Andante Dairy Alto (16oz)

Alto comes from Andante Dairy in Petaluma, California, a one-woman creamery founded in 1999 by Soyoung Scanlan — a Korean-born, classically trained pianist and biochemist who came to cheesemaking almost by accident, after a trip to a French farmers market and a taste of just-ripe Rocamadour goat cheese changed the course of her life. She left behind a career in molecular biology and dairy science, studied the chemistry of milk at Cal Poly, and by choice still makes every cheese herself, by hand, without pumps or mechanized shortcuts, in tiny weekly batches — a philosophy she named her dairy for, "andante" being the musical tempo for a moderate, unhurried, walking pace, reflecting her devotion to the slower rhythm of traditional cheesemaking. True to that ethos, each of her cheeses carries a musical name, and Alto is made from 100% Jersey cow's milk sourced from a nearby family dairy, prized for its richness. The result is an approachable, bloomy-rind cheese with a gooey, milky, slightly salty creamline giving way to a denser, firmer core — a fitting introduction to Scanlan's meticulous, French-inspired style.