This Cheese Doesn't Suck: Pleasant Ridge Reserve

 

     Apparently the cheeses I'm most fascinated with this Autumn are all from Wisconsin.  Perhaps it's my minor snobbery about cheese that keeps me mystified when Wisconsin produces such amazing artisanal dairy.  Yet, there it is.  I have to say (and I know this is a big endorsement) that Pleasant Ridge Reserve is one of my favorite cheeses.

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    When I saw this lovely on the production counter I swear I greeted it like an old friend.  Lauding its wonderfullness with a tear in the eye and many a humoring noise from coworkers I'm sure. It is a prime example of a high alpine style cows milk cheese.  The legacy being the great cheese of Switzerland, Gruyere, and it's cousin the French Comte.
    Pleasant Ridge Reserve is made in the Alpage style.  Meaning only the milk of strictly pasture fed cows from May to October is used in the making.  Hence if the pasture season in poor then the cheese yield is small and vice versa.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is quality.  When you have cheese made from grass-fed dairy you get all of the complex flavor, nutrients, enzymes, and bacteria that set it apart from the milk of silage fed heifers.
    This cheese contains the well balanced acidity, notes of hazelnut, sun-warmed hay, and a hint of butter of the best of the traditional Alpine cheeses of Europe.

     Combined with its toothsome fudgey texture this is an Autumn cheese for every table.