Laura Chenel will build new facility on Eighth Street East

Laura Chenel’s Chèvre has outgrown the historic Stornetta dairy after 16 years and will be moving gradually into a new facility on Eighth Street East. The 30,000-square-foot production facility should be fully operational by the first quarter of 2011. The company purchased land in Carneros Business Park and will be building its own facility, rather than leasing.
The new facility will allow the company to add a number of new artisan goat’s milk cheeses to the existing Laura Chenel line.
Launched in the late 1970s and one of California’s leading producers of fine goat’s milk cheese, Laura Chenel’s Chèvre has been making fresh chèvre and a small amount of aged cheese in the original Stornetta Dairy since 1993. In 2006, the company was purchased by the family-owned French artisan company, Laiteries H. Triballat.
“We will continue the Laura Chenel tradition of great California chèvre by creating new cheeses for the evolving American palate,” said Marie Lesoudier, general manager of the company. “Along with our award-winning line of fresh cheeses, we want to build the right environment for developing new products and this new plant will give us room to innovate and be creative.”
The company will continue to use exclusively goat’s milk from its 15 California and western Nevada producers.
“We are invested in this community and totally committed to the quality and innovation in artisan foods for which Sonoma County is renowned,” stated Lesoudier. “Our long-term employees will be able to develop new products using their classic French cheese making skills and contemporary equipment.”
For more than 50 years, the Triballat company of France has specialized in artisan cheese making by supporting the production of authentic goat’s and cow’s milk cheeses.