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AFFINAGE IN THE UK
Ageing to perfection
UK cheese producers have always had a slightly different take on cheese maturation to their Continental counterparts. But the inaugural Affineur of the Year competition hints at a shift towards a more European approach attitude. PATRICK McGUIGAN explores the emerging culture of British affinage.
RENNET & RIND’S head of cheese Perry James Wakeman often comes up with secret nicknames for his cheeses. That might sound a little unusual, but if you spend weeks and months in a maturing room full of cheeses, you naturally get quite attached to them.
He became particularly attached to one 27kg truckle of Quicke’s cheddar last year, which he named Priscilla. “I don’t know why I gave her that name,” he says, laughing. “I suppose she was a bit of a diva and got special treatment, so it felt right.”
The reason why Priscilla was treated differently to other cheeses was because she was Rennet & Rind’s entry in the inaugural Affineur of the Year competition. Set up by the Academy of Cheese and Quicke’s in Devon, the competition saw 10 three-month-old Quicke’s cheddars sent to cheesemongers and makers across the UK, who matured them in different ways for a year. As well as Cambridge-based Rennet & Rind, participants included Brindisa, Neal’s Yard Dairy and Lincolnshire Poacher.
The extra attention lavished on Priscilla paid off because at the final in London in April, when all 10 truckles were blind-judged, she was voted the best tasting. Not just by the expert judging panel, but also by the audience, as part of a wider public vote. The cheese was widely praised for its grassy and buttery notes, plus a pronounced cheddar tang and long, savoury finish.
“You work away in the maturing room and get nice comments from customers, but to receive recognition from my peers like that was amazing,” says Wakeman. “It also confirmed to me just what an impact affinage can have on cheese.”
For the uninitiated, affinage means ‘to refine’ in French and involves specialist ‘affineurs’ buying young cheeses from dairies and ageing them to perfection. Time, temperature, humidity and airflow, plus the unique microflora of maturing rooms, are all important elements. So are techniques, such as turning, brushing and washing the cheeses. By controlling and combining these different factors, affineurs can take the flavour and texture of the cheese in different directions.
It’s a process that has a long history in France, but also Switzerland and Italy. However, in Britain, separate affineurs are not the norm. Cheesemakers tend to mature their own cheeses for various historical reasons, but this is changing. Cheesemongers Neal’s Yard Dairy, Paxton & Whitfield and IJ Mellis have all built new state-of-the-art maturing rooms in recent years, using them to improve quality and create new cheeses. Cheesemakers are also investing in maturation, including Westcombe in Somerset which built its own cheddar cave
in the side of a hill at its farm, complete with a cheese-turning robot called Tina the Turner.
“You could say this new focus on affinage shows the British cheese industry itself is maturing,” says Wakeman, who has six separate maturing rooms, each with different temperatures and humidities. These were put to good use with Priscilla. “We wanted to maximise the potential of the cheese so it tasted like an 18-month cheddar at 12 months, but we also wanted to make it our own cheese,” he explains. “We disrupted the rind by brushing it hard so that the biome of our maturing room – the moulds and yeasts that are unique to us – could mount a hostile takeover. We also cranked up the temperature to speed up maturation, but then graduated it down to 8°C at the end.”
Wakeman’s affinage journey started five years ago when he took a course with prestigious French affineur and cheesemonger Mons. American cheese expert Susan Sturman, who lives in France and runs the English-language version of Mons’ affinage course with the company’s co-owner Laurent Mons, says there has been a surge in bookings from British makers and mongers in the past two years.
“It’s partly because the UK has been moving away from traditional territorial cheeses towards more soft continental cheeses that require more care and attention,” she says. “Brexit has also played a part. It’s harder to get products from the Continent and so the UK needs to be more self-sufficient.”
The week-long Mons Formation course comprises classroom learning and hands on work in the company’s maturing caves in Saint-Haon-le-Châtel in the Loire. The course also involves a full day following the life of a single cheese, either Fourme de Montbrison or St Nectaire, with students starting on the farm to learn about pasture, cows and milk, before heading to the dairy to make cheese, spending time in the maturing room and finishing up at a fromagerie.
“Affinage is all about improving the organoleptics of cheese: taste, texture, visual and aroma,” she says. “The transformation cheeses can undergo, especially soft ripened cheeses, in a short space of time is remarkable. They can very easily go to the dark side if they are not cared for properly. But get it right and affinage can make a huge difference to quality.”
Retailer and wholesaler Paxton & Whitfield is banking on as much after investing in five maturing rooms at its new headquarters in Gloucestershire. MD James Rutter says the move makes sense from a commercial point of view, enabling the company to improve quality and develop unique extra mature products, under the XO brand. But it has also enabled the cheesemonger to work more closely with cheesemakers.
A case in point is Cullum – a new cheese created exclusively for Paxtons by Cumbrian producer Martin Gott as a way of using up the excess sheep’s milk he has in the summer. The retailer takes the cheeses at two weeks and ages them for up to 12 months. “Cullum is about taking the glut of summer milk and preserving it for the winter,” Rutter explained earlier this year. “That’s what true affineurs do on the Continent. They buy up-front and age it on. It’s good to be able to work so closely with cheesemakers and find solutions to problems they have.”
Mary Quicke says the experience of having her cheddar matured in so many different ways by other people has inspired her to launch inhouse trials tweaking time and temperature to see if it will improve her cheese.
“We don’t even have a word for ‘affinage’ in English, we have to use the French word, but it’s the obvious next step for British cheese,” she says. “It’s a way of demonstrating that what you do is really special, so people get more satisfaction in terms of flavour, but also the story behind the cheese.”
Quicke’s and the Academy of Cheese have already sent out 8kg truckles of cheddar ahead of next year’s Affineur of the Year contest, but are also expanding the event by delivering three other cheeses to contestants: Cropwill Bishop Stilton, Baron Bigod brie and the washed rind Solstice from White Lake.
Back at Rennet & Rind, Wakeman has already devised a plan for his truckle of Quicke’s cheddar, which involves inoculating the rind with moulds from three other clothbound cheddars. But the big question is whether has he given his cheese a name yet?
“I’m still considering it,” he says. “I want to wait a little longer so I can really get a sense of its true character.”
THE ART OF AFFINAGE: THREE BRITISH CHEESES TO TRY
Cullum
A ewes’ milk cheese made by Martin Gott in Cumbria and transferred to Paxton & Whitfield’s maturing rooms at just two weeks old. It is rubbed with rapeseed oil and matured for several months until fruity and savoury.
Brunswick Blue
Developed by Neal’s Yard Dairy in its maturing rooms in South London, Brunswick Blue starts out as Beenleigh Blue – a foil-wrapped ewes’ milk blue from Ticklemore Dairy in Devon. The foil is removed and the cheese aged in a different maturing room, so a natural rind forms, creating a creamier and more mushroomy flavour.
Francis
Dorset affineur James McCall takes a cows’ milk cheese called Stoney Cross, made by Salisbury-based Lyburn, and goes in a completely different direction by washing it in brine to create a pungent rind. The result is supple, sticky and savoury.
Mary Quicke
The final of Affineur of the Year 2023 will take place on 14 June.
academyofcheese.org/affineur-ofthe-year
For more details on the Mons Formation courses, visit:
