Rogue River Blue — 'The best cheese in the world'

[On October 19th, 2019, Rogue Creamery from Central Point, Oregon championed over 3,804 cheeses from around the world to win the World's Best Cheese Award with their Rogue River Blue cheese. With this incredible win, Rogue River Blue became the first cheese in the United States to distinguish itself on the world stage.]

Great news: last week at Wegmans, making my customary cheese department rounds, I was gobsmacked when I espied a wheel of Rogue River Blue cheese with its signature grape leaf wrapping.

From the Rogue Creamery website: "As fall comes to the Rogue Valley, cooler temperatures and wet weather bring renewed growth to the pastures. This is when our cow's milk is at its best — and it's only during these months that we make our limited-edition, seasonal Rogue River Blue – a cheese named World Champion at the 2019/20 World Cheese Awards. After 9 to 11 months of careful tending in our aging caves, our team hand-wraps each wheel in organic, biodynamic Syrah grape leaves that have soaked in pear spirits. On the Autumnal Equinox each year, we celebrate the release of the year's new Rogue River Blue cheese."

As a rule, this fantastic cheese sells out in an Oregon minute soon after each year's release; I'm on their mailing list so as to be among the first to be able to order from each year's very limited production.

But wait — it gets better!

I was very surprised at Wegmans' price: $40/pound.

That's way less than the price direct from Rogue Creamery — $71/pound with a minimum purchase of $80 for an 18 oz. wedge — even before their additional charge for shipping.

If you're within driving distance of a Wegmans, this cheese is worth the trip.

Call ahead to see if they have any left.

The woman who runs my local Wegmans cheese department told me they have another wheel on order but they may not receive it because of the huge demand/supply imbalance.

How good is this cheese?

As good as it gets.

If you don't agree, let me know and I'll refund twice what you paid for yours.

Because that's the boj way.