A cheese debut from Jasper Hill Farm is always a news event, but when the debutante is a crowd-pleaser like this one, I can almost hear the stampede. If you love buttery, silky double- and triple-cream cheeses—and retailers say you do—this Vermont beauty should go on your bucket list. It launched only last November so shops are just getting their first shipment, but you can probably locate some Sherry Gray now, before its fame spreads. Peculiar name for a cheese but, as always with Jasper Hill, there’s a back story.

Market research—mainly, talking to cheesemongers—convinced the folks at Jasper Hill that an artisanal double-cream cheese would find an audience. Fromager d’Affinois, the popular French double-cream, is produced on a vast scale by industrial methods. The challenge for Jasper Hill was sourcing the cream. Their own cows are Ayrshires, and Ayrshire milk doesn’t separate easily. The fat globules are small, so they stay in suspension—great for most cheesemaking, not great for cream.

Dairy farmer in training with an Ayrshire calf

Jasper Hill finally found a Vermont dairy that could supply the cream…sometimes. When the dairy has cream to spare, Jasper Hill can make Sherry Gray, an ash-coated bloomy-rind cheese named for a local denizen. Sherry Gray, who passed away in 2004, apparently used some of his means to put other people’s kids through college; Gray himself lived like a monk, volunteering in the Greensboro community and modeling selflessness. He was so roundly admired that the local market can’t keep the new cheese in stock.

Jasper Hill describes Sherry Gray as a double-cream, although it is on the cusp of triple-cream status. These terms are not legally defined in the U.S., to my knowledge, but they are in France, so American cheesemakers typically follow French convention: minimum 60% fat for double-cream cheese; 75% fat for triple-cream. Don’t swoon at those numbers. They are measured in the “dry matter”—the cheese minus its water. Add the water back and the percentage plummets.

When this little seven-ounce disk is about three days old, it gets brushed on the outside with a slurry of ash and water. At that point, it’s jet black, says Zoe Brickley, a Jasper Hill spokesperson. The ash helps neutralize the surface of this high-acid cheese so the white mold can grow. At about two weeks old, the cheese is wrapped and shipped. It will continue to soften and develop aroma over the next four to six weeks.

What a camera-ready cheese. The damp, striated rind looks like the bark of a birch tree, and the semisoft, open interior—the color of pale butter—smells like button mushrooms. You can eat the rind, and I’m sure the cheesemaker hopes you will, but cut it away if it’s too strong for you. The texture is like whipped butter, the flavor mellow and mushroomy with a saline finish. I wouldn’t mind a touch less salt; see what you think.

Jasper Hill suggests sparkling wine with this cheese and I’m on board with that. A dry cider or saison-style beer should work as well.

Retail Sources for Sherry Gray from Jasper Hill Farm

Look for Sherry Gray at www.jasperhillfarm.com and at the locations:

Andrew’s Cheese (Santa Monica)
Cailloux Cheese Shop (Solvang, CA)
Cheese Cave (Claremont, CA)
Di Bruno Bros (Philadelphia)
Dorothy Lane Market/Oakwood (Dayton, OH)
Farmshop Brentwood (Brentwood)
Forward Foods (Norman, OK)
Kustaa (Los Angeles)
Lady & Larder (Los Angeles)
Milkfarm (Los Angeles)
Murray’s Cheese (New York City)
Petaluma Market (Petaluma)
Rainbow Grocery (San Francisco)
Saxelby Cheesemongers (New York City and www.saxelbycheese.com)
Smallgoods (San Diego and La Jolla)
Venissimo Cheese (multiple San Diego area locations)

Time for Cheese O’Clock!

It’s a cheese party! Please join me and fellow cheese expert Laura Werlin for Cheese O’Clock, a four-week series of you-are-almost-there virtual tastings. Zoom registration is free, but we encourage you to order each week’s unique cheese collection and wines to taste along with us and our featured guests.

“Cheese O'Clock outdid itself. The quality of the product was world class stunning and we loved the evening.”
Ray and Diane A.

“Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion in such an engaging, accessible and magical way.”
Suzy F.

Thursday, February 18
“Europe Off the Beaten Path” with WillaKenzie Estate
All details here

Thursday, February 25
“Italian All Stars” with Captûre Wines and Tenuta di Arceno
All details here

Thursday, March 4 — ORDER CHEESE BY FEB 19!
“Wonder Women of American Cheese” with Cambria Winery
All details here

Thursday, March 11
“Aged to Perfection” with Galerie Wines
All details here