Known for being a bright crowd-pleaser, this sweet stunner is the most awarded cheese in American history, hailing from Uplands Cheese Company. Having been awarded the honor of Best of Show at the annual ACS competition three times, as well as having won the US Cheese Championship in 2003, it’s easy to see why this firm favorite continues to hold a special place in the hearts of cheese lovers everywhere.
Renowned for award-winning cheese and sustainable practices, Wisconsin’s Uplands Cheese Company is the pioneer of the rotational grazing method, which is better for the soil, better for the watershed, and better for the air.
Founded by Mike Gingrich and Dan Patenaude in 1993, Uplands was based on a seasonal, pasture-based system, providing the best grass, herbs, and legumes to create high quality milk with incredible flavor. Operations of the farm were taken over in 2014 by former apprentices Andy Hatch and Scott Mericka and their families, who continue to produce favorites like Pleasant Ridge and Rush Creek Reserve.
Made only during warm months (May through October), the delightfully toothsome, Alpine-style wheels are created from grass-fed, raw cow’s milk in various batches that speak to when the milk was harvested. The longer the cheese is aged, the richer the flavor becomes, resulting in a deeply satisfying profile filled with notes of tropical fruit, bone broth, and those crunchy tyrosine crystals that make it supremely snackable.
Pleasant Ridge Reserve was once aged in the Caves at Murray’s, but since then, we’ve used a specific method to select the best batches, during which our SVP of Merchandising & Operations, Steve Millard, chooses the cheese with the most ideal profile–in this case, we look for a distinct pineapple flavor and bright sweetness, similar to our cave-aged Annelies.
