The Grafton Cooperative Cheese Company was founded in 1892 by dairy farmers who gathered together in a cooperative to make their surplus raw milk into cheese. In the days before refrigeration, there were many such cooperatives in rural agricultural communities in order to turn an abundance of fresh milk into a food that could be stored for a longer period of time. The Grafton Village Cheese Company, located in Grafton, VT, was the successor to the original Grafton Cooperative Cheese Company. Unfortunately, in 1912, a fire destroyed the original cheese factory. It wasn’t until 1967 that the nonprofit Windham Foundation (whose mission is to “preserve the vitality of Vermont’s rural communities”) restored the company, and a new era for the cheese company and the town was born. The original Grafton Village Cheese factory and cheese caves are located next to the Grafton Inn, which is a historic stagecoach inn established in 1801 along the Boston-to-Montreal route, where notables like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Daniel Webster, Rudyard Kipling, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson would often stay when traveling. In 2008, Grafton Village Cheese opened a second cheese factory in Brattleboro, VT, just 27 miles from its flagship in Grafton.
Today, century-old traditions still stand and the company continues to make their cheese by hand using premium unpasteurized/raw milk from small, local family farms. Fresh milk from Jersey cows is used (as it is a rich milk known for its high protein and high butterfat components) and is delivered to the factory every day for its daily “makes” of cheese. A sample is taken from each milk load and tested for antibiotics prior to being pumped into the large storage tanks and all milk used for Grafton cheeses is guaranteed to be free of rBST hormones. Grafton cheese is also gluten-free and vegetarian, as they use a naturally-derived microbial rennet (a coagulant used during cheesemaking) in their crafting process. Pasteurization of milk alters the richer, more complex flavors in cheese, so raw milk cheese is a joy to artisanal cheese lovers. By law, raw milk cheese must be aged for 60 days. All of Grafton Village’s cheeses are aged for a minimum of 60 days, which ensures that their products are free from harmful pathogens and also retain the creamy, smooth flavor not found in mass-produced cheeses.
Their old-style cheddaring process has long been forgotten by many of today’s larger cheddar companies and the result is Grafton Village’s line of award-winning Cheddars—aged from one to three years— that bear unique flavor profiles reminiscent of the pace and life of Vermont family farms. Flavored cheddars are generally aged at a minimum of two months. The remaining cheddars are aged from one to three years, each year delivering a more sophisticated and pronounced flavor. Grafton’s Clothbound Cave Aged cheddar is aged in Grafton’s caves for up to one year. Grafton cheddar isn’t white and isn’t orange— rather, it’s a light yellowish color, thanks to the Jersey cow milk (no coloring is added). From start to finish, the entire process of making cheddar the Grafton Cheese way takes about five to six hours. On a yearly basis, the company produces approximately 1 million pounds of cheese, using 10 million pounds of milk in the process. It takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of Grafton cheddar.
In February 2019, Mariano Gonzalez joined Grafton Village Cheese Company as Head Cheesemaker. Mariano started making cheese at a very young age and has fond memories of helping his uncle make Queso Paraguay, a traditional fresh cheese of his native country. This early experience set the stage for a life centered around cheesemaking. In 1987, Gonzalez and his wife, Meg, moved to her home in Shelburne, Vermont. Here, he began his cheese career in earnest, learning to make traditional cheddar cheese by hand at Shelburne Farms. During his tenure at Shelburne Farms, the traditional handmade cheddars he made were recognized by the American Cheese Society as best in class. It was also during this time that Mariano began developing the cheese of his dreams: an English-style clothbound cheddar. California was a dream, too, and in 2001 Mariano, Meg and their two children headed west. He was hired as head cheesemaker at Fiscalini Cheese Company in Modesto and continued his quest to make the best cloth-bound cheddar around. Soon after, the Farmstead’s bandage-wrapped cheddar won Best Cheddar at the prestigious World Cheese Awards in England in 2007, 2011 and 2014. There were numerous other signature award-winning cheeses developed under his guidance at Fiscalini.
After returning to Vermont, Mariano joined the Grafton Village Cheese Company in 2019 as head cheesemaker. Under his guidance, Grafton’s traditional cheddars and their cave–aged cheeses have garnered international and national recognition. Beyond the tasting room or his dining room table, Mariano shares his knowledge as a frequent participant in educational panels and industry workshops. He is a member of the American Cheese Society, and has worked for US AID as part of their Farmer-to-Farmer program, helping develop the cheese industry in Central and South America. He may have left Paraguay, but he still carries that memory of making cheese with his tio wherever he goes.
Following the COVID pandemic, Grafton Village Cheese Company (GVCC) closed its modern cheese-making facility in Brattleboro in 2020, and returned its focus to its smaller facility in Grafton. By 2023, Grafton Village Cheese had not recovered from pandemic distribution losses and the board decided that the foundation was not in a position to make necessary recovery investments and began seeking a partner or buyer at that time. Despite having brought home five awards from the American Cheese Society’s 2025 annual competition (including a first for its popular clothbound cheddar), The Windham Foundation recently made the decision to sell Grafton Village Cheese Company to the South Woodstock-based Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company. Vermont Farmstead Cheese was established in 2009 on the South Woodstock site of a former water buffalo dairy and its cheeses and line of Castleton Crackers are sold in about 30 states. This news marks a significant milestone in Grafton Village Cheese’s journey as an artisanal cheesemaker and iconic brand. The two award-winning artisan cheese lines will continue to be sold under their existing brand names, but will benefit from strengthened joint distribution and other operational efficiencies. This strategic move is driven by mutual goals for the long-term success and health of GVCC, a commitment to preserving the rich traditions of artisanal cheese production in Vermont, and a passion for Vermont’s agriculture industry. The team at Vermont Farmstead is investing in GVCC to help ensure this vision remains real.
Current Grafton Village CEO, Curt Alpeter, remarks, “Vermont Farmstead will be a wonderful steward of the GVCC brand by retaining cheesemaking in Grafton and by maintaining the distinctive nature of both brands, as each represents values and craftsmanship cherished by our customers.” He said that 21 of 25 of the Grafton Village Cheese’s employees were staying on with the new company, and that those who are leaving the company had already planned on retiring. Grafton Village Cheese is twice the size of Vermont Farmstead, both in production and number of employees, with Vermont Farmstead having seven full-time employees, and five part-time, by comparison. Like Grafton, Vermont Farmstead gets its cow’s milk from area farms. Underwood said he doesn’t expect that recent tariffs will have any effect on either company, as the cheeses are not sold internationally. The two cheese companies will maintain their separate packaging operations; you can visit Grafton’s Okemo Valley retail store in Proctorsville, VT. In addition to Grafton’s award-winning cheeses, the store offers a carefully curated selection of state, national and international cheeses, along with other specialty foods and artisan gifts and there are free cheese tasting daily. You can also purchase their award-winning cheeses online through Dakin Farm.
Grafton Village offers aged cheddars (one and two year varieties), Vermont cave-made cheeses (Clothbound, Storyteller, Shepsog, and Bear Hill) and flavor-infused cheddars made with all natural ingredients (Truffle, Maple Smoked and Smoked Chili Cheddar). Look for their two-year raw cheddar in the Cheese Department at the Blue Hill Co-op!
