Patricia Michelson

Bleu Mont Dairy (Blue Mounds, Dane County, Wisconsin)

Appears in
Cheese: The World's Best Artisan Cheeses, a Journey Through Taste, Tradition and Terroir
Cheese

By Patricia Michelson

Published 2010

  • About
About 50 km (30 miles) from Madison, the dairy is situated between Blue Mounds State Park and Brigham County Park where Willi Lehner and Qui’tas McKnight have honed their craft. Willi learned cheesemaking from his father, who first gained experience as a cheesemaker in his native Switzerland. The milk for the cheeses is supplied by local organic farms utilizing a rotating pasture system for feeding the cattle.

Bleu Mont Cloth Cheddar This is a perfect example of farmhouse cheese with its distinctive musty aroma on the crust, which has been brushed free of any tiny cheese mites that gather during the long ageing process. The crumbly texture is perfect, not too dry and not too moist and acidic, and there is a sweetness and nuttiness with a long lingering finish. The more aged cheeses have that crystalline density somewhat like Parmesan, but even so, there is no hint of bitterness coming through, just lovely beefy caramel flavours. The 5 kg (11 lb) cheeses are wrapped in fine muslin in the traditional manner and then brushed with a solution of clean water mixed with moulds from the rinds of aged cheeses to seal the wrappings. Once in the maturing room with its high humidity and cool temperature the natural airborne bacteria will filter into the cheeses.

Photos