Bold, sweet Oregon blue with chocolate depth and a long finish.
Organic cow's milk blue from Rogue Creamery in Oregon, wrapped in Syrah leaves soaked in pear brandy. Sweet, dense, cocoa-rich. Ships to 48 states.
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Rogue River Blue is an organic cow's milk blue from Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Oregon, in the Rogue River Valley. It's the wheel that beat every European cheese for top honors at the World Cheese Awards in 2019 and became the first American cheese to do it.
The wheels are aged for nine to eleven months, then wrapped in Syrah grape leaves from the same river valley that have been soaked in locally distilled pear brandy. The paste is dense and semi-soft, closer to dense than crumbly, and the veining is even because the curd is pierced during aging so the Penicillium roqueforti can breathe through the wheel. When you open a fresh piece, the blue looks quiet at first because the wheel has been in cryovac, and then the veins slowly deepen and turn properly blue as they hit the air.
On the palate it opens sweet and chocolatey, moves into a confident blue bite in the middle, and finishes long and rich in a Stilton direction rather than a sharp Roquefort one. This one is worth the splurge, right in the sweet spot where fruit, cocoa, and blue all sit down together.
Semi-soft and yielding under the knife, closer to dense than crumbly, with a dense paste that softens further at room temperature.
Bold and layered without turning acidic. Sweet and chocolatey up front, then the blue veining kicks in with a confident bite that pulls back into a long, rich finish.
A long, sweet finish with cocoa and pear on the back of the palate that lingers well past the swallow.
A creamy, buttery lactic base carries the middle of the palate, rounded rather than bright, closer to fresh cream than yogurt tang.
A quiet toasted note under the sweetness, more browned-cream than hazelnut, sitting behind the fruit and blue.
The Syrah leaves and pear brandy contribute a soft vinous, autumnal note around the rind that reads more fruit-and-leaf than mushroomy.
A controlled peppery bite from the Penicillium roqueforti sits mid-palate, present but reined in by the sweetness so it never turns sharp.
Natural rind
The wheel is wrapped in Syrah grape leaves soaked in pear brandy, and the rind carries that fruit and spirit right into the paste, adding a sweet, slightly vinous, autumnal edge.
Rogue River Blue stands on its own, but the right partners turn a wedge into a moment. Regional pairings first — they were built for each other.
The paste is dense and rich in the direction of a Stilton, so it wants a sweet or spirited counterweight. A dessert wine, port, cognac, or amaro all meet the sweetness and match the length of the finish.
The pear brandy and Syrah leaves pull the cheese toward orchard fruit and dark, sweet condiments. Pear and fig echo the wrapper, honey and quince round out the peppery finish, and a square of dark chocolate leans into its cocoa note.
Video represents style and type of cheese - may not be an exact match in all cases.
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Hand-cut to order the day it ships. Packed cold for overnight delivery.
Taste it for yourself →Cold-ship 2-day overnight nationwide
