Murray's Cheese Shop, the renowned mecca for cheese lovers in New York City environs, is conducting a month-long promotion to celebrate premium Wisconsin cheeses in February.

An assortment of boutique specialty and artisan cheeses will be sold, and Murray's will also host Wisconsin cheesemakers in consumer events throughout the month. Mike Gingrich, the maker of Pleasant Ridge Reserve, a farmstead cheese that is a two-time best-of-show winner in American Cheese Society competitions, will conduct an educational meet-the-cheesemaker class at Murray's Feb. 23.

Cards with recipes using featured Wisconsin cheeses also will be available free to Murray's shoppers, and Murray's will include dishes showcasing Wisconsin cheeses in their prepared foods offerings. In addition to selling selected varieties from the case, Murray's will feature a special sampler cheese box of eight Wisconsin varieties while supplies last. Both shops, the flagship Greenwich Village shop at 254 Bleecker St., and The Market at Grand Central (station) store, will participate in the promotional activities.

Murray's collection of Wisconsin cheeses include Les Frères and Mascarpone from Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese; Solè Gran
Queso and Vintage Van Gogh from Roth Käse USA; Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Uplands Cheese Co.; Limburger and Brick from Chalet Cheese Co-operative; Cocoa Cardona and Mobay from Carr
Valley Cheese Co.; Stravecchio™ from Antigo Cheese Co.; and
Black River Blue from DCI
Cheese Co., Inc.

Cheesemaker store visits will kickoff with two Wisconsin Master Cheesemakers. Larry Steckbauer of Antigo Cheese Co. and Sid Cook of Carr Valley Cheese will meet Murray's customers Feb. 8 at Grand Central and Feb. 9 at Bleecker St. Steckbauer makes Stravecchio™, a premium Parmesan-type cheese aged 20 months and winner of numerous competitions. Cook is one of Wisconsin's most decorated cheesemakers, both for his family's outstanding aged Cheddars and for a new line of artisan, monastery style cheeses he's developed in recent years. Also appearing at Bleecker St. Feb. 9 is Jodie Wische, a Roth Käse representative and cheesemaker herself. When Roth Käse came to Wisconsin in the early '90s, Swiss cheesemakers came too, and taught their skills to local craftsmen. The techniques and Swiss equipment are still used by Roth Käse cheesemakers.

Another of Wisconsin's elite Master Cheesemakers group, Myron Olson of Chalet Cheese Cooperative, will be on hand Feb. 15 (Grand Central) and Feb. 16 (Bleecker St.). Olson crafts the only Limburger made in the United States as well as Chalet's signature Brick cheese, a Wisconsin original. Also visiting will be Vince Staiger, a company representative with DCI-Black River Blue. The cheese is made at the 80-year old North Hendren Dairy Co-op from a well guarded recipe. Gingrich of Uplands will wind up store activities Feb. 22 at Grand Central and Feb. 23 at Bleecker St.

Wisconsin, the leading cheese-producing state in the country, wins more awards than any other state or country and has won the Best of Show award at the American Cheese Society competition five of the last eight years. Increasingly, the state is crafting fine specialty cheeses such as handmade, small batch, one-of-a-kind styles. Wisconsin's heritage of more than 160 years of cheesemaking, combined with its outstanding milk quality, contribute to the expertise of its craftsmen, whose passion for excellence is renowned.

The promotion was facilitated with Murray's by Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, a nonprofit organization funded by the dairy farmers of Wisconsin, which promotes the consumption of milk and other dairy products made in America's Dairyland.