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World Renowned….
And Southern Oregon’s Own…
The Rogue Creamery
From The Rogue Creamery’s inauspicious beginnings has come one of the finest
artisan cheese operations in the world today. It all began in 1935. Thomas Vella
had emigrated from Italy in the 1920’s and was successfully producing cheese in
Sonoma, California. World War II loomed on the horizon and Vella’s brother back
in Italy wrote that war in Europe was indeed imminent. Tom predicted that the
milk used in his creamery would be diverted to military bases and also theorized
that quantities of cheese would be needed to ship to Allied troops. He was right
on both accounts.
Vella talked over the predictions with J.L. Kraft, the legendary cheese magnate
and Vella’s largest client. With Kraft’s backing, Vella traveled to southern
Oregon and purchased a defunct cheese plant in Central Point. He quickly started
buying milk from local dairy farmers and began turning out cheese. His strategy
worked. When war broke out, Vella had his supply of milk and produced a total of
five million pounds of cheese a year for the War effort.
Always at his side during the early years of cheese making was Vella’s son,
Ignazio “Ig” Vella. Ig remembers being taken out of school to monitor
conversations between Kraft and his father, and learned first hand not only how
to produce fine cheese but also how to negotiate with buyers. One of his
clearest memories during the War was of stenciling Cyrillic labels onto Rogue
River Valley Creamery’s crates. A crescent moon indicated refrigeration was
required during shipment.
After the War, Thomas Vella continued to explore and experiment with different
types of cheese making. In 1956, with the encouragement of Borden Cheese, he
spent three months in Roquefort, France, touring the most revered creameries and
studying technique. He returned to produce the first Oregon Blue Vein, a blue
cheese regarded as among the best in the world.
Today, Ig, now recognized industry-wide for his knowledge and artisan cheese
making abilities, continues to run the Sonoma creamery. Affectionately known as
the Godfather of artisan cheese, Ig mentors cheese makers around the country.
In 2002, Ig hand selected Cary Bryant and David Gremmels as the new owners of
what is now known as The Rogue Creamery. Of utmost importance was to carry on
the tradition of hand-milled cheese. Bryant and Gremmels hit the ground running.
Within a year they were producing award-winning cheeses, including garnering one
of the industry’s highest honors, the London World Cheese Award for best blue
cheese in 2003. This was the first time an American cheese factory had won this
high honor.
Today, the tradition continues with a variety of award-winning blue and cheddar
cheeses. Step inside the unassuming cinderblock creamery to discover an
assortment of some of the best hand-milled cheddar cheese in the world. There
are delicacies to delight every palette. The Rogue Creamery, home of Rogue River
Blue, the finest blue cheese in the world.
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