Rennet & Rind we mature British artisan cheese from our maturing rooms in Cambridge, headed up by Perry Wakeman who has been named Britain’s best cheese maturer three times in a row. He has also asked to be a Super Judge at the World Cheese Awards representing Britain on the big stage in front of about 80,000 people, in one of life’s stranger moments he was made a Garde et Jure - Protector of Artisan Cheese at the French embassy
This months cheese
Sparkenhoe Red Leicester Reserve
Unpasteurised cow’s milk, animal rennet
Jo and David Clarke brought proper clothbound Red Leicester back from the dead in 2005. Fifty years it had been gone from the cheeseboard, killed off by the factory block, that orange rubbery stuff that gave a great cheese a terrible name. What they make on the farm in Leicestershire is something else entirely.
We age this particular batch in our maturing rooms for longer than you’d typically find Sparkenhoe out in the world, and the difference is real. The cloth coat comes off to reveal that deep, burnished russet colour, the annatto doing exactly what it’s supposed to do, hinting at the richness underneath. The texture is where the extra time really shows. It’s firmer than standard, with a satisfying flakiness when you break into it, and you can feel the crystals starting to form, adding a gentle crunch to each bite.
The flavour is settled and confident. There’s a mellow rounded acidity upfront, the kind you only get with raw milk, followed by savoury nuttiness, a thread of caramel, and something almost meaty in the background. Nothing sharp or aggressive. It builds slowly and it stays with you.
This is what Red Leicester was always supposed to taste like. Worth every extra week it spent in the cave.
