{"id":50264,"date":"2026-01-06T06:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T11:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturecheesemag.com\/?p=50264"},"modified":"2026-01-06T17:27:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:27:30","slug":"blue-ridge-mountain-creamery-appalachia-north-carolina-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturecheesemag.com\/stories\/blue-ridge-mountain-creamery-appalachia-north-carolina-cheese\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to Find Some of the Most Unique Cheese in Appalachia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nothing\u2014not even a record-breaking storm\u2014can suppress the artistry of cheesemaker Victor Chiarizia<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Victor Chiarizia of Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery, a former glass artist-turned-cheesemaker, channels his creative spirit into bold, cave-aged cheeses in North Carolina. Photographed by Jack Sorokin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The winding roads of Appalachia\u2019s Blue Ridge Mountains are characterized by jutting pine trees, sprouting wildflowers, and a hazy blue blanket of mist. The serenity and mystique surrounding these mountains have long drawn artisans, makers, and storytellers to take root in the foothills. That same allure brought cheesemaker and glassblower Victor Chiarizia to Fairview, North Carolina, in 2005. A self-starter by nature, Chiarizia fell in love with the traditional methods of crafting cave-aged cheeses. In 2010, he took a backhoe to the side of the mountain on his property and carved his own cheese cave, launching Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery. Little did Chiarizia know, this cave\u2014a testament to his creativity and grit\u2014would soon withstand one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calm Before the Storm<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chiarizia has a particular proclivity for creativity. Whether his mind is swirling around a sandblasted sculpture or a marbled espresso cheese wheel, Chiarizia\u2019s hands are always coaxing out something creative from the mundane. A glassblower by trade since 1975, Chiarizia\u2019s custom flameworked creations have shown at galleries across the US and are inspired by botanicals, mythology, and his Italian American upbringing. Their organic shapes and storied bodices echo pieces from renowned American glass artist Dale Chihuly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This same precision and care are infused into his cheeses. \u201cBoth glassblowing and cheesemaking can lean industrial or artistic, and there\u2019s a rhythm and system to each,\u201d he says. \u201cFor me, I\u2019m here for the artistry.\u201d After a fire leveled his studio in Connecticut in 2004, Chiarizia wanted to pursue a second business that would be easier on his body, and cheesemaking was something that had resonated with him since childhood. \u201cMy father was a self-sufficient Italian man. He worked hard, no questions asked. We made small-batch farmer\u2019s cheese together when I was a kid,\u201d Chiarizia says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the region is packed with notable goat cheesemakers like Looking Glass Creamery, White Tree Farm, and Round Mountain Creamery, Chiarizia decided to produce cow\u2019s milk cheese to fill the gap. To make his cheeses, he travels twice a week to his friends at Looking Glass Creamery in Columbus for grass-fed raw milk from their herd of 30 cows. When he returns to the make room, Chiarizia pours around 35 gallons of milk into a kettle, where it\u2019s heated, cultures are added, acidity is built and monitored, and curds and whey are separated. Once the acidity and curds are stabilized, the cheese is drained and formed into wheels, then transferred to the cave for aging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If You Build It, Cheese Will Come<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While ideating plans for his creamery, Chiarizia continued to visit family in Italy. He strove to emulate what French and Italian cheesemakers were doing abroad with his own line of aged cheeses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most had one secret for success: a cave. So Chiarizia decided to build one in his own backyard, borrowing a friend\u2019s backhoe to chip away at the land until he hit bedrock nearly 30 feet underground. Satisfied with his newly formed bunker, Chiarizia then poured footings to build an 8-inch concrete frame. Then the cave was covered in 7 feet of soil for insulation. Chiarizia added drains, refrigeration, and a humidification system so the inside would stay around 50 degrees with high humidity. The 18-by-18-foot cave took two years to construct, with walls framing the cave made from rock reserved during the excavation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Victor Chiarizia’s cheeses carefully affinaged in his backyard underground cave. Photographed by Jack Sorokin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t entirely sure how the cheeses would react to the natural environment, so it felt highly experimental,\u201d Chiarizia notes. But just as they do globally, unique molds began to appear\u2014a shifting culture of gray, white, and blue molds that make up the unique terroir of each wheel. Rainwater seeps through the rock wall on the back of the cave, integrating flora from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appalachian Cave-Aged Cheeses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCheesemaking is mostly about cleaning and waiting,\u201d says Chiarizia, who is no stranger to a long and cumbersome process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery produces a variety of cave-aged, natural-rind cow\u2019s milk cheeses, all carefully affinaged in Chiarizia\u2019s underground cave. Their Alpine-style tomme, Ugly Baby, is a mild 5-pound wheel aged for at least three months. It\u2019s the first cheese Chiarizia produced, and it received the mocking namesake in reference to the blind, unwavering love of mothers. Another popular cheese is their garden-fresh, sage-infused wheel aptly titled Alpine Sage. Their pepper jack is aged three months and infused with locally grown Thai chiles. Another fan-favorite, the Johnny Valdez, boasts curds and a rind infused with espresso. This striking cheese gets its playful name from Colombian fictional character Juan Valdez and Chiarizia\u2019s uncle Johnny. Some of their larger wheels include Asiagos aged for a minimum of eight months, and naked and clothbound cheddars\u2014the latter wrapped in muslin and coated in lard from hogs raised by Chiarizia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery cheeses include Ugly Baby, Johnny Valdez, Pepper Jack, Alpine Sage, Asiago, Ridge Blue, and Naked Cheddar. Photographed by Jack Sorokin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While cave-aged cheese is certainly its calling card, Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery is equally well-known for award-winning blues. To carefully monitor the development of his blue cheeses, Chiarizia constructed The Blue Room, a custom-built temperature- and humidity-controlled aging space that sits between the make room and Chiarizia\u2019s workshop and can hold up to 500 pounds of blue cheese. The creamery\u2019s legendary Ridge Blue is a 5-pound wheel with piercing blue veins that\u2019s aged for at least three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery\u2019s cheeses are sold at the Black Mountain Tailgate Market, North Asheville Tailgate Market, and at select local businesses, but the lineup is always shifting to include Chiarizia\u2019s latest experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Storm and Its Aftermath<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On September 27, 2024, Chiarizia\u2019s handcrafted oasis met Hurricane Helene. Chiarizia and his partner had been home when the storm struck in full force; they climbed out of a window to find higher ground. Neighbors were consumed by the flooding, some barely escaping, and many falling victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weeks and months of sifting through debris and destruction set the stage for a solemn year of recovery for Chiarizia and the surrounding community. \u201cThe PTSD is real,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of people won\u2019t be returning to the area now that it holds these memories.\u201d His home, workshop, beloved Blue Room, and acreage were demolished in a matter of hours, but surprisingly, his cheese cave withstood the storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember thinking we\u2019d really lost everything. But I cleared the doorway, and all was OK,\u201d Chiarizia says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a generator and drains, nearly 1,000 pounds of cheese survived the catastrophic impact and was sold at markets the following spring. Salvaging glass-blown vases caked with mud and rubbing intact mold on cave-aging wheels offered small glimmers of hope during an immeasurably difficult period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As time progressed in and around Western North Carolina, communities continued to regain their footing. Chiarizia laughs that he\u2019s now officially \u201cbeen tested by fire, pestilence, and flood\u201d and maintains an outlook that moving forward is the only option. \u201cMy new job is cleaning, rebuilding, and still finding time to create. Some of us are handier than others, so I plan to put my hands to good use and help neighbors rebuild,\u201d he says. And, when Victor Chiarizia puts his hands to work, it\u2019s certain the outcome will be something remarkable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Traverse the Western North Carolina Cheese Trail<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanning from Andrews to Charlotte, the Western North Carolina Cheese Trail connects locals and tourists to the bounty of artisan cheese available in the region. The trail includes creameries, wineries, cideries, restaurants, shops, and farms where visitors can support and enjoy locally crafted cheeses. Plot out a full road trip, steal away for a pit stop, or attend the annual Carolina Mountain Cheese Fest for the ultimate taste of North Carolina cheese.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, visit nccheesetrail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The winding roads of Appalachia\u2019s Blue Ridge Mountains are characterized by jutting pine trees, sprouting wildflowers, and a hazy blue blanket of mist. The serenity and mystique surrounding these mountains have long drawn artisans, makers, and storytellers to take root in the foothills. That same allure brought cheesemaker and glassblower Victor Chiarizia to Fairview, North Carolina in 2005. A self-starter by nature, Chiarizia fell in love with the traditional methods of crafting cave-aged cheeses. In 2010, he took a backhoe to the side of the mountain on his property and carved his own cheese cave, launching Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery. Little did Chiarizia know, this cave\u2014a testament to his creativity and grit\u2014would soon withstand one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit North Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":50282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[33649,26354,11],"tags":[],"coauthors":[34815],"class_list":["post-50264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheesemaker-profile","category-stories","category-travel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhere to Find Some of the Most Unique Cheese in Appalachia | culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The winding roads of Appalachia\u2019s Blue Ridge Mountains are characterized by jutting pine trees, sprouting wildflowers, and a hazy blue blanket of mist. 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A self-starter by nature, Chiarizia fell in love with the traditional methods of crafting cave-aged cheeses. In 2010, he took a backhoe to the side of the mountain on his property and carved his own cheese cave, launching Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery. Little did Chiarizia know, this cave\u2014a testament to his creativity and grit\u2014would soon withstand one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit North Carolina. The winding roads of Appalachia\u2019s Blue Ridge Mountains are characterized by jutting pine trees, sprouting wildflowers, and a hazy blue blanket of mist. The serenity and mystique surrounding these mountains have long drawn artisans, makers, and storytellers to take root in the foothills. That same allure brought cheesemaker and glassblower Victor Chiarizia to Fairview, North Carolina in 2005. A self-starter by nature, Chiarizia fell in love with the traditional methods of crafting cave-aged cheeses. In 2010, he took a backhoe to the side of the mountain on his property and carved his own cheese cave, launching Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery. Little did Chiarizia know, this cave\u2014a testament to his creativity and grit\u2014would soon withstand one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit North Carolina.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/culturecheesemag.com\/stories\/blue-ridge-mountain-creamery-appalachia-north-carolina-cheese\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Where to Find Some of the Most Unique Cheese in Appalachia | culture: the word on cheese","og_description":"The winding roads of Appalachia\u2019s Blue Ridge Mountains are characterized by jutting pine trees, sprouting wildflowers, and a hazy blue blanket of mist. 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The serenity and mystique surrounding these mountains have long drawn artisans, makers, and storytellers to take root in the foothills. That same allure brought cheesemaker and glassblower Victor Chiarizia to Fairview, North Carolina in 2005. A self-starter by nature, Chiarizia fell in love with the traditional methods of crafting cave-aged cheeses. In 2010, he took a backhoe to the side of the mountain on his property and carved his own cheese cave, launching Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery. Little did Chiarizia know, this cave\u2014a testament to his creativity and grit\u2014would soon withstand one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit North Carolina. The winding roads of Appalachia\u2019s Blue Ridge Mountains are characterized by jutting pine trees, sprouting wildflowers, and a hazy blue blanket of mist. The serenity and mystique surrounding these mountains have long drawn artisans, makers, and storytellers to take root in the foothills. 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