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An Advocate for Artisan Cheese

A fortuitous family drive opened up the world of artisan cheese to Jim Pionkoski.

“We were past Dodgeville on our way to Spring Green,” Pionkoski said. “We passed a cheese factory and I had never been in one. It was an old one, a house somebody had converted into a cheese factory.”

They stopped, thinking they would pick up some fresh cheddar cheese curds.

“They only had two kinds of cheese – bleu and gorgonzola. I thought, ‘This is going to be horrible,’” Pionkoski said.

Little did he know that he had just stepped into a “Eureka!” moment, or that his palate and mind were about to be opened to the world of artisan cheese.

Jim Lundstrom, WI Cheese Masters

Photo by Jim Lundstrom.

“Both cheeses were outstanding. Both, I found out from the cheesemaker, were world champions,” he said.

Pionkoski and his wife, Katie Harding, fell in love with the Montforte Bleu and Gorgonzola, and returned to their then-home in Milwaukee thinking they could buy more of the delicious cheese at their local supermarket, only to find that not to be the case.

With an MBA in marketing and years in the marketing business, Pionkoski had been looking to start an online business.

“I didn’t know what I would be selling,” he said.

That was until he realized how difficult it was to find Wisconsin artisan cheeses right here in Wisconsin, not to mention the rest of the world. In March 2008 he launched WisconsinCheeseMasters.com, an online source for the fastest-growing segment of Wisconsin’s cheese market. Three years ago they opened a retail business at the top of the hill on Highway 42 as you enter Egg Harbor.

“I’ve been visiting Door County since I was four,” Pionkoski said. “When this space became available, we thought it would make perfect augmentation to the business.”

Pionkoski has come to know many of the cheesemakers whose products he sells, and loves to share their stories with visitors to the shop as he provides them with samples of exotic artisan cheeses made from cow, goat and sheep milk. All are either artisan or farmstead (the farmer is also the cheesemaker) cheeses.

“They’re made in smaller batches,” he said. “More time and attention is put into the cheese. Nothing is a substitute for time. It is by far the fastest-growing segment of the market in Wisconsin. It’s up from five percent of all the total cheese made in 2007 to [more than] 20 percent now.

If you’d like to discover the world of artisan cheese the way Jim Pionkoski did – right where it’s made – you can download the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board’s map of all things dairy in Wisconsin, which includes information on cheese plants throughout the state: eatwisconsincheese.com/wisconsin/travelers_guide.aspx.

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