#roelli

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Now in stock at Zuercher: Roelli Haus Select – 1/18 lb.

This cellar aged cheddar is the newest incarnation from beloved Wisconsin cheesemaker, Chris Roelli (pronounced like the city, Raleigh.) Roelli selects batches of cheddar he feels can flourish under further aging. Each 15 – 20 pound wheel has a firm, brittle texture with a coated edible rind, enabling breathability while keeping mites in check during aging. Its appearance is striking on a cheese board. Chris Roelli has added an ample amount of annatto, similar to that of Mimolette or Roelli’s other popular creation, Red Rock.

While the proprietary cultures are kept a secret, we can only guess by tasting that this pasteurized cows’ milk cheese has a blend of traditional cheddar cultures along with Alpine varieties. The most prominent flavors are nutty, bright and meaty with a caramelized sweetness. Overall, Roelli Haus Select is a mellow and well-rounded cheddar, and a great option for those who enjoy aged cheddars without a tremendously bitter bite.

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Roelli Little Mountain – 2016 American Cheese Society Best in Show

Last summer, Roelli Cheese Haus won first place in Best of Show at the ACS competition for their cheese Little Mountain. Roelli only made Little Mountain in limited quantities and had almost no cheese available to satisfy the resulting demand from winning the most coveted cheese award. They ramped up production late last summer, and those wheels are finally hitting their target profile. Zuercher & Co. has secured a small lot for our customers. We feel it was definitely worth the wait.

 Cheesemaker Chris Roelli (pronounced RAH-lee) is the great-grandson of a Swiss immigrant cheesemaker, and Roelli wanted to return to his roots when creating Little Mountain. This 15-pound cows’ milk cheese is loosely based on Appenzeller, and uses heat-treated Holstein milk (not pasteurized at high temperatures, but not truly raw either.) Minimal culture is used and frequent washings of the rind help to create its flavor profile. After about 8 months of brine-washing, flipping and aging, the result is brilliantly multi-faceted.

 Before even cutting into the wheel, you’ll note that the exterior is something of beauty. Zuercher’s very own Helder dos Santos participated in judging, and reflected on what he remembered about the cheese. “The rind has a “beautiful, smooth, leathery feel. I could stroke it all day.” Cut into the paste, and you’ll find that Little Mountain’s texture is firm, dense and toothy, but then warms on the tongue. Its flavor is nutty with layers of flavor, but isn’t big and brawny like Swiss Appenzeller and lacks any itchiness on the tongue. The finish is smooth and lingering.

 Although we have a small amount being delivered to our warehouse, Roelli has been flooded with orders since their ACS win. They have ramped up production, but supplies are still limited. Point being:  grab this while it’s here! Future supply may be inconsistent or scarce.

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Red Rock by Roelli Cheese – Red Rock is the second cheese we have picked up from the master of Blue/Cheddar combos Chris Roelli.  Chris is the fourth generation of Roellis to make Cheddar cheese in Wisconsin.  After low commodity pricing forced them to close shop in the 1990s, the family kept a business going hauling milk from local farms to local dairies.  But that didn’t sit well with Chris, who had cheesemaking in his blood.  He remembers how his father used to throw him into the vat as a young kid and tell him he couldn’t come out until it was completely clean.  In the mid- 2000s, Chris re-opened Roelli Cheese Haus, focusing on small batch, artisan cheeses.   

Much like his signature cheese Dunbarton Blue, Red Rock comes from a simple idea that produced extraordinary results.  Chris knew how to make a solid block of Cheddar.  He decided to inoculate the milk with blue mold, cut a block into five pound prints, pierce them and let them age in his caves where they could grow a beautiful mottled grey mold rind.  When you cut into Red Rock, the paste has a darker orange/red color more similar in appearance to Mimolette than Cheddar, interspersed with small areas of streaking blue.  I think the most common reaction people have to it is to scratch their head and say “What is that? And can I try it?”  While we love the flavor of all of Chris Roelli’s cheeses, we love the conversation-starter potential they hold just as much. ©  

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Red Rock cheese, from Roelli Cheese. Similar to Roelli's Dunbarton Blue, in that it is a pressed, natural-rinded cheddar struck through with veins of blue mold, the visually striking Red Rock is milder still, a sweet, earthy, complex buttery orange cheddar (or near-red, due to it's being colored with twice as much annatto as a traditional American orange cheddar) with an understated blue bite. As with the Dunbarton, the bluing is tightly controlled by the pressing of the curds. I prefer the more assertive flavors of the Dunbarton but the Red Rock is a lovely option if you prefer something milder.

You can see Chris Roelli talking about Red Rock on YouTube here.

Purchased at Stinky Brooklyn.

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Dunbarton Blue, from Roelli Cheese in Wisconsin, is a bit of an odd bird. A lightly blue-veined cheddar, unlike most all other blue cheeses,  it is pressed in the mold as with any cheddar, which compresses the curds, limiting the channels by which the penicilium roqueforti would normally work its way through the  cheese. This is done deliberately to control the bluing, so that the blue mold grows only to a limited degree, mostly tracing the piercings made by the cheesemakers, leading to the arrow-straight blue veins running through the cheese. 

A natural-rinded wheel, in flavor it is comparable to a bandaged cheddar, drier and flakier but with a deep, complex flavor, tangy, briny, meaty and full. The herbaceous sweetness and peppery bite of the bluing are subtle, more an overtone than a front and center element of the flavor profile, but blend perfectly. 

A lovely cheese in it's own right, but also a good starter cheese for those with a phobia for the blue-molded varieties. The gentle bluing of Dunbarton can serve as a gateway substance. Get them started on this and who knows, they might be eating Queso de Cabrales before the year is out!

Purchased at Murray's.