Leelenau Cheese Company Wins Top Award In Competition

The small Suttons Bay, Michigan company beat 1,200 other cheese competitors in the 2007 American Cheese Society competition in Burlington, Vermont. Their Aged Raclette took the "Best-in-Show" award.

Although the owners of Leelenau Cheese Co., Ann and John Hoyt, were not able to actually attend in person the competition in Vermont, they sent their best cheese to represent the company. Ann told the Free Press that there are only three full-time and one part-time employees to run the small company at the Black Star Farms home. They just cannot afford to lose even one employee in a day's work; it puts too much of a strain on those left behind. The news of the top award came on Ann's 46th birthday while everyone was working at the company creamery.

“We were shaking and dancing and crying and hugging everybody,” Anne Hoyt said. “It’s just amazing that we won. We are very small. But it is what we do."

The raclette cheese that won the competition is an aged, semi-soft ripened cheese that has a nutty flavor. It is ripened gradually over three months in their cellar on hardwood boards. Special dishes have been created with this superb cheese by the area's top chefs. The cheese is available at the farm's creamery in Sutton's Bay, Michigan and also at their cheese shop. It can also be found at Whole Foods Market in metro Detroit. From the sounds of this they just might need to hire some more employees and start branching out in their cheese marketing.