This year’s Outstanding in the Field farm-to-table dinner was a great success.
Thank you! Join us next year.
Watch our video from the 2011 Outstanding in the Field Tour.
2013 Outstanding in the Field:
Thursday July 18, 2013
Monteillet Fromagerie, Walla Walla, WA
Guest Chef: Hannah MacDonald, Brasserie Four, Walla Walla
photo credit: Serena of The Farm Chicks Blog
In their latest issue which has just hit the stores, Seattle Met magazine confirms what we’ve known for a long time…”The best harvest in town isn’t made of grapes.” Writer David Laskin takes you to our fromagerie and gives you a little tour. Next time you visit Walla Walla wine country, come and visit us. Better yet, book a farm stay The Gite, our guest house, and spend some time with us.
Walla Walla Beyond Wine
The best harvest in town isn’t made of grapes.
By David Laskin
Seattle Met Magazine
July 2013
“Terroir—the taste of the land—factors into cheese as well as wine,,” says Joan Monteillet of Monteillet Fromagerie. “Pairing food and wine is much more interesting than just wine tasting—and you’re much more sober afterwards.”
“…The drive from Walla Walla to Monteillet Fromagerie takes you through quintessential Palouse landscape—25 miles of billowing wheat planted on pillows of loess. Joan Monteillet’s family grew wheat on these hills for three generations, but 13 years ago she and her French-born husband Pierre-Louis traded agro-biz monoculture for diversified niche farming. They bought 32 bucolic acres on the Touchet River near the tiny town of Dayton and pastured small herds of French Alpine goats and Lacaune sheep. They started making limited batches of gourmet cheeses. Then they added an organic vegetable garden and sold the produce on the farm and at farmers markets around the region. They opened a cheese tasting room and began offering cheesemaking workshops and cooking demonstrations. Today Monteillet Fromagerie is a pilgrimage stop on the agro-tourism circuit.”
“Want a taste of farm life—and the Monteillets’ divine cheese…” Mountain Living recommends you come see us, have a farm stay at The Gite and learn to make cheese in one of your hands-one workshops.
“In Washington’s Walla Walla Valley, an area known for producing luscious wines, Joan and Pierre-Louis Monteillet nurture a different (but perfectly complementary) craft: cheese-making. At the fromagerie on their 32-acre farmstead, the couple churn out fresh herbed chèvre, sheep’s-milk mozzarella, brie-style Cardabelle and other small-batch, totally natural cheeses made of milk from the farm’s own dairy. (The particular breeds of sheep and goats the couple raise produce milk with a high butter-fat content—perfect for making creamy French-style cheese.) The Monteillets use traditional methods that Pierre-Louis learned in Roquefort, France, where world-famous cheeses are aged in natural caves.”
Mountain Living’s March/April 2013, “For the Love of Local”
Wanderlust and Lipstick, the women’s travel blog, came to visit us. Women, you will absolutely love our farm. Don’t take our word for it, ask Dayton Strong!
by Daytona Stong
published September 17, 2012
“While wine is the big draw to the Walla Walla Valley, there’s a lot more going on in this little corner of southeast Washington. When you need to give your palate a break, check out the other sights and activities this area has to offer.”
Sorry, the blog post is no longer available online.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Monteillet Fromagerie, Dayton, WA
Guest Chef: Chris Ainsworth, Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen, Walla Walla
Time: 4pm
Purchase Tickets Here>>
We’re participating in Outstanding in the Field’s (OTIF) 2012 tour again this year!
“This is Walla Walla wine country. OITF founder Jim Denevan loves it here. Who wouldn’t? It’s so darn pleasant and welcoming. Farmers/cheesemakers Pierre-Louis and Joan are like long lost friends you knew in another life or maybe on another planet, and you’ve somehow reconnected here in Eastern Washington. There’s lots to see and learn at Monteillet. Last year’s visit was fantastic, and all of us at OITF are very excited to be going back. Our guest chef Chris Ainsworth of Saffron Restaurant in Walla Walla is on the 2012 James Beard Awards long list – another reason to not miss this event.”
To purchase tickets and to view event details visit the OITF website.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Monteillet Fromagerie, Dayton, WA
View the Video of the Outstanding in the Field/Monteillet Fromagerie July 13, 2011 Event
Video by Lyle and Wendy Morgan, www.morganvideo.com
For more great photos of the Outstanding in the Field event, check out our Facebook page>>
We’re participating in Outstanding in the Field’s (OTIF) 2011 tour! This will be the first OTIF public event in Eastern Washington and the Walla Walla wine region.
With our first Walla Walla public event we will visit the Monteillet artisan cheese making operation in Dayton, hear from Pierre-Louis and Joan, see the animals and find out how the cheese comes to be. After a tour around the property guests will find a seat at a table and start out with a glass off Walla Walla’s finest. Outstanding guest chef Jamie Guerin of Whitehouse-Crawford has a full list of local farmers featured on his restaurant website. The menu will reflect the best of Walla Walla, the best of the season. ~ Outstanding in the Field website
Event details are posted on the OITF website.
By Bruce Schoenfeld
Published: March 2005
In the sleepy southeastern corner of Washington state, a quiet revolution is under way. Meet some of the passionate (even obsessed) vintners, chefs, and farmers who are making Walla Walla this country’s next great wine destination.
I won’t soon forget the first meal I ate in Walla Walla. It was six years ago, just as the local wine industry was beginning to boom. One of the area’s leading viticulturists, a man of some sophistication, took me to what he pointedly called “the best restaurant in town.” His quote marks hung in the air like smoke; before long, I understood why. The restaurant was a family steak house, on the model of a Sizzlerbut lacking the predictability of a chain. The room smelled like a school cafeteria, and the meat that arrived at our table tasted like something an office-supply store might sell.
Now I sit at a dining room table in Dayton, Washington, half an hour outside Walla Walla, reveling in the unmistakable, earthy scent of fresh truffles….
read more>>
