We are about to start the busiest 10 days of our year so this afternoon has been my last chance to send out a quick newsletter. This year has totally flown by, it truly only seems like yesterday that we were seeing in the New Year and all of a sudden the fridges in the shop are full to the gunnels with delicious cheese! (In true nerdy style I just had to look up ‘gunnels’ and found out that it is inter-changeable with gunwales which are the upper sides of a ship…!)

Since my last newsletter I have been down to Dorset to judge the British cheeses that didn’t make it to Portugal for the World Cheese Awards. A team of 18 judges tasted 180 cheeses in the quest to find the best British cheese. Judging in groups of 3 we all set about tasting our designated cheeses. We had a great selection of cheese on our table, awarding 4 Gold medals. We then had a bit of a debate as to which one of these Golds was going to go on to become our Super Gold. There were 2 in contention, 1 was by far the most eye-catching as it was deliciously unctuous and just oozed everywhere when we cut into it whereas the other was a small 100g button that had an amazing complexity of flavour that had us wanting to keep going back for more. Eventually we decided on the boxed, little gem of a cheese which I have since discovered was St Jude. Made in Bungay, Suffolk, by Julie Cheyney, this cheese was originally named after the patron saint of lost causes and it is definitely going to be featuring in our counter in the New Year.

I was honoured to be asked to taste all 6 of the Super Golds that had been awarded to find the Best British cheese. Again there was a bit of a debate as the 6 cheeses were very different and all wonderful in their own unique way, but one cheese had the edge over all of the others. The winning cheese was Stoney Cross from Lyburn Cheese in Hampshire. I am delighted to report that we already stock this incredible tomme-style cheese. With creamy, buttery flavours and earthy tones from its mould-ripened rind. It has been quite a year for the cheesemaker, Mike Smales, as Stoney Cross also won the Golden Fork for England at the Great Taste awards this year. It shows what a consistently good cheese it is. I’ve loved all of the judging that I’ve been involved with this year and I do think the best cheeses have shone through on each occasion.

For me personally this year has had so many highlights that I can’t pick out just one but passing all of my cheesy exams is definitely up there along with the fact that I’ve already nailed my running target for the year (an average of 10k a day, everyday…) for the 5th year running. It’s been an incredible year and I’m already looking forward to see what 2025 will bring.

So I think that’s about it from me. Our online orders have been paused until January but our shop in Pangbourne is open 9-4 everyday from now until 12pm on Christmas Eve.

Have a very Merry Christmas.