For the first time in its 20 year history, the World Cheese Awards will be held in Ireland. 2500 cheeses will enter, in 62 categories, some of which are further subdivided.To celebrate the moment, here's a close up on three Irish cheeses, one organic, one raw and one goats...
Sometimes it can be hard to realise that you are in the middle of a vibrant, flourishing period in time. It can be hard to see, as the saying goes, the wood from the trees. But make no mistake, this is where we are, right now, in the world of Irish artisan cheese production.
Consider this: French culinary students now come to Ireland to learn how to make cheese. Irish artisan cheeses recently made the front cover of Saveur. Irish artisan cheeses seem to win more and more of the awards that count. And Irish artisan cheeses sell in all the right places all over the world � Neal�s Yard in London, Murray�s in New York and the closest farmers� market and deli to your house.
With recent announcements of additional milk quota for both conventional and organic dairy farmers, there is now an opportunity for some to consider joining the burgeoning band of Irish cheesemakers.
And with the World Cheese Awards leaving the UK for the first time in 20 years, and deciding upon Ireland, the spotlight will be on this island�s producers.
There are many exemplars of the craft out there, including raw, organic and goat�s milk cheeses. Perhaps the most iconic of Ireland�s raw milk cheeses is Jeffa Gill�s Durrus.
This is one of the cheeses the Slow Food movement has taken under it wing, as what are called presidia cheeses. Durrus, along with Drumlin, Desmond Raw, Cooleeney Raw, Mount Callan, Dilliskus, Bellingham Blue and St Gall make up the Slow Food presidia raw milk cheeses.
Jeffa Gill started producing cheese in 1979 on the far south west coast of Ireland, near the town of Durrus itself in west Cork. She still makes her deep-flavoured, coral-coloured, semi-soft, rind washed cheese on the farm.
Describing cheesemaking as �a lifetime commitment that�s 50% craft, 50% science� Jeff makes 26 tonnes of cheese a year. She uses the milk of local suppliers, including Corny Buckley. Jeffa suggest that �We�re still technically quite small, and have concentrated on the niche market. Our cheese is sold through delis primarily, and is distributed by good wholesale customers, such as Sheridans, Pallas, Horgans, Glenelly and the Traditional Cheese Company. We do also export to the UK through Neil�s Yard, and a tiny bit goes to the US�
A relative new kid on the artisan cheese block, but one whose stock is rising at a stratospheric rate, is Ralph Haslam�s organic Mossfield cheese. In an amazing short few years, Ralph has achieved the highest accolades and some significant sales and profile. His cheeses were watched by hundreds of millions as they surrounded the Ryder Cup in 2006; Bruce Springsteen�s cook bought all that Ecologic Dundrum, Dublin could get for him when the boss came here a few months back.
Mossfield wins awards, it seems, every few months. A gold medallist at the World Cheese Awards in 2005, recently, his outstanding mature Gouda also received three gold stars in the Great Taste Awards. It also was selected as best Irish Speciality Product, making it into the last 18 out of 4755 overall entrants. This made it the joint highest ranking cheese in the entire competition.
Mossfield mature Gouda is a very distinct cheese, which makes describing it an act of constant contradiction: it has sweetness, strength and gentleness; it is speckled with crystals and crumbly like a parmesan, but it is also creamy.
�I put it all down to what the cows are being fed - top quality Irish grass�, the reassuringly down to earth Offaly man claims. Farming since the early 1970s, I asked Ralph if the sward and indeed the farm differs in any way since converting to organic in 2001.
�Oh yea, certainly it does. It�s a different sward really, there is a lot more herbs and clovers in it. You�d also know by the wildlife, the different types of butterflies and birds. We can hear grasshoppers on the farm now. I remember hearing them from my youth, and now they seem to have returned�.
Ralph farms 350 acres near Birr in Offaly, including rented land. Amazingly, he has only been making his gouda style cheeses - plain, mature plain, basic and garlic, cumin seed and Mediterranean herb - since 2004. He produces 300 kg per week from a mixed herd of 85 Rotbunt and British Freisen cows. Ralph tells me that �Rotbunt was historically an old Irish moiled cow, originally from west Cork, which was brought to Germany by Irish monks�. �It�s a dual purpose breed, with high quality butterfat and protein � and its hardy� according to Haslam.
He will soon be moving the production unit on the farm itself, will be making ice creams and sorbets, and will get his biodigester fully operational.
Irish goat and sheep�s milk cheeses are flying the flag brilliantly too: take the Clare pair: Siobhan�s Garvey�s St. Tola�s and Sean Fitzgerald�s Cratloe Hills.
Along with these 21st Century arrivals, there are superlative stalwarts out there. A classic is Ardsallagh, make on a 35 acre farm in Carrigtwohill near Cork city.
Jane and Gerard Murphy carry 420 mixed breed goats. They carried Saanen initially, but have introduced Anglo-Nubian and Alpines for the high butterfat and protein content.
Jane�s background was as a food analyst for Marks and Spencers in London, and her husband was in IT. 30 years later, they are happy, contented goat�s cheesemakers in south west Ireland. �It all started when we lived in Carlow in 1978. A travelling life assurance salesman, back in the days when you could do that sort of thing, spotted that both kids my children had eczema. He said you have to give them goat�s milk. To get rid of him, I said that�s a good idea. He came back a short while later with a goat! He told me that she�s in kid, and to give the milk she produces to your children, and it will clear up the eczema. It did�
Previously �I would have only seen goats in the zoo�, she tells me. And now, they process 5-6000 litre of goat�s milk, from their own and another herd. 1/3 goes to milk 2/3 into cheese goes to cheese. When indoors, they get through up to five tonnes of feed each week, mostly hayledge, but also some cereal, and a special treat � local farmer John McGrath�s beet.
The delectable chesses are sold at markets, delis and in selected Dunnes and Tescos nationwide. From soft to coated to hard, they retain the sweetness of the beet they eat. This has helped Ardsallagh win Gold medals, as it did at the World Cheese Awards in 2005.
Will any of these win in their categories at the World Cheese Awards this time around? Undoubtedly they should. Either ways, for their both their commitment and their quality, its worth quoting Jesus � the Life of Brian version - blessed are the cheesemakers.
Interview with Bob Farrand, Guild of Fine Food:
�We chose Ireland because it was the logical country in which to site the first WCA outside the UK. Ireland is obviously handy from a language perspective, but it is also a great cheese making nation that sells a lot of cheese to the Brits.� So says Bob Farrand, National Director of the Guild of Fine Food, which organise the event.
These awards will be part of Bord Bia�s retail and trade event in the RDS � SHOP, which will be held at the end of this month in the RDS. Judging will be on the 29th, while the Cheeses of the awards will be showcased for the three days of the SHOP event.
Bob was very complementary of Bord Bia in their initiative: �And It has to be said that Bord Bia grabbed the opportunity with both hands � they have been enormously supportive�
According to Bob: �Winning in the WCA is the highest accolade in world cheese because the cheese maker is competing on a genuine world stage� Gold is an achievement that, when used properly, will drive sales for winning cheese in a quite remarkable fashion.�
He gives a few examples: �the winner in 1999 was a little known aged Dutch Gouda called Kolluma that had never previously been tasted outside its home country. After winning the Supreme Champion, it changed its name to Old Dutch Master and is now sold worldwide in massive quantities. The Ossau Iraty that took Supreme in 2006 is now exported to the States as well as the UK and the US.�
I asked Bob about the judging. �This year�s judges form a mix of professional graders from throughout Europe and beyond. We need experts on each cheese type � as well as key buyers from supermarkets, delis, food halls and other specialist stores, and finally knowledgeable food writers and chefs.�
Bob elaborated on the judging: �Judges are looking for perfect cheeses so each entry starts with a maximum 25 points - gold. Points are deducted based on faults identified. These faults are passed onto the producer as the awards are not just about acknowledging the best but helping the �not so good� to improve.
�At the first level of judging, it is not first past the post � if they find three perfect bries, they may award three golds. It is only when we move onto stages two and three of the judging that it becomes a competition, when we seek out the best cheddar, best Irish cheese or British, French and so on. Until we end up with the top dozen or so in the world from which we ultimately identify the World Champion.�
I asked Bob about the number of food award winners. I suggested that in the Olympics, if you get gold, you are the one and only winner, but in many food awards, gold as a category can seem misleading.
�Yes, we always take the criticism on the chin that there are too many food awards and too many Gold medals flying around�. However, he pointed out that there �are categories in the Olympics - 100m, high jump, beach volleyball and so on - just as we have classes in the WCA�.
This is true to an extent, but that�s like comparing all sports imaginable with�cheese. As opposed to �all foods�. Nonetheless, this is the big one for cheeses � the big cheese if you will � and the cheeses featured above are real contenders.
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