2012 American Cheese Month 31 Cheeses in 31 Days: Day Eighteen: Bleu Mont 2yr Cheddar

Cheese: Bleu Mont 2yr Cheddar

Who: Bleu Mont Dairy Company

Website: Bleu Mont Dairy Company

Where: Blue Mounds, Wisconsin

Milk Type: cow, raw

Texture: firm

Rind: cloth-wrapped

Shape: 35lb wheel

Flavor: sweet cream, dusty mineral, timber, light caramel, loam, sweet grass, dried flowers, peanuts

Cheesemaker Willi Lehner learned picked up after hisfather, originally from Switzerland. And now for 20 years, from a farmstead situated in Wisconsin’s beautiful Driftless region, has been evolving from Swiss-style cheese to artisan and farmstead cheeses that reflect his maturation and creativity.

Photo: Bleu Mont Farm

Willi sprays each wheel with a slurry of old cheddar rinds and water to get them going. Bandaged and then aged in a cheese cave he recently dug into a hillside on the property.

the farm relies largely on wind and solar power and Willi’s green and sustainable practices. It’s a perfect expression of why the circle of life for a farmstead, artisan cheese so well-represents how we can create pure and natural, wholesome foods that enhance, not detroy the ecology around us.

Bleu Mont Cheddar has a deep, complex flavor profile. It changes rapidly as you chew, and lingers. It’s pleasantly sharp and reminiscent of the best English Farmhouse cheddars, being perhaps tangier and more firm.

I’m told this particular wheel was somewhere around 16mo’s old.