PROMOTING THE COMMUNITY
The World’s Best Cheese Medford, OR | March 2023 | Written by Emily Hunter
The Rogue Valley is an agricultural mecca — offering the best in pears, wine, chocolates, and, of course, cheese. There are many notable businesses that have created a shaped Southern Oregon, including the Rogue Creamery, which has been a staple of this luscious valley for over 80 years. THE BEGINNING OF GREATNESS In 1935, Gaetano “Tom” Vella and Celso Viviani - two of the biggest figures in the cheese world at the time - formed a partnership to acquire the Rogue River Valley Co-Op and transform it into a cheese factory. With few jobs available and many dairy farmers struggling to make ends meet, it was their goal to help as many families as they could during the height of the Great Depression. With the farm’s fertile valley soils, ample water and rolling pastures, the Heart of the Rogue proved to be the perfect place for raising cows and crafting cheese. The Creamery made significant contributions to the war effort during 1940-48, producing one million pounds of cheddar for troops deployed to different countries. Due to a shortage in workers because of the draft, they also employed women at their manufacturing facilities. After World War II, Vella expanded the creamery’s offerings, producing the first wheels of Oregon Blue in 1953. This was one of the first cave-aged, French-style blue cheeses ever created west of the Missouri River. The cheese was met with many accolades, and would soon become renowned throughout the nation. Ignazio “Ig” Vella inherited the business from his father in 1998, and changed the name to Rogue Creamery in 2002.
Sharing a deep respect for the art and tradition of artisan cheesemaking like his father, Ignazio has carried on the traditions and greatness of Rogue Creamery throughout its years. THE WORLD’S BEST CHEESE Today, Rogue Creamery’s cheeses are sold worldwide, winning numerous awards and accolades - including the title for World’s Best Blue Cheese at the 2003 World Cheese Awards in London — a first for a U.S. creamery. But the accolades don’t stop there. Their Rogue River Blue Cheese was also named best cheese in the world at the 2019 World Cheese Awards in Italy. Nearly 4,000 cheeses from around the globe were tasted and trialed by technical experts, retailers, buyers and food writers before crowning a winner.
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The Business Review | March 2023
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