Lucy’s October 2026 Cheese of the Month: Redlap
Martin and Helen Boyd bought the farm in 2024 just near Dartmouth after years working in Finance at home and abroad.
It’s a beautiful slice of paradise – fields looking out to sea near Dartmouth. Martin had a dream to create a British version of Comté, his favourite cheese. Having planned to rear cows he was informed in no uncertain terms by new neighbours that the land had been home to goats since the Doomsday book and it was most certainly goat country not cow pasture. Not to be daunted Martin duly bought goats and set about experimenting to create a Goat version of an Alpine cheese.
A little bit of cheese knowledge for you here – Comté is a hard cheese and belongs to a set of cheeses known as ‘cooked pressed cheeses’. This means once the curd and whey are separated, the whey remains around the curd and is heated from its ‘cheese make temperature’ of about 32C to 55C. It is this heating that drives off moisture, gives Alpines their tight, slightly chewy texture and helps them to be fabulous melters. It also kills some bacteria and activates other cultures that give that traditional nutty Alpine flavour. Goats’ milk will not tolerate these temperatures, so it was Martin’s chemistry background that helped him create a recipe using some Alpine starter cultures and raise the temperature it their absolute limit (the actual temp remains a secret) and create what is most definitely a triumph of a cheese – ‘Redlap’. The pastures have been planted adding wildflowers and clover and the goats graze here happily looking out over Redlap Bay. One year after creating this extraordinary cheese Martin and Helen won the Best New British Cheese at The People’s Choice 2025. Cheesewick are very happy sponsors of this important award where only public votes count. I had the opportunity to champion this cheese on the night of the final and lead everyone through the tasting so, in order to do that I visited Helen and Martin and experienced the joy, love and passion that goes into this cheese. They truly believe that happy goats will make wonderful cheese and I for one totally agree with them and boy are their goats a happy crowd. It is the Final again of this fantastic competition and we are happy to host all four 2026 finalists on HQ this month so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to properly introduce you to Redlap, the 2025 winner.
So, lets talk about the cheese……
It’s a large wheel with a delightful orangey brown washed rind. Its texture is firm but giving when you cut into it allowing the cheese to offer a wonderful ‘chew’ in the mouth. It’s so much sweeter than you would imagine a goat cheese – by using Alpine starter cultures the cheese as a savoury nuttiness reminiscent of its cow milk mountain cousins but with a tang at the end that just lets you know this cheese is not a standard Alpine. The combination for me is quite magical.
It’s a great cheeseboard cheese and holds it head high amongst blues and softer cheeses. It pairs beautifully with apples or apple chutney, and its slight tang allows it to complement sweeter dried fruits perfectly. Although it is not quite the melter that we expect from an Alpine it made one of the best toasties I have ever had, adding a few walnuts in between the bread.
This is a gateway goats’ cheese – so if you don’t think you like goat, I urge you to try this.
I drank a rather big Chardonnay with it, but I think it also sits well with an IPA.
I made delectable cheese scones with it and some utterly mouthwatering Redlap and fresh chive savoury biscuits for aperitifs. This is an ‘all-rounder’. Eat it on its own, cook with it, hero it on a cheeseboard – I assure you this cheese will not disappoint.
Available from Justin on @no2poundst this month.