Vendor Spotlight Twenty Paces

Inside cheese caves on their property in Charlottesville, Twenty Paces ages their products anywhere form 60 days to 9 months. Allowing the wheels and mounds to rest until they reach their full potential, the underground lair is home to a number of funky, rindy goodies ranging from Noah’s Arcade, a raw sheep’s milk washed in salt brine to Commander Chicory a lightly veined blue variety and even a ricotta. 

Founded by Melanie Pyne, Tom Pyne, Bridge Cox, Kyle Kilduff, the farmstead sheep creamery in Albermarle County has grown to become one of the most recognized cheese purveyors in the state. Bonding over a passion for bringing to life high-quality sheep and goat cheeses, the four-piece formed an LLC in 2013, adopting a European artisanal model, and introduced their first aged-cheese to the world two years later. 

“The inspiration came from wanting to make farmstead raw milk cheese from pasture based grazing methods,” says Kyle Kilduff, co-owner of Twenty Paces of the creamery coming to fruition. “Cheese is a value added product. It is a way to make the tradition of dairy farming work out financially and more importantly small ruminant farming viable.”

Part careful practice, part dedication and part honing in on the craft, Twenty Paces is now home to a happy herd of sheep and goats and focuses on its mantra of recognizing the importance of prioritizing pasture-raised animals. The cheese that put Twenty Paces on the map, and in markets and menus across the state and beyond (hello, Charleston): Hardware, a pecorino- influenced farmstead raw milk sheep cheese, aged over a year, that is a perfect accoutrement for pastas and salads.

“Taking the process from the pastures to the milking parlor, to making the cheese to aging it over a year is what farmstead cheese production is all about,” says Kilduff. “We started producing cow's milk cheeses last year with milk from Mountain Acres Farm in Dayton Va and it has been great to see how well they have been received as well."

In 2015, Twenty Paces partnered with Cavalier Produce, and Kilduff says, “The relationship has been very beneficial. Amy Worrell [Cavalier’s Certified Cheesemonger] plays a very important role here in Virginia in the industry.”