Hobbitt Farm 'Snowy Mts Chèvre'

Fresh
Goat's milk (Swiss Toggenburg / Saanen )
Snowy Mountains
100g discs

If there's one thing I look for in goat's milk cheeses, no matter whether they're fresh, aged or blue, it's clean flavours. I don't mind so much if the texture's not quite right, or even if the cheese is a little too salty, but dirty flavours are what give goat's milk cheeses a bad name.

The flavour of Hobbitt Farm's 'Snowy Mts Chèvre' - from the hills just south of Jindabyne - is as clean and fresh as the Kosciuszko mountain air. Jindabyne holds a special place in my heart, as I wrote my Honours thesis there back in the mid-90's. But that feels like a lifetime ago, and a world away from the land of cheese that I now inhabit.

Hobbitt Farm
'Snowy Mts Chèvre'

Cheese-maker Mike Corbett could be the highest altitude curd craftsman in the country, and also leads ski tours in winter - possibly the best job in the world!

The cheese is snowy white, and the texture is very dense, but not at all dry. You can almost slice it like fetta, but it still has a lovely spread-ability, and absolutely no moisture pooling inside the packet. For my taste, the salt level is a little high, but this makes the cheese perfect as a fetta stand-in.

The chèvre is also available with various flavours and marinades, such as Tasmanian mountain pepper, or you can do what I did and just add some fresh rosemary from the garden to the plain chèvre. Delicious spread thickly on home-made crostini, accompanied by a vintage ale.

Small Cow Farm 'Fettice'

Fresh (Fetta*-style)
Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
180g discs
www.smallcowfarm.com

Did you know that Fetta means "slice"? A well-made fetta should be slice-able, rather than smooth and creamy and spreadable. It should also be salty, but not so salty that you can't actually taste the cheese.

Small Cow Farm 'Fettice'

Small Cow Farm's 'Fettice' - their take on Fetta - has both of these features in spades. In fact, it's about a close as you can get to traditional fetta without being made from sheep's or goat's milk.

The very sensible tub comes with 2 discs immersed in brine, so you can easily store what you don't use for another time. Not that there's much risk of that in my kitchen.

Spanakopita - that wonderful Greek pie made with leafy greens and cheese - is one of my current favourites. I particularly like it with lots of fresh mint and a generous squeeze of lemon juice - using Small Cow Fettice, of course. Yiamas!

*"Feta" is the correct spelling for the traditional Greek cheese, and the name now has PDO status in Europe. But the variant "Fetta" is more commonly used in Australia.

High Valley Wine & Cheese Co. 'Caerphilly'

Semi-hard / white mould
Cow's milk
Central Ranges
2.5kg wheels
6 weeks maturation
www.highvalley.com.au

Possibly the most unique cheese in NSW, High Valley Caerphilly is my pick from this Mudgee producer. Originally from South Wales, traditional Caerphilly was popular in the 19th Century with Welsh coal miners who liked it for its thick rind, which made it easier to eat with dirty hands while underground.

High Valley Caerphilly

High Valley's version replaces the outer rind of grey-brown moulds with a bloomy white mould, making it look like an oversized Brie.

The cheese has three distinct zones, each with its own flavour and texture. The thin rind has a fluffy white mould and a mild earthy flavour. Just underneath the rind is a more supple, golden layer with a smooth texture and hints of butter and mushrooms. The thick centre is paler in colour, with a chalky texture, and mild milky flavour. Perfect on a Ploughman's Lunch with slices of crisp, green apple.

I'll leave the last word to a very funny customer I had recently - complete with lilting Welsh accent - who suggested I cut the Caerphilly "carefully". Anyone for Welsh Rarebit?

Thistledown Creamery 'Tin Sheep Tomme'

Semi-hard
Ewe's milk (mixed East Friesian/Awassi)
Southern Tablelands
4kg wheels
www.thistledowncreamery.com

Another wonderful cheese from talented young cheese-maker, Vanessa Bradley. Inspired by the classic ewe's milk cheeses of the Basque region boardering France and Spain, 'Tin Sheep Tomme' is the closest thing I've seen to Ossau-Iraty this side of France.

Thistledown Creamery
'Tin Sheep Tomme'

Matured for 3-4 months, it has a compact texture, with grassy, milky aromas and a sweet, nutty flavour. The natural rind is beautiful, with lovely mottled patches of grey, brown and orange, giving a deep, earthy aroma to the cheese.

You can almost smell the native pastures that the well-fed sheep graze on as you inhale.

Vanessa says the name is a nod to Aussie farms everywhere, with their bush sheds and old shearing sheds made with stringy bark and tin - such as her own family's 100-year-old shearing shed.

'Tin Sheep Tomme' is the sort of cheese you can imagine on a farmhouse kitchen table, to be grazed on at breakfast, lunch or dinner - simple, honest, unpretentious. I wish there were more cheeses like it.

Pecora Dairy 'Bloomy White'

White mould
Ewe's milk (East Friesian)
Southern Highlands
100g discs
3 weeks maturation
www.pecoradairy.com.au

Isn't this the most stunningly beautiful cheese ever? 'Bloomy White' is the first of Pecora Dairy's cheeses available commercially in Sydney, the culmination of a six year labour of love by Michael and Cressida McNamara. 'Pecora' is the Italian word for sheep, and all of their cheeses are inspired by the ewe's milk cheeses of the French Pyrenees.

Pecora Dairy 'Bloomy White'

Under its delightful, ivory skin - with those tell-tale Geotrichum wrinkles - is a molten layer resembling condensed milk, followed by a very dense, rich and smooth white centre. As with all ewe's milk cheeses, 'Bloomy White' has a very rich mouth-feel and distinctive background sweetness.

Says Michael: "More than anything we wanted a cheeese that showcases the milk. The grassy, citrussy and cream fraiche characteristics of the milk really shine through.

"We spent a great deal of time making sure it looks beautiful and also offers complexity and uniqueness.  We like thinking that the multiple textures and flavours in this delicate cheese create a unique and beautiful cheese." I've no doubt there are exciting times ahead for Pecora Dairy. Watch out, Holy Goat - you now have some serious competition!

Hunter Belle Cheese 'Goldenbelle'

Washed rind
Cow's milk (Brown Swiss)
Hunter Valley
200g logs
7-8 weeks maturation
www.hunterbellecheese.com.au

With its shape and colour resembling a gold ingot, this cheese certainly lives up to its name. 'Goldenbelle' is one of the most delightful washed rinds I've tasted recently - in fact, I'd go so far as to say it's as good as any brand of French Pont l'Évêque available in Sydney.

Hunter Belle 'Goldenbelle'

I ate it right at its 'best before' date (which we all know really should be 'best after') so it was beautifully stinky with just the right amount of funk. The flavour, like most washed rinds, was milder than the aroma, with a lovely milky, creamy texture. It has a great balance between the natural sweetness of the milk and a delicious savoury edge, with just a hint of ammonia in the corners (common in square-shaped cheeses).

Hunter Belle is located at Muswelbrook in the Upper Hunter Valley, a couple of hours from Newcastle and beyond the well-trodden path of the Pokolbin vineyards. All of their cheeses have 'belle' references in their names.

Goldenbelle will be added to my list of perfect summer BBQ cheeses - put it out on a warm day and watch friends enjoy its meaty savouriness with a nice hoppy ale. Cheers!

Jannei 'Bûche Noir'

Ashed Chèvre
Goat's milk (Saanen)
Blue Mountain Ranges
150g rounds or 250g logs
www.jannei.com

For anyone who thinks they "don't like goat's cheese", do yourself a favour and try this. Jannei's 'Bûche Noir' is one of the cleanest-tasting, consistently good goat's milk cheeses in Australia - and it hails from the Blue Mountain Ranges, just past Lithgow.

Jannei 'Bûche Noir'

There are two version of this cheese - 'Bûche Blanc', the 'white' version, and 'Bûche Noir', which is dusted in a very fine layer of black ash.  I prefer the ashed 'Noir'. The charcoal doesn't change the flavour or texture of the cheese, but I find it keeps the surface a bit dryer, and it looks stunning.

Not surprisingly, it just won another gold medal at the ASCA Sydney Cheese Show last month, along with Jannei's Fresh Curd and 'Bent Back' Chèvre.

I love its very smooth texture, lemony zesty tang, and freshing acidity, and the fact that it pairs perfectly with my favourite wine style, young Semillon from the Hunter Valley. Like all goat's cheeses, it's also good with Sauvignon Blanc, but I think the Semillon gives it a unique racy edge.

Bangalow Cheese Co 'Byron Bay' Blue

Blue
Cow's milk (mixed Friesian/Guernsey/Jersey/Swiss Brown)
Northern Rivers
2kg wheels
8 weeks maturation
www.bangalowcheese.com.au

One of the things I love most about dealing with small producers is getting to know their cheeses as they evolve. Hand-made cheeses change with the seasons, and they change over time as the cheese-maker tweaks and refines the recipe.

Justin Telfer has been tinkering with his 'Byron Bay' Blue lately, and the results are impressive. One of the most striking changes is visual - it now has beautiful orange patches of Brevi mottled on the rind, helping it stand our from all the other blues in the fridge. The texture has also changed (it's now a little firmer, without being crumbly), and the flavour is far more complex and integrated, with meaty notes that I normally only taste in cheeses made from ewe's milk.

What used to taste like so many other Australian blue cheese now has a unique character of its own. Could it be due to the longer, slower maturation time, or perhaps the recent adjustments to starter cultures and salting methods?

Whatever the reason, 'Byron Bay' Blue is beautifully composed; it's not as bold as Beethoven, nor showy like Bach, but more like Brahms - gentle, melodic, harmonious. It sings in the mouth.

Thistledown Creamery 'Estrella'

Fresh
Ewe's milk (mixed East Friesian/Awassi)
Southern Tablelands
200g 'buttons'
www.thistledowncreamery.com

How exciting to have farmhouse ewe's milk cheeses produced in NSW! Thistledown Creamery is a collaboration between 4th-generation sheep farmer, Judy Bradley, and her daughter, Vanessa, who has been experimenting with cheese-making since she was a teenager.

The family run their small flock of East Friesian and Awassi sheep on several thousand acres of nutrient-rich pastures not far from Bungonia (near Goulburn), an area ideally suited to sheep farming. Their delighful range of cheeses (including a few recent additions made from cow's milk) are all hand-made on the farm.

Thistledown Creamery 'Estrella'

Their youngest cheese is called 'Estrella'. It's a fresh, unripened 'lactic set curd' cheese - think 'chevre', but made with ewe's milk instead of goat's milk. Like chevre, it is absolutely white, and has a very light, smooth texture, but it's more delicate and milky, with a pleasant sourness on the finish. Its clean flavour and rich mouthfeel remind me of very fresh ricotta, when it's still warm in the basket.

'Estrella' is available plain and also coated in fresh dill. The dill version has a faint green tinge around the edges, and the flavour of the herbs permeates nicely through the cheese. I can't wait to try it tossed through warm pasta with grilled zucchini and tuna, one of my favourite warm-weather dishes. Bring on Summer!

Jannei Fresh Curd

Fresh Curd
Goat's milk (Saanen)
Blue Mountain Ranges
100g or 200g tubs
www.jannei.com

Nothing says Spring like the first batch of new season goat's curd, and this is one of my favourites. Jannei Goat Dairy is a true farmhouse operation, owned and run by Jannet and Neil Watson (Jan + Nei = Jannei), just outside Lithgow on the western side of the Blue Mountain Ranges.

Jannei Fresh Curd

Fresh curd really allows the quality of the milk to shine through. Being the youngest of all cheese styles, with virtually no 'maturation', there's litte the cheesemaker can do to tweek or enhance its natural flavours. And there's certainly nowhere to hide if the milk quality is below par.

Not that there's much risk of that at Jannei, where sustainable farming is practiced and the goats are grazed and given natural feed suplements. The Fresh Curd has a lovely texture - thick and creamy without being heavy or dry - and a delicious lemony tang. It's really clean and refreshing, and nicely salted.

Try it spread on olive bread, or dolloped on thinly sliced smoked trout with lemon zest - yum!

Marrook Farm 'Brinawa'

Tilsit-style
Cow's milk (Ayrshire)
Mid-North Coast
4kg wheels
4 months maturation
www.marrookfarm.com.au

Hand-made Swiss-style cheeses are rare in Australia, particularly when done this well. 'Brinawa' (pronounced BRIN-ah-wah) is similar to Tilsit, a style that reflects Heidi Falding's Swiss heritage and the kinds of cheeses that partner David Marks likes to make. Like all of Marrook Farm's products, it's a genuine farm-house cheese, meaning that the cheese-makers use milk from their own herd on their own farm, rather than sourcing milk from surrounding farms.

Marrook Farm 'Brinawa'

The cheese has a lovely, smooth natural rind, perhaps not as sticky as you might expect for a Tilsit-style - given the regular brine smears it receives over the course of its maturation - but still with a lovely pungent whiff. Inside, the cheese is a deep marigold yellow, and the aroma is both pungent and sweet. The texture is smooth and dense, without being grainy or rubbery.

The flavour is rich, complex and long, and reminds me of mushrooms and chestnuts sauteed in butter. It lingers in the mouth for a long time and is very satisfying. 'Brinawa' is a great cooking cheese and melts beautifully. When I used it to make a batch of cauliflower cheese recently, my 11-year-old said "Yum! Can we have this again?" What further endorsement do you need?

Bangalow Cheese Co 'Tintenbar' Triple Cream

Triple Cream
Cow's milk (mixed Friesian/Guernsey/Jersey/Swiss Brown)
Northern Rivers
150g rounds
3 weeks maturation
www.bangalowcheese.com.au

Winter is not normally the best time for local white-mould cheeses, but 'Tintenbar' Triple Cream, from the rolling green hinterland of Byron Bay, is an exception. Perhaps its the sub-tropical warmth of the northern rivers region, relative to other parts of NSW, or maybe cheesemaker Justin Telfer just has a knack for transforming delicious fresh cream and milk into indulgent treats like this.

Bangalow Cheese Co
'Tintenbar' Triple Cream

Justin starts by boosting fresh full-cream milk, from a single herd of pasture-fed cows, with additional cream to raise its fat content to around 10%. He carefully hand-crafts the cheeses and allows them to ripen with a combination of P. candidum and Geotrichum moulds for around 10 days, before wrapping them in their delightful blue gingham papers. They stay in the maturation room for another week before being moved to a regular coolroom to prevent further ripening.

Unlike so many other Australian triple cream cheeses, 'Tintenbar' is not heavy or cloying on the palate. It has a vibrant marigold colour and lovely white rind that is not too thick. The flavour is like cultured cream with a hint of mushrooms, and a delicious, slightly sour tang on the finish. Perfect with some crusty bread and a glass of sparkling wine.

Over the Moon Non-Homogenised Yoghurt

Yoghurt
Cow's milk (Jersey)
Mid-North Coast
350g or 550g tubs
www.overthemoonmilk.com.au
www.johnsonsfarmgate.com.au

OK, so it's not exactly cheese, but it's one step closer to immortality than plain old milk. Not that there's anything plain about Over the Moon milk - it's 100% Jersey, non-homogenised and absolutely luscious! The milk comes from a single herd of grass-fed Jersey cows in the Hastings Valley, near Wauchope, and is sold by Johnson's Farmgate at various farmers' markets around Sydney and the Hunter Valley.

Over the Moon Yoghurt

The yoghurt is just full cream milk with cultures - no thickeners, no milk solids, no flavourings. I picked it up at the Newcastle Farmers' Market on the weekend.

Like non-homogenised milk, there's a thick layer of cream on the top. Underneath, the yoghurt might look a little lumpy, but the texture is silky smooth, and the flavour is mild and sweet with a very faint lemony tang. It has an absolutely clean, refreshing finish, with no cloying mouthfeel. So many commercial plain yoghurts leave a distinct 'essence of wet cow' character lingering on the back of my palate, but not this one.

When I asked the farmer what the cows are eating at the moment, he answered proudly, "grass". I commented that it's obvious they're not being fed silage, because there's no nutty flavours. "Just wait till Spring when the clover comes on," he said. "You can really taste the difference then." I'm looking forward to that.

Small Cow Farm 'Small Cow Blue'

Blue
Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
2kg wheels
3-4 months maturation
www.smallcowfarm.com

This is one of Australia's strongest and most characterful blues, and it's made just a short distance from Sydney at Robertson in the Southern Highlands.

Small Cow Blue

Created by Mark and Lesley Williams, 'Small Cow Blue has quite a spicy tang, with a distinctive underlying sweetness. The milk for this cheese comes from a single herd in the Southern Highlands, rather than the Williams' heard of Dexter cows, whose luscious milk is better suited to making soft, white-mould styles.

While the maturation details are a closely-guarded secret, the cheese is allowed to ripen with a natural blue mould growing on the outside, which adds to its full-bodied character. I suspect the cheese is at least partially matured under a wax coating, which may explain its sweet, fruity notes.

At last year's ASCA Sydney Cheese Show, two version were entered. The aged version was really powerful - big, spicy, fruity, sweet - but the slightly younger entry was spot-on for me. It had the perfect balance of salt and spice, with a gorgeous underlying creaminess and a lovely tang on the finish. It reminded me of my favourite all-time blue, Valdeon from Spain (minus the Sycamore leaves).

Small Cow Blue is perfect for Winter, particularly when paired with a rich, raisiny tokay or PX sherry.

Marrook Farm 'Bulga'

Mountain-style (Hard Cooked)
Cow's milk (Ayrshire)
Mid-North Coast
10kg wheels
6-8 months maturation
www.marrookfarm.com.au

First, I must acknowledge my good friend and fromager Ali Brien, who gave me my first taste of Marrook Farm's Bulga. Ali was the first of the Sydney cheesemongers to visit Marrook Farm on a brief whey-cation last year (more at Close to the Wedge). The samples she brought back were supposed to be 'rejects' but I thought they were just as good as many commercially available cheeses.

Six months on (and several kg's of their wonderful yoghurt later), I've finally received my first delivery of Marrook Farm's cheeses. An impressive10kg wheel, 'Bulga' certainly commands a presence. Holding the broad disc, with its smooth, natural rind, I was conscious that I was essentially holding 100L of milk, magically transformed into this solid, golden disc.

Marrook Farm 'Bulga'

While it's tempting to call the cheese a guyere, cheesemaker David Marks refers to it as a 'mountain cheese'. Fittingly, it's named after Mt Bulga, not far from Marrook Farm at Elands, NW of Taree. But it has a lot in common with gruyere, such as its compact texture, and smooth, savoury nutty-ness. I can imagine it perfectly melted atop croutons for a wintery onion soup.

This first thing I noticed when I cut open the wheel was the colour - a deep, golden yellow - and the second thing was the aroma. 'Bulga' smells of grassy pastures and damp earth (in a good way). The flavour is a little salty at first, but behind that is an incredibly rich, milky sweetness. I'm convinced this reflects the quality of the certified biodynamic milk. And the salt balances out to a smooth savouriness once properly warmed to room temperature. It paired remarkably well with a fine Chinese green tea.

This batch was made in October 2010,  making it about 7 months old. I can't wait to taste another batch with longer maturation, it has so much potential to develop richer, deeper, more complex characteristics.

I think 'Bulga' is a cheese to rival Heidi Farm's Gruyere - what do you think?