WESTMINSTER WEST, Vt. – Cheesemakers Peter Dixon and his wife Rachel Fritz Schaal, of Parish Hill Creamery in Westminster West, Vt., have been making cheese and perfecting their craft for more than five decades, and over the years, the work has certainly paid off. Recently, the creamery’s own West West Blue Cheese has won a prestigious Super Gold award at the Guild of Fine Foods’ World Cheese Awards.
Held at the BernExpo in Berlin, Switzerland, the Guild of Fine Foods is an organization established in 1995 that champions independent food and drink retailers, producers, wholesalers, and distributers, by creating a network between the producer, the retailer and the food lover. This year’s event featured more than 5,000 varieties of cheese, provided by cheesemakers from over 40 countries worldwide.
This award-winning blue cheese is also created with local milk that comes from grass-fed herds exclusively at the Elm Lea Farm, located at the Putney School, making this cheese an especially home-grown product. The West West Blue Cheese was also the only Vermont-made cheese to win a Super Gold award at this event.
Dixon is an experienced and renowned Vermont cheesemaker, and has been a consultant for not only Vermont cheesemakers, but artisans all over the country. He has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in dairy food science from the University of Vermont.
Dixon started making cheese on his family’s farm in Dummerston, and then at the Guilford Cheese Farm. Parish Hill Creamery currently produces 15 varieties of cheese, and an estimated 20,000 pounds of cheese annually. They exclusively use natural methods to make their cheese, including only producing cheese seasonally when the cows are out on the unseeded pastures that have been grazed rotationally and regeneratively now for more than 20 years.
Parish Hill Creamery also won six other cheese awards at the event, including a gold medal for their cheese Reverie; silver medals for their Kashar, Jack’s Blue, Idyll, and Humble; and a bronze medal for the Vermont Herdsman. They also won a Super Gold award in 2024 for their Jack’s Blue. Winning a Super Gold indicates one of the top 103 “exceptional” cheeses in the world.
However, other Vermont-area cheesemakers are certainly creating award-winning products as well, including the Grafton Village Cheese Company, whose Shepsog cheese, made with local sheep’s milk, was awarded a bronze medal at the event. Additionally, Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vt., also won a medal for their Withersbrook Blue Cheese.