Vella Cheese, Sonoma, California

Delivery of fresh milk to the Vella Cheese Factory, Sonoma, California

(Phelim) Have you taken her to the cheese factory yet?

(Marina) No, we went to the coast.

(Marina) What about the cheese factory?

(Marash Girl) That's okay.  I don't have to go cheese tasting.

Allergic to wine, Marash Girl had studiously avoided (hopefully with grace) the wine tastings that beckoned at every winery they passed on their many travels through Sonoma and Napa.  But cheese tasting?  Could California cheeses really be any match for Vermont?

Photo Credit: Marina Sweeney

As Marina put it, we've saved the best for last.  And indeed, the cheeses offered at Sonoma's Vella cheese were varied, and delicious beyond description.  On the way to the airport, assured that the cheeses would last the trip in the hold of the plane, (they do fine when we ship all over the country by UPS, commented the gal offering the freshly cut samples of cheese), Marash Girl agreed to stop at the Vella Cheese Factory where she literally ate her words! 

Three blocks of unmatchable cheese made it back to the East Coast with Marash Girl, unscathed!