Best of Show - Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve

We wanted to pass the news along. Following are excerpts from an August 29 article, 2010 by Mary-Liz Shaw of the Journal Sentinel. You can purchase this winning cheese at our store locations or our online store, Buy Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve or Buy Pleasant Ridge Reserve, aged less than 15 months. The Extra Aged is our cheese of the month for September and is 10% off.

Big cheese at competition is from Dodgeville – again

American Cheese Society Conference honors Pleasant Ridge Reserve
An aged raw cow’s milk farmstead cheese made in Dodgeville has captured the coveted Best of Show award at the annual American Cheese Society Conference, one of the most prestigious cheese competitions in North America.

Uplands Cheese Co.’s Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve took Best of Show for the third time, the only cheese to have done so in the competition’s history. It also won top honors in 2001 and 2005.

“It was a shock; we weren’t expecting it at all,” said Mike Gingrich, Uplands’ owner. “We were just amazed. No other cheese has even won it twice.”

Wisconsin cheesemakers Saturday took home 98 ribbons – 29 firsts, 36 seconds and 33 thirds – almost a third of all of the awards given and more than any other state. The five-day conference and competition in Seattle had more than 1,400 entries from 34 states, Canada and Mexico.

In addition, Dairy Staters swept 11 categories, including American Originals Brick Cheese, American Originals Colby, blues made of cow’s milk and blues from goat’s milk.

“Wow, that may be the best we’ve ever done,” said John Umhoefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association.

Scheduling prevented Umhoefer from attending the conference this year, but he is very familiar with the Best of Show winner. He described it as having a pleasant nuttiness, similar to a fresh cheese, combined with the tang of a thick-rind cheese. Pleasant Ridge Reserve also has a “nice firm bite,” Umhoefer said. “It’s just a great farmstead cheese.”

Several Dairy State cheesemakers won multiple honors, including Carr Valley Cheese of LaValle, which received 18 ribbons; BelGioioso Cheese of Denmark, which took home seven; and Sartori Foods of Plymouth, with six ribbons.

“Sartori has really come out strong in the last few years,” Umhoefer said. “They created an artisanal wing, and they’ve set their cheesemakers loose. And it’s obviously been successful for them.”

For Heather Porter-Engwall of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Saturday’s honors are proof that “in Wisconsin, we really care about the quality.”

“Everybody loves Uplands, so when they won, the crowd just screamed,” Porter-Engwall said.

“It’s a wonderful cheese,” she said. “I’ve heard it called ‘the perfect cheese.’ Beautiful color and full nutty taste. It’s just a really, really great tasting flavor.”

The Pleasant Ridge Reserve has won the most awards in the country. It also took the blue ribbon at the 2003 U.S. Cheese Championships. It is the only cheese ever to have won both national competitions.

“It’s just amazing for one cheese to have done that,” Umhoefer said.

Uplands Cheese produces Pleasant Ridge Reserve only from May through October, when its cows are eating fresh pasture grasses. The farmstead is also rare in that it makes only one sort of cheese of varying maturities – a washed-rind hard cheese in the style of the alpine cheeses produced in France and Switzerland, specifically Beaufort and Gruyere.

Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve, aged less than 15 months, is available year-round. The 2010 winning cheese is an extra aged version, aged 15 to 24 months, and is available only from September until around Christmas.

With the great success of its alpine-style cheese, Uplands is poised to introduce a new cheese to its product line in November, a soft “winter” cheese available through February and made in the manner of France’s Vacherin Mont d’Or, Gingrich said. The new cheese will be called Rush Creek Reserve.