Affineur of the Year

Which brings me onto to some home news – @cheese_academy are hosting ‘Affineur of the Year’ again next month.

Only 4 years old, this event has quickly become both one of the most important and one of the most fun events in the cheese calendar. There are four categories – Cheddar, Blue, Washed Rind and Brie. Each candidate receives their very young cheeses from the same batch on the same day. The maturing times are different for each cheese. The makers – @quickescheese, @cropwellbishopcreamery, @whitelakecheese and @fenfarmdairy mature several of the cheeses from that batch in their own dairies to act as ‘controls’.

On the 3rd of June the artisan cheese world will gather, and the cheeses will be judged. There is a winner in each category and an overall ‘Affineur of the year’ is crowned. The Cheese Market sponsors the Cheddar category but this year the Cheese Market team has turned into an entrant! We received our Blue Shropshire at 2 weeks old on March 10th and she has been maturing in my Thameside cellar since. Sitting next door to the Bell and Crown on the Strand, separated from barrels of beer we decided that we would like to bring a little ‘chiswickness’ to her and she has been sitting next to a pint of London Pride for the duration of her maturation. We are also hoping that the yeast from the beer will help the flavour profile. To allow the blue mould to grow we ‘pierced’ her at 5 weeks and have been turning her, controlling the humidity and temperature and generally loving her every day since. A team rota was set up and daily trips to the river cellar are now the ‘norm’ in our lives. Our cheese ‘baby’ is growing up and we are hopeful we have created a fabulous ‘cheesewick’ blue! Watch this space for an update and we hope to have our cheese at the market in June for tasting!