanced brie-style cheese. Beneath its thin, bloomy rind lies a gooey, milky core showing a complex array of flavors at peak ripeness: cauliflower, crème fraîche, and toasted nuts. A bright, clean finish with a hint of white mushroom aroma follows the rich flavors of the paste.

Featured Cheesemaker: Nettle Meadow Artisan Cheese

WSM is pleased to offer excellent award-winning goat and cow milk cheeses from Nettle Meadow Farm in Thurman, NY.  Nettle Meadow Farm is truly committed to the artisanal nature of each of their cheeses, the use of natural and organic ingredients and the well-being of all their animals.
Nettle Meadow Chive Schroon Moon
“A creamy, onion-y, cow’s milk cheese with chives and sea salt.  Perfect on a toasted sesame bagel with lox or inside a stuffed chicken breast with caramelized tomatoes.”
Nettle Meadow Honey Lavender Fromage Blanc
“Light fresh flavors of the freshest goat’s milk cheese infused with lavender tea and mixed with local honey.”

Nettle Meadow Kunik Mini
“Kunik is their triple crème wheel made from goat’s milk and cow cream. It won a Second Place finish at the 2019 U.S. Cheese Championships and a Good Food Award in 2018.  It has a white rind and a tangy buttery flavor. Delicious on its own or with fruit and crackers. “Minis” are now available in an easy 3.5 ounce format for grab and go convenience.”
Also available in our center store cheese case:
Nettle Meadow Cherry Choc Schroon Moon 
Nettle Meadow Honey Rhubarb Goat Cheese

Featured Farmstead Cheese: Jasper Hill Winnimere

Winnimere by Jasper Hill Farm
Award-winning Washed Rind Soft Cheese
Greensboro, VT
WINNIMERE is a take on Jura Mountain classics like Vacherin Mont d’Or or Försterkäse. In keeping with tradition, this decadent cheese is made only during winter months when Jasper Hill’s Ayrshire cows are giving rich, hay-fed raw milk. Winnimere is named for the corner of Caspian Lake where the Kehlers’ grandfather had an ice fishing shack.
SENSORY NOTES – Young cheeses are wrapped in strips of spruce cambium, the tree’s flexible inner bark layer, harvested from Jasper Hill Farm’s woodlands. During aging, the cheese is washed in a cultured salt brine to help even rind development. At 60 days, this cheese is spoonably soft and tastes of bacon, sweet cream, and spruce.
PAIRING AND SERVICE – Winnimere is best enjoyed by peeling a way a bit of the top rind and diving in with spoon and some friends. If portioning for retail, an effort should be made to sell the remainder of the wheel before day’s end. Pair with a smoky, meaty red wine or porter-style beer alongside some Vermont whey-fed bacon.
Winner of American Cheese Society’s ‘Best in Show’ Award, 2013

Featured Local Cheese: Arethusa Farm Tapping Reeve

TAPPING REEVE by Arethusa Farm in Litchfield, CT

Local lawyer Tapping Reeve formed the Litchfield Law School in the late 18th century, educating scores of politicians and justices who would go on to shape a fledgling nation. What better way to honor that legacy than with a cheese? We hit the history books and developed a savory Colonial-style cheese to please the most discerning connoisseur – past or present. Our Tapping Reeve is both sharp and refined, not unlike its namesake.
AGE: 16-24 months
PAIRINGS: SEMI-DRY HARD CIDER,  IPA’S (ALSO DOUBLE AND IMPERIAL IPA’S)

Featured Artisanal Cheese: Shy Brothers Charlotty

Charlotty, a soft-ripened cheese with a lemony twang, from Shy Brothers Farm in Westport, MA. Named in honor of Carlotty White, a local hero who exemplified the best of the Westport, MA community. “Born during the Revolutionary War, Charlotty was the child of a freed slave and a Native American and became the area’s healer and midwife for decades. Charlotty took in and treated poor or trouble people. Her name invokes a spirit that was courageous, complex and all-embracing.
The Shy Brothers Farm cheesemakers felt her name was a natural choice for this cheese, as it is made of simple healthy ingredients and offers a complex flavor that embraces your taste buds like nothing else.
Flavor profile: Lemony, nutty, with hints of butterscotch and caramel.

Featured Artisanal Cheese: Kase Rebellen Hay Flower

Kase Rebellen “Heublumen Rebell” – Hay Flower Rebel
Award-winning* semi-hard, creamy cheese produced by Sulzberger Käserebellen Sennerei in Austria.  Processed only from the purest hay-milk of cows that are fed on dried hay, herbs and grains of corn. ‘Allergy friendly’ and 100% GMO-free.
* Won a bronze award at the 2014 World Cheese Awards.
The scent of honey, floral aromas and young wood reminds one of an alpine meadow. Creamy notes and light caramel refer to the hay-milk. This creamy-soft cheese melts beautifully. A winning cheese, close to its origins.

  • Semi-hard cheese
  • Made from unpasteurized cow’s milk
  • Country: Austria
  • Region: Sulzberg
  • Type: semi-hard, artisan
  • Fat content: 50%

Why Hay-Milk?
The special mountain herbs of the alpine flora give our cheese the unique and rebellious aroma. Additionally due to the premium quality of the hay-milk, there is no need to use an additives and preservatives and so we can produce cheeses that refer back to rural and well-tried tradition.
THE INGREDIENTS FOR A SPECIAL KIND OF CHEESE EXPERIENCE:
100% mountain farmer`s hay-milk from cows that are only fed with the best silage free fodder.
the expertise and careful production of cheese by our employees who can look back on more than 150 years of tradition.
the long, natural ripening period and the constant and careful treatment of the cheese.
Stewart’s Wine & Spirits pairing: Forge Cellars Dry Classique Riesling or Wolffer Estate Rose 

Jasper Hill Farms Willoughby Cheese

This week we are showcasing Willoughby cheese by Jasper Hill Creamery in Greensboro, VT. This succulent, buttery washed-rind cheese is an original creation of Marisa Mauro’s Ploughgate Creamery, a Cellars collaborator that ceased production of the cheese after a creamery fire in 2011. With Marisa’s blessing Jasper Hill resurrected this pudgy little washed-rind and have continued to develop the recipe at Jasper Hill Creamery.
Willoughby has aromas of peat, roasted beef and onions – a strong and complex front for the subtle milky, herbal, ripe-peach flavors within. Willoughby has a thin, tender, rosy-orange rind, which adds earthy dimension to the texture and flavors of the gooey interior.
The pudding-like texture may become softer with age, but should remain sliceable for portioning until 9 weeks after its production date. Pair with juicy rose, funky saison beer or raw floral honey.

PASTEURIZED COW MILK

WASHED RIND

8-OUNCE WHEEL

AGED 6-12 WEEKS

Featured Artisanal Cheeses at WSM

New and featured Artisanal cheeses at WSM (available in our center store cheese case):

KARLIE’S GRATITUDE | Arethusa Farm, Litchfield, CT

Made in the tradition of French farmhouse Camembert, Karlie’s Gratitude brings the flavors of France to the Litchfield Hills. In just a few short weeks, it transitions from firm and lactic to buttery and oozy, becoming the perfect match for a warm, fresh baguette.

AGE: 4-8 WEEKS
PAIRINGS: DRY AND SEMI-DRY HARD CIDERS, SPARKLING WINES

CHALLERHOCKER Washed Rind Swiss Cheese | Kaserei Tufertschwil, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Walter Rass, the cheese maker from for Kaserei Tufertschwil in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland, uses his years of experience crafting Appenzellar to create an original variation of the time honored favorite: Chällerhocker. By altering the cook temperature, making his own rennet, and using unskimmed milk, Rass presses the curds into molds and allows them to rest a day before initiating the washing process.
Chällerhocker translates roughly to ‘sitting in the cellar,’ which is exactly where Ross keeps the cheese to age. For at least 10 months the cheese matures on wooden planks, each wheel carefully turned and brushed with Rass’ perfected brine.
Due to Its repeated washings, Challerhocker has a slightly tacky rind and smells of peanuts. The paste is firm and smooth, dense enough to be deemed fudgy, with an aroma of brown butter and cashews, and lingering flavors of malt and caramel.
TYPE Cooked/pressed Washed rind
MILK Unpasteurized cow Brown Swiss/Braunvvieh 13 contributing herds (1 herd Simmental)
RENNET Traditional calf stomach Produced on-site
PRODUCER Walter Rass, Kaserei Tufertschwil
REGION Saint-Gallen Switzerland
AGE 10 months+
PROFILE Chällerhocker has a slightly tacky rind and smells of peanuts.
The paste is firm and smooth, dense enough to be deemed fudgy, with an
aroma of brown butter and cashews, and lingering flavors of malt.

Featured Farmstead Cheese: Thistle Hill Farm Tarentaise

The award winning organic Tarentaise from Thistle Hill Farm is an aged, raw milk, farmstead organic cheese which is handmade by John and Janine Putnam on their family farm in North Pomfret, Vermont from the certified organic milk of their grass-fed Jersey cows.
Tarentaise is unique to Pomfret, Vermont – its soil, geography, climate and flora, all of which combine to give Tarentaise its characteristic smooth, subtle nut flavor and complex finish, which chamges subtly with the seasons and weather. Tarentaise is made in a copper vat, the first in Vermont, in the tradition of the Savoie region of the French Alsp. The copper vat which is essential to the development of the proper flavor, is one of only a few in the United States and was custom built for Thistle Hill Farm in Switzerland.
Following the traditions of the Savoie, the Putnams use cultures imported from France and make their own rennet using whey from the previous cheese making. Much in the same way bakers use sourdough starter, this traditional rennet gives a complexity of flavor to the cheese which cannot otherwise be created.