Craggy Range Sheep Dairy – Te Mata Blue
The pure creaminess of the sheep milk balanced beautifully with the tangy blue flavour, makes for a delightful and moreish Te Mata Sheep Blue.
Craggy Range Sheep Dairy is based in the foothills of the Craggy Range in the beautiful Tuki Tuki Valley. Following ethical farming practices, James and Kate Clairmont daily milk over 250 pasturefed ewes on their 70ha farm. Sheep milk is naturally homogenised and is therefore lovely and creamy with a velvet-like texture.
This beautiful blue has won Gold Medals in 2020 & 2021 at theNZ Champion of Cheese Awards and is best served with a fruit paste and Red Wine or melted on a steak.
Grinning Gecko – Kau Piro
Awarded the 2021 Champion Washed Rind, Kau Piro of Grinning Gecko has a luscious, creamy paste with a savoury and earthly flavour. In Te Reo Maori, Kau Piro means stinky cow which is befitting a washed rind which becomes pungent as it ages.
At Grinning Gecko, the cow’s milk cheeses are handmade on the day of milking from export-standard certified organic milk. They are only using non-animal rennet, and all the cheese is aged on site.
Pair with sweet cider, white wine or a drizzle of honey.
Wairiri Buffalo – Buffalo Feta
Located in the Malvern Hills in the Canterbury region, Wairiri Buffalo is a 100-acre farm encompassing a 40-acre native forest and wetland reserve run by Lucy and Chris.
Buffalo milk is pure white, fine and silky. Being naturally homogenised, it does not separate so remains very creamy.
It's a highly nutritious milk, with more protein, fat and lactose than cow’s milk.
Wairiri Feta, a pickled curd cheese that has a salty and tangy taste enhanced by the brine solution, can be either creamy or crumbly and dry, depending on its age.
Gibbston Valley – Takitimu Goat Gouda
Located in Queenstown’s Valley of Vines, high in the Southern Alps, Gibbston Valley Cheese specialises in sheep, cow and goat’s milk cheese.
This month we are featuring their Takitimu Goat Gouda. A medium flavoured cheese with a sharpness typical of Goat milk and a lingering sweetness to finish.
Takitimu is great served alongside a Pinot Gris.