Way back in 1933, an entrepreneur from Portland, Ore., worked with the city of Central Point, Ore., to open the Rogue River Valley Co-op — the first artisan creamery cooperative in Southern Oregon. Eighty-eight years later, following several ownership and name changes, that Central Point cheese plant is still in operation — albeit in a modernized form.
And it is where Rogue Creamery has been making its award-winning organic artisan cheeses since 2002 — when David Gremmels purchased the Rogue River Valley Creamery from Ignazio Vella (See the Processor Profile). Today, the 7,000-square-foot plant produces 11 varieties of blue cheese (including Rogue River Blue, deemed the World's Best Cheese at the 2019 World Cheese Awards) in numerous formats, as well as nine varieties of hard cheese (cheddars plus Rogue Creamery’s original Touvelle cheese) in multiple formats. In addition, it makes blue cheese powder in three formats.