It’s something you won’t find anywhere in Southern Oregon, a creamery right on site at Wooldridge Creek Winery. It offers the full experience for wine and cheese lovers alike. "It’s the first creamery winery combo in Oregon,” says Aiyah Geier. And that title still stands, according to the Oregon Cheese Guild. Geier is the Crushpad Creamery Manager and Head Cheesemaker at Wooldridge Creek. She's been making cheese here for the last eight years. “Started when my twins went into kindergarten and I was looking for my perfect job, which was a cheesemaker. The ladies here at Wooldridge had just started the creamery. I interviewed and got the job," Geier says. She calls herself a homestead kind of person. A gardener and a cook and she wanted to start integrating food and science to add to her skill list. Aiyah makes cheese a couple of times a week in the winter. In the summer months, that's bumped up to about three times a week. “People are really excited. We actually have people who come to the winery just for the cheese. The Oregon Cheese Guild has an Oregon cheese map so people like to come and visit. What we, Steve the winemaker and I have really tried to do is pair the wine and cheeses together so people can have a full experience and enjoy the cheese and wine pairings to their fullest.”


The creamery outsources its milk from an organic cow dairy about two miles down the road. And they make several different cheeses. “We do a fromage blanc, which is a soft spreadable, cow’s milk cheese, similar to a chevre, but it’s cow. We do a lot of bloomy rind cheeses, like a brie camembert style, and we do several aged cheeses as well.” She's learned a lot in the last eight years making cheese here, "making cheese at home is one thing, scaling up is always a much bigger process, but here it’s been great, especially in the role I’m in I get to experiment as my palette grows, meet other cheesemakers and try a lot of cheese, I get inspiration, experiment with things and in this close knit environment, I can see what works and what doesn’t work.” The creamery also started a monthly cheese club for those fans who just can't get enough. It's three different cheeses a month and they, of course, come with wine suggestions. So if you're into incredible views, tasty wine, and a plate of fresh cheeses made just yards from the tasting room, stop by for a visit. "I think that’s one of the special things about Wooldridge, too. We have that experience and the wine is all estate grown, and we’re making the cheese right here, it creates this super unique experience. You can really taste the place here.” [Visit Wooldridge Creek Winery >](https://www.wcv.farm/)