Cherished Cheese Company Confirms Closing After 94 Years

SONOMA VALLEY, CA — Vella Cheese Company has stopped taking in milk and making cheese and will close after 94 years in Sonoma.

Fourth-generation cheesemaker Gabe Vella confirmed the announcement by phone this morning.

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"Yes, sadly we are," Vella said. "After 94 years — nearly 95 — we are sadly making the decision to close our doors."

Continuing the family business is no longer financially feasible, he said.

Vella, a fourth-generation member of the cheesemaking family who has worked as a cheesemaker for about 26 years, said the economics of producing Vella's signature Dry Jack ultimately presented a problem that the family could not overcome.

"We've really tried and exhausted all options," Vella said, including partnerships and branding efforts. "We've used up all of our savings."

Vella said the family considered other options for keeping the business going, but another operator could choose to make a different product and discontinue Dry Jack. Vella Cheese is the only remaining producer of Dry Jack, he said.

"It's the business model," Vella said, when asked why the alternatives didn't work out. "Dry Jack is not a profitable product, and we're a little too big and a lot too small to compete on the higher stage."

The company has stopped receiving milk and producing new cheese, but customers should still have time to visit its Sonoma store.

Vella said the family does not yet know the store's final day. Remaining inventory includes Monterey Jack, Toma, aged Jack, and cheese produced about a month ago.

He expects the store could remain open for the next few months as the company sells its remaining inventory.

'Thank you for the support'

An announcement from the Vella family said the business never fully recovered from the challenges of COVID, while the financial demands of operating a small artisanal company in today's food industry became more than it could sustain.

"Cheese production has ceased," the family said. "Our retail store and wholesale warehouse will remain open until our remaining inventory is sold."

The company traces its beginnings to 1931 when a group of dairymen approached Gaetano "Tom" Vella about starting his own cheese factory and offered to supply the quality bulk milk he would need.

Vella, who had arrived in Sonoma in the early 1920s and worked various jobs for Sonoma Mission Creamery, accepted the offer and started the business with another experienced cheesemaker.

Vella established the company in a stone-walled building that already had its own history. Built in 1904 to house a brewery, the structure survived the 1906 earthquake and other earthquakes. The brewery later succumbed to the anti-alcohol movement, and a fire destroyed its wooden third story and left the building in ruins.

Vella Cheese expanded beyond the stone building, and during World War II, the company added shifts and operated around the clock at full capacity.

In 1951, Vella moved the center of his cheesemaking operation to the original Sonoma Mission Creamery building across from Sonoma Plaza and opposite the Sonoma Mission. In 1969, he moved the operation back to the original stone building, where visitors discovered its fresh and Dry Jack cheeses.

The company became particularly known for its Jack cheeses, including Dry Jack. Vella Cheese said it developed the aged grating cheese in response to demand from Italian families.

Tom Vella turned the company over to his children in 1981, and his son, Ignazio "Ig" Vella, continued the family operation and became a recipient of the American Cheese Society's Lifetime Achievement Award.

The company continued making its cheeses by hand in the original building just off Sonoma Plaza, using the old curing rooms and longstanding cheesemaking techniques.

As the family prepares to end that tradition, Gabe Vella thanked the people who kept the company going for generations.

"Thank you for the support all these years," Vella said, also thanking the community. "We really have tried and exhausted all options."

The Vella family echoed that message in its announcement, thanking customers, distributors, vendors, community members, and friends for their support.

"It has been a pleasure and a privilege to share Vella Cheese with you," the family said.