Western North Carolina is great. Cheese makes it better.

Earlier this fall, we were fortunate enough to attend the 2022 Carolina Mountain Cheese Festival in support of the Western North Carolina Cheese Trail. The WNC Cheese Trail has two passports on LoyalBrew – one made up of the cheesemakers in the region and the other made up of “pairing partners”. The annual festival showcases many of the local businesses on these passports, which results in an absolutely delicious day of sampling cheeses, cider, spirits, and wine.

This year’s festival was held at the Oak & Grist Distillery Company in Black Mountain, NC. The weather was perfect for the 40 plus vendors who served over 1,000 attendees. Several of the vendors sold out of product long before the festival even ended. As a cheese festival rookie, I quickly learned that the people living in western North Carolina are as serious about cheese as they are about the outdoors. 

I hope author Avery Aames won’t mind my rip off job of her famous quote about cheese, but after this latest visit to western North Carolina, it really is true thanks to the cheesemakers and pairing partners on the WNC Cheese Trail. 

Now that the 2022 edition of the festival has passed, the best opportunity to explore all the outstanding cheesemakers and pairing partners in the region is the WNC Cheese Trail passports on LoyalBrew. If you are local to western North Carolina or taking a trip to Asheville anytime soon, add these passports to your collection to begin your flavorful journey.