Great Value Cheeses: Grafton Village Cheese Co. Cheddars

Editor’s note: We love great cheese, but we also love saving money on cheese. We’ve tapped Certified Cheese Professional David Phillips to share some of his favorite picks that are particularly well priced. Our first installment featured Mimolette, Widmer Extra Aged Brick and Hornkuhkäse and our second featured Piave, Grana Padano, and Pecorino Romano.

Grafton Village Cheese Co. is a historic co-op based creamery in Grafton, Vt. It might be the Green Bay Packers of the cheese biz, in that the creamery is sort of owned by the village and run by the non-profit Windham Foundation, with the mission of maintaining Vermont’s rural character. All cheeses are made with raw milk from local farms. At our store, Potash Markets in Chicago, two of those cheeses have a regular spot in the cheese case, and we just added a third. We sell all three for $21.99 per pound, and they are probably sold for under $20 per pound in many markets (we’ve seen them online for as little as $16 a pound). These Cheddars are each great quality, especially for the price.

2 Year Aged Cheddar

This cheese expresses the difference between a Vermont cheddar and those made nearly everywhere else. It has a savory, blunt flavor that includes a certain sharp flavor. This “Vermont bite” has been more precisely described as bitter, with sulfuric compounds. Certainly it eschews the sweet finish found in many other Cheddars, and typical of Wisconsin Cheddars.

Grafton’s online marketing describes “buttery notes with a bold, sharp tang and a long, nutty finish.” Grafton mentions that young batches are selected based on trajectory to reach a balanced, mature flavor with aging. Indeed, the result is a nice balanced flavor that our customers can’t get enough of. Grafton 2-year exhibits a slightly crumbly texture, and it holds its shape under light melting

It works well on a cheese plate or in a potato dish, and Grafton suggests melting it on warm apple pie—a delightful Vermont tradition.

Truffle Cheddar

There are enough truffle-cheese fans among our customers that we keep a number of truffle cheeses in rotation. Grafton’s Truffle Cheddar is made with raw milk, Italian truffles and truffle oil. It has a pleasing truffle aroma and a big umami flavor, and is less expensive than just about every other truffle cheese we carry. It stands out on a cheese plate, and I like to melt it in an omelet with bell peppers and summer tomatoes.

Grafton recommends pairing with Barolo, Orvieto white wine, pinot noir and brown ale. I’m Googling Orvieto as soon as I finish here.

Smoked Chili Cheddar

The newest Grafton cheese in our store is made with habañero, jalapeño and pasilla peppers mixed in the curd. Once the cheese is drained and pressed, it is cold-smoked over maple and hardwood chips. The flavor is nicely balanced and not overpowering. The chili flavors are up front, with the light smoke chiming in at the finish. We carry other smoked cheeses (including an outstanding smoked Cheddar from Vermont’s Shelburne Farms) and a couple cheeses with peppers, but Grafton Smoked Chili Cheddar is the only cheese we carry that combines those two irresistible attributes. This cheese performs well in a mac and cheese, and I will certainly put some on a burger as soon as Spring hits the Midwest.

Grafton suggests pairing with it a Pilsner or a Belgian ale, and I am thinking a Belgian style Witbier would be fantastic, perhaps Allagash White from Portland, Maine. Grafton Village offers more pairing suggestions and some recipes.