It’s Sunday Morning: Time to Talk Cheeses – Interview with Craig Gile of Cabot Creamery

Cabot Creamery is a 1,200 farm family dairy cooperative with members in New England and upstate New York. It is owned by its members and adheres to the Rochdale Cooperative Principles in every aspect of its operations.

The lady and I are huge fans of their Clothbound Cheddar which is aged in the Cellars at Jasper Hill.

When we began formulating our Meet the Cheesemaker series, I tasked The Lady to send out emails to our Cheese Swell friends, asking for interviews. Our friend, Wendy Scherer, at Cabot Creamery wrote back suggesting Craig Gile, who has the enviable job of grading cheese at the creamery. Can you imagine… tasting as many as 200 cheeses a day… cheese heaven… I was thrilled with the idea of learning about a new facet of cheesemaking and aging and sharing Craig’s knowledge and experience.

Spaulding Gray: First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions today. I know that my loyal readers will be especially interested in your career as a cheese grader.

You were a judge recently at the World Cheese Championships. I’d love to hear about your experience and what a judge’s duties include. I’m not very familiar with judging… so take us through the process.

Craig Gile: At a recent cheese event, I had the pleasure of speaking to a culture salesman who had recently returned to the cheese industry after spending almost a decade working in pharmaceuticals. After circling the event a couple of times his only response was, “Wow, I forgot how passionate every last person in the cheese world is!”  This latest contest was an opportunity to share this passion with some of the world’s most interesting and diverse turophiles.

Getting our toes wet….

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