Salemville Amish Gorgonzola Cheese

I really enjoy blue cheese, and Salemville Amish Gorgonzola, a brand of the DCI Cheese Company of Wisconsin, is a good blue cheese.  Firm and a bit crumbly right out of the package, it melts in your mouth into a buttery creaminess with a somewhat mild blue flavor.  It's quite enjoyable, and relatively inexpensive.  I would unreservedly recommend it to anyone looking for a high-quality blue cheese.

The thing is, it's not a real Gorgonzola.  Real Gorgonzola is produced within a very specific Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) within Italy.  And because of that, other cheeses that call themselves Gorgonzola...well...aren't.  And they don't quite taste like it, either.  I've had imported Italian Gorgonzolas that were velvety soft and shot through with unholy-looking lacy green veins that tasted like they were handed down from Cheese Paradise.

The reason countries around the world adopt designations of origin has nothing to do with protectionism.  It has to do with quality assurance.  Champagne isn't just some sort of light fizzy white wine - it can't bear the name unless it comes from the Champagne region of France.  Same thing with cheese.  An American company shouldn't be allowed to label their Wisconsin-made blue cheese as "Gorgonzola" without some kind of qualifier.  "Gorgonzola Style" maybe.

Enough ranting.  Are you looking for a better-lhan-decent domestic bleu cheese?  Try the Salemville stuff - I bet you'll be pleased.
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