Bayley Hazen Blue
Raw-milk natural-rind blue, fudgy and floral.
How this blue cheese is made — and by whom.
A working dairy in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, milking 45 Ayrshire cows and aging cheeses in seven underground cellars. Pioneer of American farmstead cheesemaking and forage-based dairy.
Vermont — the country around Greensboro, where the soil, weather, and water shape what comes out of the ground. This product can only taste the way it does because it's from here, and nowhere else.
Made in small batches from the morning's raw milk, hand-ladled into molds, and aged on wooden boards in the village's stone cellars where the cave-air does the slow work.
Made year-round, but spring and summer milk — when the herd is on fresh pasture — makes the most expressive wheels.
A natural-rind raw-milk blue aged 4–5 months in the Jasper Hill cellars. Dense, fudgy paste with toasted-nut, anise, and licorice notes. James Beard winner.