Cheese and wine... all in one

A CREAMERY in Nettlebed has partnered with Waitrose to produce a sparkling wine-infused cheese.

The Nettlebed Creamery, a family-run business owned by Rose Grimond, has launched Leckford Wash Cheese with rind washed in Leckford Estate Brut.

Ms Grimond, who set up the creamery in 2016, said the cheese was a spontaneous result of a work meeting.

She said: “Last year, we had the development chef from the company visit us about product development and our supply as we already supply two cheeses to Waitrose.

“We had a really fun time touring the creamery, cheese tasting and visiting the cows.

“On the back table in the office we had compiled everything from figs and syrup and panettone to chocolate and honey and talked about how flavours go together.

“They explained how Waitrose have a vineyard called Leckford where they make sparkling wine and we already make a wash rind cheese. They asked if I had ever done one in wine but I hadn’t done it in about five years.

“Way back before I started the creamery, I did experiment with cheese-making and washed rinds out of dregs of wine and beer we had in our fridge.

“The tradition goes back hundreds of years and started when people were trying to understand how cheese works.

“I said: ‘Let’s give it a go’ and did a few different iterations.

“Waitrose take their supplier connections really seriously and come out often so it was a fortunate consequence of what was otherwise a work visit.

“There is always that exciting and unique combination of characters and no two wash rind cheeses will ever be the same.

“The Leckford wash for me has elements of floral aroma but it has also got a savouriness.” Head cheesemaker Heather Taylor, who has worked at the creamery for three years, makes Leckford.

She said: “In terms of the washing and aftercare, that’s done by the whole team.

“We’ve had staff from Waitrose come in and look around and see us making it and washing it, so there is quite a strong connection there. We’ve had ‘Meet the maker’ events and it’s lovely to see Waitrose members of staff getting excited about what we’re doing and then doing all the marketing and things like that.

“It has been a really cool process. It’s a massive boost for us as a company and as a team to know that something as large as Waitrose chose us to work with them.

“It is a massive achievement for the team here and for the cheese to have gone on the shelves and have quite a large launch has been a real perk.

“I actually went to Waitrose the other weekend and saw it on the shelf for the first time and I just wanted to turn around to people and say: ‘I made that’.”

Sarah Miness, a cheese buyer at Waitrose, said: “We’ve been selling our own label French cheese rind-washed in alcohol since 2013 when we launched Saint Vernier, washed in white wine followed by Berthaut’s Epoisses AOP, washed in Marc de Bourgogne. Being big supporters of British produce, we wanted to create a British rind-washed cheese to offer our customers variety for their cheese boards and what better way to wash the cheese in than our very own Leckford Sparkling Brut?”

Will Torrent, senior development chef at Waitrose, said: “We had fun with the team at Nettlebed experimenting with cheese and different flavour combinations. Wine and cheese are always a winning combination.

“This cheese takes a total of three weeks to make and everything is done by hand, so you can be sure your cheese has been made with time, care and a little bit of love.

“For best results, let the cheese soften up at room temperature, so the flavours and texture can develop and enjoy it by itself, or for a real treat eat it with a glass of Leckford to enhance the flavours even further.”

The cheese costs £6.50 for 150g and is available to buy in 281 shops and online.