This rustic, stony wheel is the Bandaged Cheddar, from cheesemaker Willi Lehner of Bleu Mont Dairy in Blue Mounds, WI, a bit of a living legend these days and the wild man of the Wisconsin cheese scene. Best known (by reputation at least) for his “Earth Schmier” cheeses, which are washed with a brine made from soil and plant samples that Willi collects in the woods near his farm (Willi has a reputation for his knowledge of terroir and the local microbiology of Wisconsin), the Bandaged Cheddar is a tribute to the British bandaged styles of cheddar, with its own personality and flair.
Willi, a Wisconsinite of Swiss descent, grew up in the cheese and dairy world. His parents were Swiss immigrants, and his father worked in a local cheese factory. In his 20’s, Willi spent time in Switzerland making butter and cheese in the alps, and when he came back, he first started his career making cultured butters, using traditional European methods. His farm is committed to sustainability; powered by a wind turbine and solar panels, the cheese caves were carved into the ground, and a straw-bale building was erected to act as an affinage facility. The cows are pastured and production seasonal, and all cheeses are organic and made from raw milk. Willi is known for his fascination with the local flora and microbiome, and is constantly experimenting with ways to encourage the local cultures to take root in his wheels, most strikingly in his “Earth Schmier” experiments.
A broken butter churn encouraged Willi to take a break, and, with a grant from the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research, he spent time in England working alongside traditional cheddar makers, learning the bandaged, or “clothbound” methods. After returning to Wisconsin, cheesemaking began in 2007, but to this day Willi doesn’t even make the cheeses on-site; neighboring cheesemakers, including Uplands Dairy — home of another Wisconsin cheese celebrity, Andy Hatch, maker of Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Rush Creek Reserve — allow Willi to rent time at their vats, after which the cheeses are transported back to his farm to be affinaged. Currently Willi makes a small variety of cheeses, including the Bandaged Cheddar, a Gouda, Farmstead Käse, Irish Gems, Lil’ Will’s Big Cheese, and the Earth Schmier.
From the outside, this cheese looks like the earthen cave that it came from, with the stony-gray and brown, dusty bandages stiff and cracked on the outside, frosted with white molds, and a musty, mildewy aroma. Peeling it back (with a heavy scattering of dust in the process) reveals the ivory paste, dense, smooth and dry, on this wedge fractured and angled like a cracked rock face, lightly scattered with tyrosine crystals. handling the cheese tends to break it into long horizontal shards, perfectly sized for nibbling on. The flavor of the Bandaged Cheddar is extremely rich and complex — Madame Fromage describes the taste, aptly, as “like walking through a damp forest in October” — with a deep woodsy, gamey quality and a complex swirl of notes including caramel, citrus,toasted nuts, smoked meats, and earthy, mildewy, wet hay notes near the rind.
Purchased at Murray’s Cheese.