By Gordon Edgar—
There is a lot of news to share this month, and, outside of some sale prices, none of it good. Sorry in advance.
Starting out with a real heartbreaker, Richard “Rick” Lafranchi, co-owner of Nicasio Valley Cheese Company, recently passed away unexpectedly at the age of 74. Rick was a mainstay in the North Bay cheese world. His family has been on the land there for over a hundred years and Rick and his family have been heavily involved in the movement to save farmland, among other things, working with the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and serving on their Board of Directors for about a decade.
I first ran into Rick and his brother Scott in the early/mid 2000s, years before they started making cheese. They began coming to cheese events and conferences, learning the business, making connections, and studying the craft here of artisan cheese. They were around for so long in our little world that I had a running joke with Rick: “Any cheese yet?” I would ask. “No, but soon!” he’d reply.
And it was always worth the wait. Nicasio currently makes some of the best cheeses around. Many of their cheeses have won awards, but I have two favorites. Their Nicasio Valley Reserve is a complex tomme: grassy, fruity, sour, buttery, and earthy. There is a way that you taste complex cheeses; they kind of start in one direction, you think you know where the flavor is going, but then it changes and surprises. The Reserve challenges the eater in the best possible way.
I help put on an annual judging, and, last year, the Nicasio Square—a washed-rind taleggio-style—took the Best Farmstead Cheese award, garnering the highest point total of all farmstead cheeses in the contest. (“Farmstead” means made on the farm where the mammals live, using only your herd’s milk). I wasn’t a judge, but was very happy to see it because I always tell people this is the most underrated cheese in the Bay Area. It is stinky, oozy, rich, and pungent.
I only knew Rick through cheese, but he was always the friendliest, funniest, most down-to-earth person in the room. Sadly, the news of his passing also comes on the heels of the unexpected loss of Maurizio Lorenzetti, Nicasio’s Swiss cheese-making mentor. Because I don’t want to accidentally start any rumors, I want to make clear that Nicasio Valley cheeses will continue to be produced and available wherever awesome cheese is found. But Rick will be missed by the entire cheese community.
In other news, two great West Coast cheesemakers are calling it quits. Owners Sarah Marcus and Jim Hoffman of Briar Rose Creamery, which makes some of my favorite cheeses including Maia and Butterbloom, are retiring. If you want to buy a cheese plant in Oregon in the wine country outside of Portland, they are looking for a buyer of their turnkey factory. Also, Alemar Cheese—originally from Minnesota but being made in Sonoma County for the last couple of years—is also being discontinued.
In the cheese case this month, you should absolutely check out Good Deal Grotto—where our best sales live—because we have a lot of stuff that distributors were overstocked on. It’s a little unpredictable to know how long those sales last, but you should look for Carr Valley Bread Cheese if it is still there when you read this. It’s a grilling cheese made in Wisconsin that is basically a cow milk Halloumi. It’s the bacon of cheese.
We also have great deals on (block, not farmhouse) Red Leicester, Organic Mild Cheddar, Black Diamond Five-Year Cheddar, Wooly Wooly Diablo, and a cheese called Belaire, a domestic Port Salut-style.
Gordon Edgar loves cheese and worker co-ops and has been combining these infatuations as the cheese buyer for Rainbow Grocery Cooperative since 1994. He serves on the American Cheese Society Judging and Competition Committee and is a member of the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers. Edgar has written two books on cheese—”Cheesemonger” (2010) and “Cheddar” (2015)—and lives in San Francisco with his adorable white mini schnauzer named Fillmore Grumble. He writes about grief, and sometimes cheese, at https://bit.ly/42IwYf0
Over the Rainbow Cheese Counter
Published on May 7, 2026
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