Cheese Profiles: Bleu Mont Dairy Bandaged Cheddar

Editor’s note: In our series of Cheese Profiles, we further examine those cheeses that have been called out as best sellers from places in our “Cheese Shops We Love” series. Next up, a masterclass in bandaged-wrapped cheddar from Bleu Mont Dairy.

If you’ve only ever had Cheddar from a vacuum sealed package, bandaged cheddar is a game changer. Bound with cloth and often sealed with lard, this is cheddar how it is meant to be: sharp, yes, but also crumbly, savory, and downright meaty, all while still retaining a certain approachable character that makes cheddar a go-to cheese that everyone likes. Bleu Mont Dairy’s Bandaged Cheddar was called out by Ken Monteleone of beloved Wisconsin cheese shop Fromagination as one of their (well-deserved) best sellers. “Cheesemaker Willi Lehner is known for being a micro producer of his cave-aged cheese,” says Monteleone, “which is why “we’ve been very lucky that he continues to supply us with cheese.” Here, we get to know the details of what makes this classic-style cheese such an icon.

What is Bleu Mont Dairy Bandaged Cheddar?

Bleu Mont Cheddar wheels aging — Bleu Mont Cheddar aging

Named after its origin in Blue Mounds of Southeastern Wisconsin, Bleu Mont Dairy Bandaged Cheddar is a cow’s milk, cloth-bound cheddar that’s sealed with lard and aged for at least 12 months in an underground cave by Swiss-American cheesemaker Willi Lehner. (Note: as a nomadic and somewhat renegade cheesemaker, Lehner doesn’t have a website for Bleu Mont Dairy, and various cheese shops credited this cheese as either raw or pasteurized. Fromagination says raw, and they’re the closest, so I’d like to go with raw, but other sources suggest the cheese was once made with raw milk and is now made with pasteurized for consistency, especially given the nomadic nature of the operation.)

History of Bandaged Cheddar

Cheddar cliffs in England — Cheddar cliffs

While Cheddar itself has a traceable history back to the town of Cheddar in England’s Somerset Country over 1000 years ago, bandaged or clothbound Cheddar has a murkier history. Some sources credit the application of cheesecloth to 17th Century England, as a means of keeping insects and dust from the cheese while it ages. Other sources posit a theory that’s growing in popularity, that early U.S. settlers from England used the cotton that was more readily available here to bind the cheese to guard against the loss of too much moisture, given the less consistent climatic conditions of the Eastern U.S. compared to England. That process made its way back to the U.K., where it grew in popularity and eventually became synonymous with English-style cheddar. (For further depth into various styles of cheddar, see our piece on A Cheesemonger’s Guide to Cheddar.)

The history of Bleu Mont Bandaged Cheddar is a less controversial one. Willi Lehner grew up with cheese, as his Swiss father managed a cheese factory in Wisconsin. After a period in Switzerland in his young adulthood to focus on cheesemaking, Lehner returned to Wisconsin in the late 1980s and began experimenting with recipes, borrowing production facilities where he could. Initially selling through local farmers markets, Bleu Mont Bandaged Cheddar is now his most widely distributed, best-selling and most produced cheese.

How Bleu Mont Dairy Bandaged Cheddar is Made

Applying Swiss precision to an English (or American?) style, Lehner collects cow’s milk in small batches from nearby, organic farms where he also borrows production facilities to make the wheels according to traditional cheddar methods, including the actual cheddaring of the curds. (Some modern cheddars rely on a stirred curd, short-cut process, but Lehman is doing the cutting and stacking the old-fashioned way.) After being wrapped in cheesecloth, the wheels are dipped in hot lard and placed in Lehner’s own experimental cave: an actual underground cave built into a hillside that relies on the natural temperature and humidity control the subterranean atmosphere provides. Wheels age for at least 12 and up to 18 months, sitting on specially-made spruce planks for an additional X-factor in developing the cheese’s flavor.

Bleu Mont Dairy Bandaged Cheddar Tasting Notes

You’d be hard pressed to find tasting notes for Bleu Mont Dairy Bandaged Cheddar that don’t include the words “mossy” or “earthy,” a taste-of-place attribute that points to its underground aging facility. Fromagination describes it as “sweet, tangy, and mossy.” Murray’s notes its “balance between caramel sweetness, background acidity, and an intense mossiness at the rind.” Formaggio Kitchen calls it “flavor-packed,” with “fruity, earthy, and tangy” qualities.

Bleu Mont Dairy Bandaged Cheddar Pairings

Aged cheddar cheese such as Bleu Mont can easily take on some of the big red wines that don’t always play nicely with more delicate cheeses. For a true taste of place, however, whether you’re evoking England or Wisconsin with your cheddar pairing, bandaged cheddar’s true soul mate is beer: it’s such a harmonious matchup that England is even famous for making soup out of it. Keep it robust to match the cheese’s intensity with a beer of strength and character such as Canned Heat Craft Beer Co Mill Stone Porter (2023 NYIBC Gold Medal Winner) or Grand Cru Bourbon Barrel-Aged Tripel (2023 NYIBC Gold Medal Winner).