California Artisan Cheesemakers

A look at 10 cheesemakers carrying on a rich tradition.

You could say there have been two gold rushes in California. The first started in the late 1700s — long before gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848 — when Spanish missionaries introduced fruits, vegetables and cows. Cheesemaking soon followed, and Queso del Pais, or “country cheese,” emerged, according to the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB), in Tracy, CA. This evolved into what today is the pale golden yellow, buttery-flavored Monterey Jack.

Today, California is the second-largest producer of cheese after Wisconsin. However, the state’s real claim to cheese fame is its artisan production over abundance.

“California’s varied geography, from coastal fog to inland valleys, allows for a wide range of cheese production, from soft and fresh to hard and aged cheeses, says Valerie Miller, executive director of the California Artisan Cheese Guild, in Durham, CA. “The mid-1990s saw a resurgence of the artisan cheese movement in Northern California, leading to a wide array of cheese styles and the pioneering of goat and sheep’s milk cheeses, with cheesemakers gaining international recognition for their innovative and high-quality cheeses.”

Here, Cheese Connoisseur highlights some of California’s notable artisan cheesemakers, their history, and what makes them stand out.

BELLWETHER FARMS
Petaluma, CA

At an age when some people consider retirement, Cindy Callahan, a registered nurse and later a tax attorney, turned to a new profession. In 1986, Callahan founded Bellwether, one of California’s earliest licensed sheep dairies.

Cheesemaking started in 1990 when Callahan’s son, Liam, joined the farm. Research trips to Italy in the early 1990s helped shape the creamery’s Old World approach. The mid-1990s welcomed the introduction of Carmody Jersey cow’s milk cheese, followed by a series of now signature products, such as Crème Fraiche, Sheep Milk Yogurt, Whole Milk Basket Ricotta and Organic Cow Yogurt.

“On our early trips to Italy, we fell in love with the hand-dipped ricotta we saw there,” says Diana Callahan, co-owner and Liam’s wife. “Italians lined up at markets for the fresh, still warm ricotta, and we knew we wanted to recreate that experience here at home. Our ricotta is hand-dipped in traditional baskets, which creates its delicate shape and texture.”

Bellwether’s most recent introduction is its Fresh Sheep Log, available in both Original and Sonoma Herbs flavors. It’s a soft, creamy, fresh cheese with a clean flavor and no strong “sheepy” notes that spreads beautifully on crostini, adds richness to salads, and makes an elegant centerpiece on a cheese board.

COWGIRL CREAMERY
Petaluma, CA

Back in 1997, two college friends, Sue Conley and Peggy Smith, started a business with a shared dream of celebrating organic practices and spotlighting the craftsmanship of local sustainable agriculture in Northern California’s Sonoma County. Three years later, the duo’s Cowgirl Creamery introduced its first cheese, Mt Tam, a triple-cream, soft-ripened cheese named after the prominent peak, Mount Tamalpais, which rises over San Francisco Bay.

“Today, we’re carrying the torch of the food revolution that started in our backyard. Organic. Farm-to-Table. Delicious. Award-winning cheese. It’s in our DNA. And it defines our famous creations, including the beloved triple cream Mt Tam,” says Kaya Freiman, brand manager. “Mt Tam takes you from fudgy firmness to buttery softness with flavors spanning from bright creme fraiche to complex and mushroomy, evoking North Bay’s lush green and gold pastures.”

Triple Cream Brie is the creamery’s newest cheese.

“Its rind-to-paste ratio offers a decadent and delicious tasting experience with a stunning bloomy rind and buttery texture,” says Freiman.

CYPRESS GROVE
Arcata, CA

What began for Mary Keehn as a backyard hobby — raising goats for their easy-to-digest milk — soon evolved into something much bigger. In 1983, she founded Cypress Grove, one of the first creameries, dedicated to producing high-quality goat cheese.

Inspired by a trip to France, Keehn developed Humboldt Fog, the creamery’s now-iconic soft-ripened goat cheese with a line of edible ash. Today, Cypress Grove remains nationally celebrated for Humboldt Fog and continues to craft an award-winning range of soft-ripened, fresh and aged goat cheeses.

“With its dramatic line of edible vegetable ash and a lush, citrusy tang, Humboldt Fog broke all the rules and helped define what American goat cheese could be,” says Christy Khattab, marketing director. “It’s iconic for a reason: ripened from the outside in, it offers a beautiful creamline and a balance of texture and flavor that evolves with age.”

Cypress Grove’s newest cheese is Olive & Herb, a fresh goat cheese blended with green olives, garlic, and a hint of rosemary.

FISCALINI FARMSTEAD CHEESE
Modesto, CA

In 1914, Swiss immigrant John Baptiste Fiscalini bought 160 acres and 10 cows in Modesto, unknowingly laying the foundation for a family legacy. Fast forward to 2000, Fiscalini’s grandson, also named John, discovered the family’s heritage of cheesemaking in Switzerland. He decided to return to this craft.

The following year, San Joaquin Gold, a hard Italian-style cheese made in 30-pound wheels and aged for a minimum of a year, launched under the Fiscalini Farmstead brand. Today, two of John’s children, Laura Genasci and Brian Fiscalini, direct the day-to-day operations along with their father.

“We like to call San Joaquin Gold our award-winning mistake,” says Genasci, referring to the gold medal the cheese won in its first competition. “With used equipment, a recipe, and a team who had never made cheese before, we crafted our first batch of what we believed was a Fontina. A year later, when we hired an experienced cheesemaker, he told us it wasn’t Fontina. However, he liked the cheese, and felt it had promise. With a few trials and tweaks, we had an American Original, and we named it after the San Joaquin Valley, where it is produced.”

LAURA CHENEL
Sonoma, CA

Laura Chenel, founder of the namesake creamery in the heart of Sonoma County, mastered the centuries-old craft of artisan goat cheesemaking by studying in France. In 1979, Chenel pioneered the introduction of her California-made Original Fresh Goat Cheese Log.

Her big break came when famed farm-to-table chef Alice Waters, of Chez Panisse, served it sliced, panko-breaded, baked, and nestled in a bed of fresh greens. This iconic salad is still on the Chez Panisse menu, and Chenel’s Original Fresh Goat Cheese Log is sold at specialty cheese shops nationwide.

“Over 40 years later, our cheesemakers continue Laura Chenel’s legacy of craftsmanship, best-in-class standards, and unwavering care that goes into every step of the process, including using high-quality domestic goat’s milk from family-owned farms,” says Durae Hardy, marketing director. “In this way, the cheeses reflect the best of both worlds: traditional craftsmanship, filtered through the landscape and culinary traditions of Northern California.”

MT. EITAN CREAMERY
Bodega, CA

One of the smallest and newest artisan cheese producers, having opened in 2023, is Mt. Eitan Creamery. Created as an atelier, a working studio where making cheese is treated as a thoughtful craft, owner and fromager, Omer Seltzer, draws his inspiration from his boyhood days growing up and herding goats on the family’s farm in Israel’s Judean Mountains.

Later, he graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, apprenticed at goat farms in Southern France, and came back to open his creamery in California’s Sonoma County. He sources goat milk and whole Jersey cow’s milk locally to make his cheese. On the goat front, Mt. Eitan’s Raya is a standout. So is its Tome, a firm alpine-style cheese.

“Our goat cheeses reflect a slow, attentive process shaped by time and place,” says Seltzer. “Raya is made in two styles: one aged between six and 12 months, with steady, earthy tones; the other aged a full year, where the flavors deepen into something sharper and more concentrated. Tome, aged in large wheels, leans in a different direction — firmer in texture, with a gentle sweetness that emerges slowly.”

NICASIO VALLEY CHEESE COMPANY
Nicasio, CA

Like some California artisan cheesemakers, Nicasio Valley’s heritage dates back over a century. Fredolino “Fred” Lafranchi immigrated from Switzerland to California’s Marin County and founded the Lafranchi Dairy in 1919. Fred’s son, Will, visited the family’s homeland several times. In 2010, Will and his family hired Swiss Master Cheesemaker, Maurizio Lorenzetto, to mentor them in making the cheeses of Switzerland’s Valle Maggia, but in California. Unlike all others, Nicasio Valley’s claim to fame is it’s the only organic farmstead cheese producer in the state.

“Foggy Morning, a fromage blanc style cheese, is our most well-known. It’s the first cheese we made with Maurizio,” says Rick Lafranchi, managing partner. “Its nuances change with the seasons. It gets creamy when the cows have high butterfat during the winter season, a sweeter flavor when the cows are on pasture during the grazing season, and an overall great milky, tangy flavor year-round.”

SIERRA NEVADA CHEESE COMPANY
Willows, CA

Friends Ben Gregersen and John Dundon started Sierra Nevada Cheese in 1997 with a shared passion and simple goal: to make quality, artisanal-style dairy products by traditional methods and milk sourced from local, family-run farms throughout Northern California.

Working out of a restored 1958-built creamery, the duo and their team focus on small-batch cheese, yogurt and butter. The business has gradually expanded to include a distribution center and a retail space.

“We are recognized for our Gina Marie Cream Cheese,” says Meghan Rodgers, sales and marketing manager. “It’s a brand we purchased in 2002, and we continue to craft it with only three ingredients — rBST-free and antibiotic-free cultured milk and cream, and salt. We use a traditional, three-day draining process in muslin bags to give it its smooth texture and creamy flavor without artificial ingredients, gums, stabilizers or fillers.”

Raw Milk Smoked Goat Cheddar is Sierra Nevada’s latest cheese, introduced in 2018.

TOLUMA FARMS & TOMALES FARMSTEAD CREAMERY
Tomales, CA

The coastal areas of Sonoma and Marin counties are the ancestral homelands of one of California’s indigenous people, the Coast Miwoks. It’s on 160 acres of this fertile farmland that Tamara Hicks and David Jablons, with daughters, Josy and Emmy, founded Toluma Farms, opened it as a goat and sheep dairy in 2007, and soon after started Tomales Farmstead Creamery to craft cheese. The sustainable farm, with nearly all its acres certified organic, is now protected as agricultural land under the Marin Agricultural Land Trust.

“Our best-known cheese is Teleeka, which is the Coast Miwok’s word for ‘three,’” says Hicks, co-owner. “It’s a triple milk cheese — goat, sheep and cow. There aren’t many triple milk, soft ripened cheeses out there, which makes ours stand out.”

Bossy, a soft ripened cheese made exclusively with more easily digestible A2 Jersey milk sourced locally, is the creamery’s most recent introduction. The moniker gives a nod to past and present. It represents a popular cow’s name in the mid-1800s and, as Hicks says, gives a respectful and loving nod to bossy females everywhere who get the job done.

WILLIAM COFIELD CHEESEMAKERS
Sebastopol, CA

Rob Hunter and Keith Adams’ paths first crossed at U.C. Davis, then split. Hunter stayed in California, building a career at several well-regarded wineries, including Bennett Lane in Calistoga, where he now leads the winemaking.

Adams headed to Minnesota, opening a bagel shop and later founding Alemar Cheese, known for its Camembert-style cheese under the Bent River brand. Years later, the two men found themselves back in touch, with the commonality of having years of hands-on experience in fermentation and flavor.

That connection led to William Cofield Cheesemakers in 2016, which has successfully navigated a pandemic, fires, and floods since its opening, focusing on British-inspired cheeses. As Adams says, the project is less about nostalgia and more about combining skill, curiosity, and a long-standing friendship.

“I’d say our signature cheeses are the two we entered the market with,” says Adams. “That’s our Bodega Blue, a Stilton-inspired blue cheese, and our McKinley Cheddar, a lush, cloth-bound aged cheddar. We’re also known for making and selling fresh squeaky cheese curds, a Midwest favorite. All three are made with organic, grass-fed milk from nearby Petaluma.”