Groton, N.Y. — There’s more than one big cheese in Upstate New York.
Four Upstate New York cheesemakers have been rated among the best in the United States. The cheesemakers — hailing from Central New York, the Hudson Valley and the Adirondacks — made Food & Wine’s list of the best cheese in the nation.
The big Upstate cheeses made the ranking alongside Rogue Creamery, an Oregon cheesemaker that was dubbed the world champion at the prestigious 2019 World Cheese Awards in Italy. Most of the cheesemakers make their spreads and wheels using milk from their own cows, sheep and goats.
Here are the four top-ranked cheesemakers — and where you can buy their laudable cheeses.
Chaseholm Farm, located in Pine Plains in the Hudson Valley, has been listed as one of the top cheesemakers in the nation by Food & Wine. Photo courtesy of Chaseholm Farm
Chaseholm Farm
Pine Planes, Dutchess County, Hudson Valley
Chaseholm Farm, housed on a third-generation family farm, boasts its own herd. The farm’s stock of cheeses — ranging from a fresh, spreadable dill farmer’s cheese to a firm, alpine-style aged cheese — are all made using milk from the farm’s beloved cows.
The farm started making cheese in 2007 when Rory Chase, half of the sibling duo that runs Chaseholm, returned home and turned a barn his grandfather had built in the 1930s into a creamery and aging cave, according to Chaseholm’s website. While Rory Chase makes cheese, his sister Sarah Chase tends the farm and its herd of Holstein, Jersey and Brown Swiss cows.
When adding Chaseholm Farm to its list of the best cheese in America, Food & Wine dished out particular praise for one of the creamery’s creations: an American triple cream soft cheese.
“Sarah and Rory Chase’s Nimbus, a chunky little wheel of buttery, bloomy rind beauty, is a marvelous addition into the genre, aged 6-8 weeks to give the cheese the time it needs to achieve that smooth taste and texture,” Food & Wine wrote.
Where to buy: Customers can buy Chaseholm’s cheese, milk, yogurt and other products at the farm’s store at 115 Chase Road in Pine Planes. The farm also sells cheese through its website.
Four Fat Fowl, a farm in Stephentown in the Capital Region, has been rated as one of the best cheesemakers in the nation by Food & Wine. Photo courtesy of Four Fat Fowl
Four Fat Fowl
Stephentown, Rensselaer County, Hudson Valley
Four Fat Fowl was launched in 2013 by a family of “maniacal cheese lovers”, according to the cheesemaker’s website.
The artisan creamery is housed in an old school building minutes from the Massachusetts border, wrote Food & Wine, and is one of New York’s “most talked-about creameries.” Four Fat Fowl’s name is a nod to a 17th-century landlord who required Stephentown-area tenants to pay rent that included four beefy chickens, according to the creamery.
The creamery offers three cheeses that include its newest creation, a soft Camembert called the CamemBertha, and its Inagadda Ricotta, a ricotta the cheesemakers suggest topping with honey or maple syrup.
But Four Fat Fowl’s original cheese, its award-winning St. Stephen, is what snagged Food & Wine’s attention. The magazine lauded St. Stephen, a triple cream sold as a mini wheel, for its “buttery flavor derived from all natural Jersey cow’s milk and cream.”
“A glamorous cheese that fits right into an increasingly glammed-up Hudson Valley,” Food & Wine wrote.
Where to buy: Cheese lovers can buy Four Fat Fowl’s cheese wheels, ricotta and tie-dye T-shirts on the creamery’s website. Four Fat Fowl’s cheese is sold at most Whole Foods locations, according to the creamery, and in shops across the nation.
Nettle Meadow Farm & Cheese Company, located in Warrensburg in the Adirondacks, has been named one of the best cheesemakers in the nation by Food & Wine. Photo courtesy of Nettle Meadow Farm & Cheese Company
Nettle Meadow Farm & Cheese Company
Thurman, Warren County, Adirondacks
Nettle Meadow is more than a cheesemaking company. The 32-year-old farm, housed in the Adirondacks west of Lake George, also serves as an animal sanctuary.
The farm’s herd of working goats graze on pastures in the Amsterdam area, according to Nettle Meadow’s website. When they retire, many of the goats head north to the farm’s sanctuary, which currently houses over 100 horses, donkeys, chickens, ducks, turkeys, llamas, pigs, cats and bunnies.
But giving respite to abandoned animals isn’t the only attribute that makes Nettle Meadow noteworthy. Its cheeses are among the best in the nation, according to Food & Wine.
Nettle Meadow’s cheese spread ranges from Cheesemaker’s Folly, a cow’s milk Tomme made with Irish whiskey, to Three Sisters, a semi-aged cheese comprised of milk from sheep, goats and cows. Food & Wine predicts cheese lovers could easily polish off one of Nettle Meadow’s cheese wheels — the Kunik, filled with “languid buttery beauty” — in one sitting.
“This is a remarkable, balanced cheese you will likely start out intending to sample; don’t be surprised if you eat the whole thing at once,” the magazine wrote.
Where to buy: Customers can stop by Nettle Meadow between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to buy cheese. The farm’s cheese is also sold at some Whole Foods and Price Chopper stores, along with smaller shops across the state and nation.
Old Chatham Creamery, located in Groton in Central New York, has been rated one of the best cheesemakers in the nation by Food & Wine. Old Chatham's gouda is sold at Wegmans stores across New York, including at the supermarket's Ithaca branch, as pictured in this photo. Samantha House | shouse@syracuse.com
Old Chatham Sheepherding Co.
Groton, Tompkins County, Central New York
Old Chatham Creamery’s roots date back to 1993 in the Hudson Valley. The farm got a new owner and home in Central New York in 2014 when Dr. Dave Galton, a professor at Cornell University, bought the creamery he’d been selling his sheep’s milk to for years, according to the creamery’s website.
Old Chatham’s award-winning cheeses are created using milk from sheep and goats that graze at a Locke farm, according to the Cheese Reporter, and are made at the creamery’s production facility in Groton.
The creamery’s cheeses range from fresh cranberry goat cheese to a Three-Milk Gouda. And although the location of Old Chatham has changed, Food & Wine was pleased to report that the quality of the creamery’s cheese remains impressive.
“Fortunately, the cheese is still the cheese,” Food & Wine wrote. “The luxurious, Roquefort-esque Ewe’s Blue is worth seeking out.”
Where to buy: Cheese fanatics can buy Old Chatham’s cheeses and yogurts on the creamery’s website. Some of the creamery’s cheeses are also sold at Wegmans and other grocery stores.
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