a deep dive into cheese grading

Grading our Cheddar – making sure that the flavour, smell and texture are the very best they can be – is a mixture of art, skill and experience. Some of the family at Wyke, including brothers Rich, our Managing Director, and Tom, our Production Director, have been doing it since they were in short trousers, and still find it one of the most satisfying and enjoyable parts of the whole Cheddar-making process.

When it comes to grading, though, the boss is Diane Cox, our Master Grader. Di’s dedication to the job and her extensive experience is only matched by her natural talent, which we value so highly that we insure her nose and unusually fine sense of smell for £5 million.

Di reckons she eats about seven times more cheese than the average adult in England. Most of this is on the job, where she is constantly testing and quality-controlling. Using her cheese iron, a special tool that looks like an apple-corer, she takes samples from the Cheddar at different times during the ageing process. She then checks them for flavour, aroma and texture, ensuring that each of our different cheeses reaches the best quality and has the distinctive characteristics for the cheese we’re making. Here, Di takes us through what she’s looking for with each of our cheeses.

First up is our Vintage, which is aged for between 12 and 14months. “We call this complex and intense,” says Di. “It has a depth of flavour from the ageing, but there’s balance, so not overriding savoury or sweetness. And you’ll find some caramel notes, too.”

Next comes Extra Mature, which we age for up to a year. “Like Vintage, this is a Cheddar you would serve on a cheeseboard,” says Di. “And like the Vintage, it has caramel and nutty flavour with sweet and savoury notes, but it’s less flinty, more creamy than intense.”

Our Mature is aged for up to nine months, and is the Cheddar we’d recommend for sandwiches and snacking. “It’s easier to slice and easier to use than the cheeseboard Cheddars,” says Di. “Again, it’s less intense and more creamy, but it still has a nice bit of acidity to it.” The Cheddars are rounded up with Mild, which is “creamy, mellow and smooth. It’s a good functional cheese, for all the family.”

Finally, we have our Red Leicester, which is a little bit different. “It has a flavour intensity on a par with the Mature Cheddar,” explains Di. “It’s creamy, nutty and sweet with a hint of savouriness and a slightly flinty texture.”

So next time you enjoy some of our cheese, see if you can identify the profiles that Di is looking for. And if you think you’ve got the magic combination of talents (and the nose) to be our next Master Grader, then get in touch.

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