Grafton Village Cheese Company is a cheesemaker in the town of Grafton in the U.S. state of Vermont. The company produces hand-crafted aged cheddar cheese.
The company is the successor to the 1892 Grafton Cooperative Cheese Company, which was founded to handle surplus local milk.[1] The original company went out of business due to a fire.[1] It was restored in the mid-1960s with help from the Windham Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to "preserve the vitality of Vermont's rural communities".[2][3][1] Grafton's cheddar is synthetic-hormone-free and made mostly from Jersey cow milk from Vermont family farms.[3][4] The most common cheese offered by the Grafton Cheese is their block cheddar, made in 40 pound blocks and then cut to different sales sizes.[4]
In July 2008 the company celebrated the opening of a new production plant and retail store in Brattleboro.[3] The shop is "a 2,500-square-foot classic barn-like structure encompassing a full-service artisanal cheese shop" offering "more than 70 types of cheeses, wine, Vermont microbrews, fresh bread, maple products and other gourmet food items and accompaniments."[3]
In 2014, the Grafton Spring Brook milk Cheese won the "Best USA Cheese trophy" at the 2014 International Cheese Awards.[4]