The most awarded cheese in American history, made from summer pasture milk.
Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Uplands Cheese in Wisconsin. Raw cow's milk alpine, aged on wood, savory and nutty. America's most awarded cheese.
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Pleasant Ridge Reserve comes from Uplands Cheese Company in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, and it's the most awarded cheese in American history. Three-time Best of Show at the American Cheese Society, and it earns every one of those wins.
It's a raw cow's milk alpine, made only during the summer months when the herd is out on rotational pasture. That pasture milk is the whole story here. The recipe is modeled on the great mountain cheeses of France, cooked-curd, pressed, then aged on wooden boards for nine to twelve months while the natural rind builds up tacky and earthy. The paste comes out firm and dense, breaks into clean shards near the rind, smoother through the middle. Flavor is deep and savory, toasted hazelnut and browned butter up front with a roasted-onion umami pull that lingers a long time on the finish. There's a grassy sweetness underneath that tells you exactly what those cows were eating.
This is American artisan cheese at the very top of the game. If you've never had it, this is the one to start with.
Firm and dense with a slight give, breaks into clean shards near the rind and stays smoother through the paste. Cuts cleanly off the knife without crumbling.
Big alpine flavor that builds as it warms, savory and grassy from the summer pasture milk, with real depth behind it. Bold without being aggressive.
Long savory finish that holds on the back of the palate, browned butter and beefy umami carrying through for a good twenty, thirty seconds after the bite.
Past the fresh-milk stage, but you still get a little cultured-butter sweetness underneath the aged notes.
Deep brown-butter and toasted hazelnut all the way through, with a roasted-onion umami pull that's the signature of this cheese.
Grassy, hay-like notes from the pasture milk with a touch of forest floor from the natural rind aging. Clean, not funky.
No real heat or piquancy. The intensity is all in the savory and nutty side, not on the peppery end.
Natural rind
Natural rind is tacky and earthy, contributes a mushroomy edge right where the paste meets the rind. Edible if you want it, but most people work around it.
Pleasant Ridge Reserve stands on its own, but the right partners turn a wedge into a moment. Regional pairings first — they were built for each other.
The savory pasture flavor wants something with acid and lift, so dry sparkling and a good Riesling both work. A lighter Pinot picks up the nutty side without fighting it.
A little sweetness from honey or quince frames the brown-butter notes, and the crisp fruit cuts the richness of the paste.
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