Irish cheese scoops top honour at Melton's national awards

An Alpine-style cheese called Templegall, which is made near the city of Cork, was named Supreme Champion ahead of a record number of entries for this year’s competition.

Some of the best British and Irish cheesemakers gathered at St Mary’s Church for a candle-lit awards presentation supper.

Many of them had come to Melton to sell their products at the annual Artisan Cheese Fair, which again attracted thousands of visitors at the weekend at the Stockyard, on the livestock market site.

Named after the Irish for the village of Whitechurch (‘An Teampall Geal’) in the North of County Cork where the cheese is produced, Templegall is the newest cheese made by the Hegarty family, along with French cheesemaker, Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin, who also produce a Cheddar and a Smoked Cheddar.

It is referred to by some as an Irish Comte and s made with raw summer milk, matured for at least nine months, and delivers a sweet, delicate and nutty flavour profile.

The Melton success follows just a few weeks after it won the biennial Irish Cheese Awards for the second time in a row.

Awards and fair organiser, Matthew O’Callaghan, told the Melton Times: “I tried Templegall when it was first produced a few short years ago.

"It’s nutty, creamy, has a bit of a bite to it and really does taste of the pastures of its origin.”

There were over 500 entries for the eighth edition of the Artisan Cheese Awards, with 140 from Ireland – producers from the ‘Emerald Isle’ took home seven class-winning trophies this year.

Fittingly there was plenty for local cheesemakers to celebrate in the class for Stilton cheese.

Long Clawson Dairy was named Class Winner and Reserve Class Winner for its Blue Stilton while Melton-based Tuxford and Tebbutt was also named Reserve Class Winner.

Mr O’Callaghan added: “The judges remarked on the quality of what they were being asked to assess."The awards and the cheese fair put Melton at the heart of cheesemaking in the whole of the British Isles.”