TASTING: CHEESE & CIDER

How do you like them apples?

Like beer, the artisan and craft scenes have grown rapidly in the last decade. And that makes this drink ripe for pairing with cheese. PATRICK McGUIGAN assembled an expert tasting panel to explore the possibilities. Photography by SEAN CALITZ.

WE’VE SEEN A revolution in the UK in recent years thanks to a new wave of exciting artisan producers, creating products steeped in tradition and terroir. And for once we’re not talking about cheese.

British cider has undergone its own remarkable transformation in the past decade. Where craft beer and natural wine led, ‘fine cider’ has followed with traditional cider makers being joined by new producers, who are finding success in restaurants and specialist shops. The parallels with the British cheese renaissance, which has seen artisan producers go on a similar journey, are hard to ignore, especially when for many people cider is the perfect pairing for cheese.

With all this in mind, Good Cheese decided to unite the two by bringing together four experts at the Cider House in Borough Market to dig a little deeper into why cheese and cider are natural allies, and to find 10 killer matches across a range of cheese styles.

The afternoon starts with a discussion about British cider and why it works so well with cheese. Cider merchant Felix Nash sets the scene: “Fine cider, made on a small scale using craft skills and traditional fruit varieties, has really flourished in the past five years,” he says. “People are more interested in provenance and the fact it’s so different to the massmarket stuff. There’s been a rediscovery of something quite distinctively British.”

Cider-maker Mary Topp regularly holds cheese and cider tastings at her cidery in Hampshire. “My dad started making cider 35 years ago and used to come to events at Borough to educate people about real cider,” she says. “Now we’re hosting corporate groups, hen parties and everyone in between.”

Cheese and cider are natural bedfellows, according to Sam Wilkin, who works closely with both cheese and cider-makers. “Cheese and wine is the accepted thing, but it’s actually hard to find one wine that will match a big range of cheeses. But cheese and cider sit so comfortably together. There’s acidity, fruitiness, tannins and they all seem to work in harmony.”

Lucy Wright nods along in agreement with Wilkin. She has long been a wine-lover, but started selling cider at Buchanans’ shop during lockdown. “There’s a lot of similarity between the wine and cider worlds in areas like acidity, tannin and terroir,” she says. “I’ve done lots of pairing with cheese and cider and they definitely work.”

MEET THE PANEL

Patrick McGuigan

Cheese expert and journalist Patrick led the tasting and recorded the comments for this article

Lucy Wright

Operations manager at London’s Buchanans Cheesemonger, which supplies many of the city’s best restaurants

Felix Nash

Founder of the Fine Cider Company and author of Fine Cider: Understanding the World of Fine, Natural Cider

Sam Wilkin

An experienced cheesemonger and cider devotee, Sam runs Cellarman Makes, producing video content and podcasts for artisan food and drink producers

Mary Topp

Director of New Forest Cider, which makes cider using apples from its own orchards. Co-owner of the Cider House in Borough Market

Wading In, 2020 Little Pomona, Herefordshire 8.3% abv, 100% Egremont Russet

Sinodun Hill Norton & Yarrow, Oxfordshire, England Pasteurised goats’ milk, soft, yeast ripened

A match full of pure flavours to start things off. Wading In is a pétillant cider, made with 100% Egremont Russet using the ‘ancestral method’ (wild fermentation in a tank, finished in the bottle).

Lightly sparkling with floral and green fruit flavours, it is the perfect foil for Sinodun – a wrinkly rinded goat’s cheese with a whipped texture and mouth filling richness. “Egremonts are low in tannins and have a juicy acidity, so when you put the two together it creates a lovely tart, almost gooseberry flavour,” says Felix Nash. Sam Wilkin likes the textural contrast. “There’s a gentle fizz to the cider, but with the cheese it foams up and fills the mouth.”

Gin Perry, 2021 Butford Organics, Herefordshire 5.5%, 100% Gin Perry Pears

Old Roan Wensleydale Curlew Dairy, Yorkshire, England Raw cows’ milk, crumbly, cloth-bound

There’s a lot of love in the room for buttery, crumbly Old Roan. “This evokes childhood memories straight away,” says Mary Topp. “My dad would go to country shows with his cider and bring these kinds of cheeses back. It’s got such a lovely warm buttery flavour.”

Half the room loves the cheese with the medium sweet, naturally sparkling perry (made using the ancestral method), which is alive with citrus and floral notes. The other half isn’t so sure.

Lucy Wright is a lover. “Put the two together and it’s all light and twinkly and floral. This is a really lovely delicate match.” Chair Patrick McGuigan agrees, casting the deciding vote in favour of the match.

Appellation, 2019 Find & Foster, Devon 8% ABV, blend

Manchego Ojos del Guadiana, La Mancha, Spain Raw sheep’s milk, hard

Everybody is in agreement about the next pairing. Made using the same ‘traditional method’ as Champagne, Appellation spends two years on the lees. Delicate aromas of honey, hay and green apples with a creamy mouthfeel, it increases the intensity of the Manchego, which after nine months of maturation has developed deep meaty notes, plus an interesting herbaceous quality.

“The cider really elevates the cheese and brings out a deep lanolin note that is amazing,” says Wright. Topp agrees: “I’ve gone on a real journey with that cheese. There’s an initial nuttiness, but then it went into a deeper flavour with lots of roasted lamb fat notes.”

People are more interested in provenance and the fact it’s so different to the mass-market stuff. There’s been a rediscovery of something quite distinctively British.

Felix Nash, Fine Cider Company

Le Gruyère AOP Imported by Käseswiss, Fribourg, Switzerland Raw cows’ milk, hard cooked

While the Comté was sweet and nutty, the 18-month Gruyère is a much beefier proposition full of brothy, umami depth, plus notes of roasted onions and exotic fruits. After much mixing and matching, the smoky, toffee apple notes of Tamoshanta is declared a perfect pairing. Pilton uses a process called keeving to retain natural sweetness in the cider, before it is aged in Scotch whisky barrels, which helps develop the oaky, smoky notes.

“Oh yes, that definitely works for me,” says Topp. “There’s a crunchy savouriness in the cheese that is really emphasised with the cider. It feels special – salty, sweet and lovely,”

Nash waxes lyrical about the “plummy berry notes” in the cider, while Wilkin likens the match to sitting in a “big leather arm chair next to a big log fire.” A real crowd pleasing combo.

Cheddar On My Mind, 2021 Cellarman / Oliver’s Fine Cider, Herefordshire 6.8% ABV, Yarlington Mill and barrel-aged varieties

Westcombe Cheddar Westcombe Cheese, Somerset, England Raw cows’ milk, hard, cloth-bound

If one cheese is a natural fit for cider, it’s cheddar. Sam Wilkin is so taken with the match that he has worked with Oliver’s to create a cider specifically to drink with the cheese. Cheddar on My Mind is made by blending barrel aged ciders, adding sweetness with a keeved cider and sparkle through carbonation. His efforts are well-received by the other panellists.

“The cheese becomes like hot buttered crumpets with marmite in my mouth when I take a sip of the cider,” says Nash. For Wright, the cheese and cider “flowed together so smoothly.”

There’s a lot of similarity between the wine and cider worlds in areas like acidity, tannin and terroir

Lucy Wright, Buchanans Cheesemonger

Kingston Black, 2020 Wilding Cider, Somerset 4.3% ABV, 100% Kingston Black

Gouda Cono Kaasmakers, Westbeemster, Holland Pasteurised cows’ milk, hard, waxed

“This is a remarkable cheese,” declares Topp. “I didn’t realise Gouda could be so intense and have such big, bold, complex flavours, so it really needs something that can stand up to it.”

Step forward Kingston Black, made with fruit from five 35-year-old trees, which has toffee apple, stewed plum and plum notes framed by acidity and tannins. It more than holds its own against the 42-month cheese.

“The sweetness and the weight of the cider really meet the cheese head on,” says Nash. “This is a bold pairing.”

Wild Ferment Rolling Blend Perry Oliver’s Fine Cider, Herefordshire 6%, blend of pears, including Blakeney Red, Red Pear, Red Longdon, Gin and Butt

Parmigiano Reggiano La Villa, Parma, Italy Raw cows’ milk, hard cooked

This delicate, sparkling perry is a surprise hit with the 24-month Parmesan. On paper, the intensely savoury cheese should have been too much, but the bubbles refresh the palate and bright pear and rhubarb notes bring out the fruitiness of the cheese.

“I think it’s amazing that something so delicate can work with such a strong cheese,” says Nash. “The perry takes the cheese in different directions,” highlighting the cheese’s fruity notes and savoury base. Wilkin is also a big fan, “It’s taken me back to the taste of lip balm and sweets when I was a child.”

Stoke Red, 2020 Wilding Cider, Somerset 3.8%, 100% Stoke Red

Langres Schertenlieb, Haute-Marne, France Raw cows’ milk, soft, washed rind

A moment of quiet reflection hits the judges as they mull over the combination of ripe, oozy Langres and Stoke Red cider. Then everyone begins talking at once about how much they love the red fruit flavours and bright acidity of the cider with the yeasty, lactic Langres. “There’s fruitiness in both cheese and cider and when you put them together it turns the volume up even more,” says Wright, noting raspberries and strawberries. “The bubbles are cutting through the creamy layer beneath the rind, but there’s also a lactic tang to the cheese in the centre, which is mirrored by the cider. This is a standout match.”

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My dad used to come to events at Borough to educate people about real cider. Now we’re hosting corporate groups, hen parties and everyone in between.

Mary Topp, New Forest Cider The Mayflower – Fourth Voyage in Uncharted Territory, 2020 Oliver’s Fine Cider, Herefordshire 7.8% ABV, blend including Yarlington Mill, Dabinett, Michelin, Catley Red, Foxwhelp and Redstreak

Époisses Gaugry, Côte-d’Or, France Raw cow’s milk, soft washed rind

The Époisses that hits the table for the next pairing has a brick-coloured rind, sticky and pungent with powerful aromas of farmyard and smoked fish, while the paste is rich and oozy. Finding a cider to take on such a big cheese isn’t easy, but barrel-fermented and aged Mayflower, which is sweetened with ice cider, is (just about) equal to the task.“The smell from this cheese is intense – it’s like Copydex glue, seashells and spicy peanuts,” says Nash. “But there’s enough woody and ripe fruit notes in the cider to handle it.”

New Forest Cider Medium New Forest Cider, Hampshire 7% ABV, blend

Pevensey Blue Pevensey Cheese Company, East Sussex, England Pasteurised cows’ milk, soft, blue.

Mary Topp has brought a bottle of her own cider to the tasting, which turns out to be a firm friend to various different cheeses, but especially to our final choice: Pevensey Blue. “There’s a biscuity sweetness to the cheese, which is picked up by the sweetness of the cider and the saltiness of the cheese smooths out the tannins,” says Wilkin. Nash likes the way the fruity quality of the cheese is heightened by the cider. “It’s bringing out pear and orange notes that I really like. This is a very, easy uncomplicated match.”

TOP FIVE MATCHES

Stoke Red & Langres (the winner) Cheddar On My Mind & Westcombe Cheddar Appellation & Manchego Curado Tamoshanta & Le Gruyère AOP Oliver’s Perry & Parmigiano Reggiano

SPAIN’S LOVE OF sheep’s milk cheese is legendary. And nowhere is this truer than Castile and León, the country’s biggest producer of sheep’s milk. The region is famous for traditional cheeses, such as Zamorano and Castellano.

While these classic cheeses are uniquely ingrained in the region’s food culture, there is still room on the cheeseboard for other styles and flavours. Castile and León is also the country’s second largest producer of cow’s milk and in the top five for goat’s milk – a dairy culture that is reflected in innovative mixed milk cheeses.

Combining milk from different species is a rarity in the UK, where cows rule the fields, but the method has a proud history in Spain, stretching back to when small farms would mix milk from different animals until they had enough to make cheese.

Queso Iberico, made with cow, sheep and goat’s milk, is one of the most popular mixed milk cheeses in Spain, and is an important product for El Gran Cardenal in Medina del Campo, Valladolid. The family company makes two types: ‘semi-curado’ (aged two to four months) and ‘curado’ (four to six months).

“There is a tradition in Castile and León of making mixed cheeses to expand the range for consumers,” explains Joaquin Buch, export manager. “Mixed cheeses cater to consumers who do not want flavours or textures as strong as those of sheep’s cheeses. Cow milk cheeses have flatter flavours, but by adding a mixture of sheep and goat it creates cheeses with a character that is easier to eat.”

El Gran Cardenal also makes a range of cow and sheep’s milk cheeses, which are simply known as Queso Mezcla (Mixed Cheese), made with fresh milk at a percentage of 60% sheep and 40% cow. They range in age from one to eight months.

Key to all the cheeses is the quality of the milk, says Buch. “Our milk is 100% natural milk, collected every day in the surroundings of our cheese factory. Sheep’s milk provides a pronounced taste and drier texture, which is accentuated with ripening. Goat’s milk gives the product more whiteness and a very characteristic flavour with hardly any maturation. Cow’s milk unites the two giving cheese a creaminess.”

Quesos Cerrato is another cheesemaker in the region with a proud history of mixing milks to make cheese. Set up in Palencia in 1968 as a farm co-operative, the group became part of Agropal in 2006 – one of Spain’s largest co-operatives, comprising farms that rear livestock for dairy and meat, but also grow cereals and other crops. The company’s cheeses include Cerrato Umami, which is a blend of cow and sheep’s milk. Careful maturation is essential to achieve a harmony between the two milk types and create complex savoury flavours.

“Cerrato Umami spends at least eight months in our maturation rooms, where temperature, humidity and ventilation are carefully controlled, and they are subjected to periodic turning to achieve greater uniformity,” explains marketing manager Elena Rodríguez.

The search for new flavour profiles in Castile and León goes much further than mixing milks. Cheesemakers have also developed a new generation of flavoured cheeses with the addition of ingredients, from truffle and paprika to saffron and chocolate.

Queserías Chillón in Toro, Zamora, has pioneered several new flavoured cheeses, including spreads or ‘emulsions’ flavoured with honey or paprika. It also makes a hard sheep’s milk cheese with 5% Toro red wine, which is then submerged in vats of wine for 15-20 days,

Castile and León is famous for traditional sheep’s milk cheeses, but cheesemakers are also mixing things up by combining different milk types and creating innovative flavoured cheeses

Mix and match

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plus a cheese aged in Iberian pig lard for several months. This final cheese has a long history in the region, says MD Gustavo Chillón Lorenzo, who explains that his great-grandparents used to use a similar technique at the end of the 19th century to preserve their cheeses on the journey to markets in the north of Spain.

“In this region, good local products have always been tasted together for centuries,” he says. “Cheese and wine, grapes and cheese, honey and cheese, pork fat with wine and cheese. Combining these products and their flavours in a single cheese is a natural evolution.”

Chillón is by no means the only company in the region that is exploring the possibilities of flavoured cheeses. Lácteas Zamoro in Santibáñez de Vidriales, Zamora, is well known for making aged, raw sheep’s cheeses, but it also creates cheeses coated in rosemary, lard and extra virgin olive oil. Three years ago it introduced two other variants, made by adding 5% black truffle or black garlic to cheeses which are matured for at least eight months.

“The main asset our company has is the cheese itself,” says export manager Eduardo Hernandez Gabriel. “It’s a special cheese that is the result of an exhaustive milk selection. The company manages its own co-operative and milk comes from Churra and Castellana sheep. Our company also has a quality department that analyses all the milk and this permits us to achieve a regularity and homogeneity in the cheese.”

Moncedillo in Campo de San Pedro, Segovia, makes semi-soft, raw sheep’s milk cheeses that are coated in La Vera paprika or have pieces of black truffle added to the curd before maturation.

“Castile and León has always been quite conservative, but about 12 years ago there was a cheese revolution where the fear of adding flavours was lost,” says director Joaquín Manchado. “With the rise of fusion foods, people understood that it was possible to do different, more modern and exquisite things in cheese.”

Quesería la Antigua in Fuentesaúco, Zamora has taken the idea of fusion food to remarkable new places. It’s range includes sheep’s milk cheeses flavoured with everything from saffron to chocolate. The secret to success is achieving harmony, explains export manager Marío García.

“Balance in the cheese is a combination of patience and hard work,” he says. “Cheeses must be under very controlled conditions in the ripening rooms. We control temperature and humidity, we always keep an eye on the different batches and also we control air flow. When you put all that together, the result is a team of people caring for every single wheel, creating a cheese you simply want to eat.”

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SIX MIXED UP CHEESES TO TRY

El Gran Cardenal Queso Ibérico

Made with a mix of pasteurised cow (40%), sheep (40%) and goat’s milk (20%), El Gran Cardenal’s Queso Ibérico comes either ‘semicurado’ or ‘curado’. Creamy, nutty and herbaceous.

Cerrato Umami

A mixed cow and sheep’s milk cheese, Cerrato Umami is aged for at least eight months to develop intense savoury flavours.

Chillón Oveja con Vino

The paste of Queserías Chillón’s raw sheep’s milk cheese is enriched with 5% Toro red wine, before being submerged in more wine for up to 20 days. Savoury and fruity.

Ciudad de Sansueña con Ajo Negro

A thermised sheep’s milk cheese, made by Lácteas Zamoro, which is flavoured with black garlic paste. Aged for at least eight months, the mature cheese is a good foil for the fragrant caramelised garlic flavour.

Moncedillo Red

Dusted with bittersweet Pimentón de La Vera paprika, this semi-soft raw sheep’s cheese from Moncedillo has a smoky and fruity flavour.

La Antigua Queso Curado con Azafrán

This hard raw sheep’s milk cheese from Quesería la Antigua is infused with PDOprotected Karkom saffron strands from La Mancha and aged for six-months, giving a distinctive hue and flavour.

Three years ago, Clare Jones was a primary school teacher. Now, she is officially the producer of the best cheese in Wales – the creamy blue Trefaldwyn. She tells TOM VAUGHAN all about her journey from the classroom to the dairy.

ALMOST EVERYBODY SHE meets asks the owner of Trefaldwyn how and why she switched from teaching to making cheese.

“I’m not from a farming background,” says Clare Jones. “I don’t live on a farm. I’ve got no farmers in my family. I just wanted to do my own hours and be my own boss.”

Three years on from making that first batch of cheese on her kitchen table, Jones is living out the Great Resignation dream: her creamy blue cheese – named after the old Welsh word for her hometown of Montgomery in Powys – has since won a bronze in the Artisan Cheese Awards, a Great Taste two-star and a Gold at the World Cheese Awards, where it was also named Best Welsh Cheese. It’s a meteoric rise by any cheesemaker’s standards, let alone someone who prior to 2019 had never stepped foot in a creamery.

“I wanted a better work-life balance,” she says, reflecting on her career change. “I wanted to run my own business and my husband and I were thinking about what I could do. In Montgomery there’s already a brewery, a couple of vineyards, a bakery, and a guy that produces Wagyu beef, but there was no one doing cheese. So I thought: ‘Maybe I could fill that gap.’”

Jones bought a few cheesemaking books, did some reading and had a go at making a blue cheese. She soon realised that she needed a bit of tuition, so signed up to a course at The Courtyard Dairy, near Settle, Lancashire, where she found herself amongst a class of interested hobbyists, all under the watchful eye of expert cheesemaker Andy Swinscoe. “I was the only one that had gone there with the idea of running a business and I think he [Swinscoe] looked at me and thought: ‘really’?”

The crash course gave her the confidence to try again. “I came home, had another go, and it was much better. I gave that to friends and family and they said: ‘This is really good. You should go for it.’” The choice of starting with a blue cheese was partly down to taste, but mainly a savvy

Trading chalk for cheese

business decision. “Blue cheese is one of one of my favourites and from a business point of view, it can command a higher price. It’s more of a luxury item than your standard cheddar. It also only takes about a month to mature, whereas if you want a really nice cheddar in can take 12 months. So once you’ve made the cheese, you’ve got no idea what it tastes like until a year down the line when it’s ready. Whereas when I was developing my recipe, I could taste it after a month and tweak it accordingly.”

Jones had the outline of a recipe. She had the fledgling skills. But she lacked the facilities to make her new cheese. So she began looking for Government support, and found a huge lifeline in Project Helix, an initiative kickstarted by Food Innovation Wales in 2016 to help Welsh companies develop new products. So far, it has worked with 380 businesses and 940 individuals, had an economic impact of over £185m and facilitated the creation of 1,240 new products, of which Trefaldwyn Cheese is one. “It’s run with the help of three food centres – in Cardiff, Cardigan and Anglesey,” says Jones. “You can go there and hire a commercial-grade room with commercial-size equipment, and you have a food technologist on hand. It is absolutely fantastic.”

By a stroke of divine luck, the food technologist that Jones found herself paired up with at the Food Centre Wales in Cardigan was cheesemaker Mark Jones, creator of Tysul Blue – itself the recipient of a gold at the International Cheese Awards in 2019. Together, they continued the development of Jones’ kitchen-table creation. “I took this recipe along to Mark and said: ‘This is what I’ve got.’ It was a bit from this book and a bit from that book – I’d just kind of made it up. He helped me tweak it and got it to a stage that it was ready to go to market. And I had that all of that support and advice for free!”

For each batch, Jones uses 500 litres of milk sourced from a local consortium of dairy farmers, which produces 30 2.5kg cheeses, retailing at between £30-£34 a kilo. Word spread quickly about the creamy, golden-coloured blue with a bold but overpowering flavour, once she launched it at Montgomery Christmas Market in 2019. Two wholesalers came on board early – Blas Ar Fwyd and Ultracomida – and Jones also sells direct to 15-20 delis and restaurants in the Welsh Marches.

What does she put the cheese’s popularity down to? “I think it’s got a Cheese Awards and Best Welsh Cheese? It’s crazy.”

Presently, supply far outstrips demand. Jones pays the Cardigan Food Centre Wales to use its facilities, but it is so busy that she is only able to make twice a month. “Ideally, I’d be making at least every week, and I still wouldn’t have enough.”

While the Cardigan Food Centre has been pivotal to Trefaldwyn’s development, it entails a four-hour round trip for Jones, four times a month. “The first step is a two-day process. I make it, it goes in its moulds, it drains overnight and then I go back the next day to add salt. Then a week later I have to pierce it to allow the air to get in and react with the blue mould, which creates the veins.”

Jones is keen to find premises of her own in Montgomery. While she has taken the business this far without huge overheads, acquiring her own premises will require a significant outlay, which is why she has been putting it off. “It’s daunting. It’s working out how much that initial outlay is going to be and what it’s going to be in. Is it going to be in a unit on an industrial estate? Am I going to partner up with a farmer and rent some premises from them on their farm? It’s trying to find which one is best for the company. The goal is to bring it back to Montgomery and hopefully this time next year I won’t be driving across Wales every week.”

Beyond finding a permanent home, Jones has other ambitions for the business. “I hope it’ll be big enough to be employing some people, and I can move into a more managerial role. And it’d be nice that it’s established enough that it can have another product – ideally I’d like to try another style of cheese.”

If her next creation is half as popular as her blue cheese, Jones will have a formidable business on her hands – all of it proof that it is possible to create world-beating product without a huge investment, just a lot of hard work. “I think a lot of people don’t take that first step. I just thought: ‘What have I got to lose? Why not give it a go? You only get one life, don’t you?’”

I think people like the fact that it is still done by hand rather than mass-produced in a factory. Blue cheese is one of one of my favourites and from a business point of view, it can command a higher price.

nice balance. It’s strong enough blue that you know you’re eating a blue cheese but it’s not going to knock your socks off. I think the quality of the milk helps with the creaminess. And I think people like the fact that it is still done by hand rather than mass-produced in a factory. I’m there stirring with a paddle for an hour, which is tiring, but it means I’ve got a better sense of the cheese and when it’s ready.”

The industry has been as impressed by Trefaldwyn as consumers, and Jones admits to being shocked by the slew of awards it won last year. “I couldn’t believe it. A 2-star at the Great Taste awards. Gold at the World

trefaldwyn-cheese.com