On Friday 28th and Saturday 29th July, we are staying a little closer to home in our search for the best cheeses on the market today. We are designing a special Best of England cheeseboard for this weekend, and I hope Members and guests will enjoy these rare, native delights!
The Cheese Plate
Truffle Baron Bigod
Suffolk artisan cheese legend, Jonny Crickmore, presents this outstanding British brie-style treat made from the milk of his own Montbeliarde cows – the same cows which produce the milk for French Comté and Vacherin Mont d’Or. In processes performed entirely by hand, the precious milk is gravity-fed into the dairy’s cheese vats with great care. Jonny’s Mascarpone is combined with Tartuflanghe Summer Truffle Cream to create an incredible brie, with a heady and complex heart of truffle and the thinnest, mildest rind.
Berkswell
An unpasteurised English sheep’s farmhouse cheese, similar in style to an Italian Pecorino. Berkswell has been produced at 16th-century Ram Hall, in the West Midlands, since 1989. It is famous for its unusual shape and distinctive rind – which gains its appearance from the use of domestic colanders in the curd-draining process. While ostensibly humble, there is a quality to this farmhouse cheese which is hard to find in other examples. There is a strong nutty flavour, with lashings of sweet caramel and a tangy aftertaste. Its qualities are widely recognised, with Berkswell named Supreme Champion, Best English Cheese, and Best Farmhouse Cheese at the 2017 Artisan Cheese Awards.
Little Rollright
The English answer to the famous gooey semi-soft cheeses of France, Little Rollright is a an outstandingly buttery and rich cheese with a thin washed rind and a glossy, melting paste. A mixed herd of Fresian and Shorthorn cows in the Cotswolds provide the milk for this cheese which is wrapped in spruce bands before ripening. Maturation gives the cheese a rare depth of flavour, and the unctuousness of the paste is irresistibly morish in the mouth. Eat your melting heart out, Époisses!
Sinodun Hill
This little piece of Oxfordshire might well be the best tasting and most refined goat’s cheese produced in England today. It won a Gold Award at the World Cheese Awards in 2018. The Norton-Yarrow family are relatively new to cheese production but have looked to the finest French affineurs for inspiration as they grow their dairy. Sinodun Hill uses a slow, lactic set recipe which retains as much flavour from the milk as possible. The tiniest quantity of French thistle rennet coagulant goes into each batch, which gives a perfectly smooth and generous texture. There is no cloy or clag in this cheese and I defy even the hardiest detractor of goat’s cheese not to fall for this delight.
Stichelton
The original name of the town of Stilton, Stichelton is a traditional, unpasteurised blue cheese from the vale of Belvoir in Nottinghamshire. The milk is exposed to a long, slow acidification and is hand-ladled at every stage. One of the few English blues still to use these traditional methods. Joe Schneider has been producing this cheese since 2006, inspired to revitalise traditional blue cheese making processes. The resulting cheese is creamy, rich, and nutty, but the blue tang is subtle and less aggressively salty and tangy than most commercially available Stiltons or similar English blues.
Our Recommended Wines
Biddenden wines must be pre-ordered
W Ortega, Biddenden, Kent, 2020 (£34.00)
R Dornfelder, Gribble Bridge, Biddenden, 2021 (£36.00)
Sp Sparkling White, Gribble Bridge, Biddenden, 2018 (£45.00)
Port Corney & Barrow 20 Year Old Tawny Port (£7.00 per glass)
Members are invited to select their own wine – these are only suggestions