Bergader — the Bavarian Who Picked a Fight with Roquefort (and Won)

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Why this maker matters

Bergader is Germany’s soft-cheese market leader and the maker of Bavaria Blu — but its real claim on your attention is the founder’s nerve. Basil Weixler looked at France’s Roquefort, decided Bavaria could do it, and got sued by the French for his trouble. He lost the case and won everything else.

The story

1902: Basil Weixler founds a village dairy in Waging am See, in the Alpine foothills. He has ambition beyond the village. His “Bayerischer Gebirgs-Roquefort” — a Bavarian mountain Roquefort — draws the attention of French Roquefort producers, who sue. The lawsuit backfires on them: the publicity makes Weixler famous, and the cheese, renamed Edelpilz, becomes a German staple. Losing in court; winning in the market.

The company stays family-owned — today the fourth generation of the Kress family — and grows into a mid-size powerhouse: roughly 800 employees, around 1,000 contract farmers, some €330 million in revenue and about 36,000 tonnes of cheese sold (2025 figures).

In 1972 Bergader introduces Bavaria Blu, its triple-crème blue, which becomes one of the defining Bavarian blues alongside Cambozola. And Basils — the smoked-cheese line named for the founder, made to his original recipes — carries one of the great origin details in German cheese: Weixler is said to have learned the smoking method from Trappist monks at Rotthalmünster Abbey around 1902.

The cheeses

Bavaria Blu — triple-crème blue, the 1972 classic; full entry →
Edelpilz — the former “Bayerischer Gebirgs-Roquefort,” the lawsuit cheese
Bonifaz, Bergbauern Käse, Almzeit — the soft-cheese core range
edelblu line — the newer premium blue range
Basils — smoked-cheese line in the founder’s original recipes; Rauchkäse →

Finding it in America

Genuinely available — the second pillar of Bavarian cheese in the US after Champignon. Schuman Cheese (Fairfield, NJ) has been the exclusive importer and distributor since December 2017. The newer edelblu line comes through Abbey Specialty Foods and was on shelves at Tops, Bristol Farms, Central Market, Lake Meadow Naturals, and Mollie Stone’s as of November 2024. Ask for Bavaria Blu by name — good cheesemongers know it.

Visiting

No public visitor program could be confirmed.