Wicklow Farmhouse Cheese
The Hempenstall family have been dairying at Curranstown for over fifty years. Dairy farmer John Hempenstall identified a gap in the market for an Irish blue brie cheese and decided to get into cheese making. He started making Wicklow Blue in 2002, bringing occasional vats of his milk down to other people’s cheese-making facilities in Co Cork. This was very time-consuming work but the cheese proved popular and on 17 February 2005, John opened a purpose-built, cheese making facility on his farm at Curranstown, in Co. Wicklow.
All the milk used in production comes from John’s own herd. Wicklow Blue is a blue brie style cheese made using pasteurised cow’s milk and vegetarian rennet. The bloomy white rind enrobes a butter scented, yellow paste with lined with blue-green mould. The bloomy rind gives an aroma of fresh white mushrooms and contrasts with the creamy, buttery flavours of the paste. The blue flavour is unpronounced and doesn’t interfere with the overall impression of creamy whipped butter and salad mushrooms on the palate.
Milk type: Cow
Style: Blue cheese
Flavour: Creamy, buttery and mild, with little aggressive blue flavour, the mould rind adds a very mildly white mushroom note
Paste: Soft, pale yellow paste interspersed with blue mould
Rind: White mould rind
Age: 3 - 8 weeks
Format: 150g, 1.2kg
Rennet: Vegetarian
Season available: Available all year
Made with raw milk: No
Milk type: Cow
Style: Semi-soft bloomy rind
Flavour: Creamy, buttery and mild, the mould rind adds a very mildly white mushroom note
Paste: Soft texture with a pale yellow colour
Rind: White mould rind
Age: 3 - 8 weeks
Format: 150g, 1.2kg
Rennet: Vegetarian
Season available: Available all year
Made with raw milk: No
