The Cheese + Champagne Vermont Cheese Week Tour continues with another Vermont cheddar on the Wine Spectator list.
The third of the Wine Spectator 100 cheeses* I was able to sample in Vermont was Grafton Village’s clothbound cheddar. I’ve sampled their younger cheddars previously, but had been unable to find their clothbound version locally. (In fact, when I called one cheese shop to inquire they thought I must be referring to the Cabot/Jasper Hill clothbound and encouraged me to try that instead.)
photo courtesty of Allison Wolf/Vermont Cheesemakers Festival
Clothbound cheddars are common in the U.K., but a fairly new phenomenon here in the States. We’ve written before about the Cabot/Jasper Hill joint venture, and the Grafton Village clothbound is a team project as well. As we learned at the June Fancy Food Show, Grafton is now sending their wheels of clothbound cheddar to be aged in the sandstone caves of Faribault Dairy in Minnesota.
Grafton clothbound begins with hormone-free raw milk from their Jersey cows, produced by their co-op of Vermont dairy farmers, and is aged up to 10 months to develop a smooth, creamy yet earthy flavor and the familiar crumbly texture of good cheddar.
My taste buds were too taxed to try a Grafton/Cabot head-to-head taste off after making my rounds at the festival, but if you have the opportunity to try both at the same time I encourage you to do so and report back. And if you can’t find it at your local cheese shop, Grafton offers it for sale online.
* editor’s note/musings: At the time of the Wine Spectator selection, Grafton’s clothbound was also aged at Jasper Hill. Since we were unable to taste it until now, we have no idea how the taste might have changed with the move to a new aging facility. But wouldn’t that be a fun tasting experiment to taste identical cheeses aged in caves more than 1,000 miles apart?
Cheese + Champagne 
September 9, 2009 at 7:45 pm
That looks beautiful. We were just cutting up a wheel of Cabot clothbound this afternoon and it had such a different color. I’ll look out for the Grafton and try and get it in the Coop. Thanks!
September 11, 2009 at 12:34 pm
@ Yuri – Yes, the Grafton is quite a bit paler than the golden toned Cabot, now that you mention it. I wonder why, different cow breeds?
November 28, 2009 at 5:23 pm
just a heads up that we are still receiving piles of Grafton clothbound cheddar at the Cellars…. and that tasting you suggested of cheddars aged underground 1500 miles apart is a truly fascinating exercise that demonstrates how much environment contributes to the sensory qualities of a cheese. Amazing!
November 28, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Thanks for the update, Mateo! Colleen and I will see each other in January, so we’ll try to do the taste-off together. Dueling cheddars!
August 19, 2010 at 7:15 am
[…] that neither could fully develop on its own (see Clothbound Cheddar, Cabot and Jasper Hill, and Grafton and Faribault Dairy). This cheese begins its journey in the Loire Valley (a premier goat-cheese-producing region) at […]