Green Bay, Wisconsin, March 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jasper Hill Wins Big at US Championship Cheese Competition
March, 10 2017
Jasper Hill is pleased to announce that its cheeses have won multiple ribbons at the 2017 US Championship Cheese Contest, a biennial event that took place at Lambeau Field (home of the Green Bay Packers) in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This event is the largest cheese competition in the US, drawing entries from across the industry.
The competition was steep this year, with a record 2,303 entries of cheese, butter and yogurt, submitted by cheesemakers from 33 states, for a combined weight of 37,000 pounds. Wisconsin had the most entries by state, but Vermont was in the top 5 (alongside New York, California and Idaho). 48 judges oversaw the 101 categories, each of them eating their way through countless cheeses in the search for the top curd.
In the Smear Ripened Soft Cheese category, the top 4 winners were Jasper Hill originals or Jasper Hill collaborations. We were also honored with a Best of Class in Brie & Camembert as well as a Best of Class in Open Class: Soft Ripened Cheese.
Without further ado, the envelopes please (drumroll):
For Smear Ripened Soft Cheese, the results were:
BEST OF CLASS: Willoughby, Cellars at Jasper Hill, with a score of 99.70
2nd AWARD: Greensward, Murray's Cheese & Jasper Hill, with a score of 99.65
3rd AWARD: Oma, von Trapp Farmstead Cheese & Cellars at Jasper Hill, with a score of 99.60
4th PLACE: Winnimere, Cellars at Jasper Hill, with a score of 99.40.
For Brie & Camembert, the results were:
BEST OF CLASS: Moses Sleeper, Cellars at Jasper Hill, with a score of 99.40
The Moses Sleeper also made the list for Top 20 Finalists.
For Open Class: Soft Ripened Cheese, the results were:
BEST OF CLASS: Harbison, Cellars at Jasper Hill, with a score of 99.75
More about the winning cheeses
Moses Sleeper 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. The 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.
Winnimere is a take on Jura Mountain classics like Vacherin Mont d’Or or Fösterkäse. In keeping with this tradition, this decadent cheese is made only during winter months when Jasper Hill’s herd of Ayrshire cows are enjoying a rich ration of dry hay. 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 peak ripeness, this cheese is spoonably soft and tastes of bacon, sweet cream, and spruce.
OMA is an American original, made by Sebastian von Trapp on his family's dairy farm in Waitsfield, Vermont. An approachable washed-rind, tomme-style cheese, Oma is made from the unpasteurized, organic milk of the von Trapp's primarily Jersey breed cows. Oma balances pungent and sweet flavors with aromas of roasted nuts, cured meat and cultured butter. The paste is soft, almost pudding-like, but never runny. The thin, orange rind, often overlaid with white flora, is an earthy foil to the richness of the paste.
HARBISON is named for Anne Harbison, affectionately known as the grandmother of Greensboro. Along with breathtaking views, traditions and people are part of what makes Vermont's working landscape special; we're proud to honor Ms. Harbison's contribution with this cheese. Harbison is a soft-ripened cheese with a rustic, bloomy rind. Young cheeses are wrapped in strips of spruce cambium, the tree's inner bark layer, harvested from the woodlands of Jasper Hill. The spoonable texture begins to develop in our vaults, though the paste continues to soften on the way to market. Harbison is woodsy and sweet, balanced with lemon, mustard, and vegetal flavors.
All of Jasper Hill’s award winning cheeses can be purchased where fine cheeses are sold, at Jasper Hill’s retail counter within the newly constructed Boston Public Market, or from Jasper Hill Farm’s online store.
GREENSWARD
Greensward is made by Jasper Hill Creamery, using a Harbison-based recipe. Fresh cheeses are then shipped to the caves of Murray's Cheese where they are ripened and packaged for sale. Greensward is only available at select Murray's Cheese locations.
Steve Millard, Senior VP of Merchandising and Operations for Murray's Cheese, has been driving this collaborative effort since the cheese's inception. "I have been truly blessed by the opportunity to visit Jasper Hill every couple months and reconnect with my friends to the north. Our collaboration with Jasper Hill on Greensward started as a special project for 11 Madison and has grown into an award winning cheese that is sold in our stores nationwide. In Greensward we have the perfect match of superb cheesemaking coupled with impassioned affinage, both born of a continuous desire to achieve and repeat perfection."
More about Jasper Hill Farm
Jasper Hill is a working dairy farm with an on-site creamery in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The Cellars at Jasper Hill, an on-site, underground aging facility, maximizes the potential of cheeses made by the creamery, as well as those made by other local producers. Jasper Hill’s mission is to be a Standard Bearer of Quality and Innovation in the Artisan Cheese Industry and an active participant in the conservation of Vermont’s Working Landscape through the production of high quality products that reflect our regional Taste of Place.
Vermont Business Magazine and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce recently named Jasper Hill one of Vermont’s Best Places to Work. Jasper Hill employs 73 people, up from 45 in 2014 and is pleased to be considered a leader in the Vermont artisan cheese industry, which has grown from a $5 million industry in 2005, to a $50 million industry in 2015. Jasper Hill is a tireless advocate for artisan cheesemakers everywhere in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment and works closely with lawmakers and regulators to ensure that reasonable regulations supported by sound science are enacted for our industry.
Nat Bacon, Jasper Hill Creamery Manager, remarks on the collaborative efforts of a uniquely vertically integrated organization. "Seeing Jasper Hill cheeses win national recognition at the US Championship Cheese Competition makes all of us who work at Jasper Hill proud. I feel the awards are a testament to the hard work dairy farmers, cheesemakers, and affineurs put in every day, always trying to make the cheese a little bit more delicious. Our little state of Vermont is truly fertile ground for making some of the most unique and distinctive cheeses in America."
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