Today, as promised, I took myself off to Caerdydd for the British Cheese Festival. Jo Hall of BristolCon, together with her mum, sister and sister’s partner, also turned up, which made it a much more sociable day out. But you want to know about the food, right? OK, here goes.

We’ll start with the drinks. There were, as I have come to expect, several stalls with fruit wines and liqueurs, but the company that caught my eye was the Septimus Spyder Mediaeval Brewhouse. They get a few negative points for having a sign up saying that they could not give beer samples because it was illegal to serve alcohol — the wine people were happily giving out samples. Also I couldn’t buy anything because of the sign saying that they refused to serve witches, and friends of witches. Then again, they look a lot of fun, and the sample of lime-spiked ginger beer they gave me was remarkably good. Jo went back later without me so she could buy something without any witches around. I wish Kevin had been there as I’m sure he would have liked to try British cream soda.

Also of interest in the non-cheese tent was Pyman Pâtés. Their website is under renovation at the moment but if you go here you can see the range of delicious varieties they produce.

The food tent was structured with the bigger commercial concerns (including Tesco!) around the outside, and with a central island devoted to members of the Specialist Cheesemakers’ Association. That, naturally, is where I spent most of my time, but I want to make a quick shout-out to Pong who have a fine range of cheeses for mail order delivery. I don’t need them as I have a selection of fine cheese shops available in Bath and Bristol, but if you live in a cheese-deprived area of the UK you may find them useful.

Meanwhile, onto the serious stuff. I’m not going to give a prize for soft cheeses as I couldn’t find anything particularly outstanding, so we’ll get straight into the blues where the competition was intense. Cornish Blue was there, of course, proudly trumpeting the World Champion prize that they won last year. However, there is fierce trans-Tamar rivalry going on as the Best English award in this year’s British Cheese Awards (announced last week) went to Devon Blue from Ticklemore. This could be more serious than whether you should put the cream on the scones first, or the jam.

Something interesting I noticed about the blues is that several companies make a selection of varieties using the same recipe but different milks. The famous Irish blue, Cashel, has a cousin, Crozier, made from sheep’s milk. Ticklemore make three cheeses: Beenleigh from sheep’s milk, Harbourne from goat’s milk, and Devon from Friesian cows. Personally I am a sucker for Channel Island milk, so my Best Blue award goes to a past BCA winner (from 2008), Barkham Blue from Two Hoots. You can tell the type of milk used by the rich yellow colour of the cheese. When you see them together that contrasts markedly with the much whiter Barkham Chase, made in exactly the same way but with mlk from Friesians. Two Hoots also do Loddon Blewe which is made from ewe’s milk.

The hard cheese category didn’t have quite such obvious rivalry, but was tough all the same. There were the usual star cheeses such as Montgomery Cheddar and of course my friends from Trethowan’s with their Gorwydd Caerphilly. But there were also some interestingly different cheeses. I’d like to give a shout out to Lynher Dairies whose nettle-wrapped and wild garlic-wrapped Yarg were very interesting. Plus points also to Lyburn whose Old Winchester is a creditable attempt at producing a UK version of aged Gouda.

Kent is not a part of the UK that I usually associate with cheesemaking. The people of Kent grow hops, and write outraged letters to the newspapers under the famous byline of “Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells”. Also when I was young they used to beat Somerset at cricket with monotonous regularity. That doesn’t happen these days, but the thought that people from Kent should make a fine cheddar cheese does very strange things to my brain. Step forward, therefore, Winterdale, whose Winterdale Shaw is a very fine cheese indeed. I’m giving it a special prize as my discovery of the day.

Kudos is also due for their determination to make their business entirely carbon neutral. To do that when making aged cheeses you need a suitable cave, which apparently they do. I’m hoping that their commitment to environmental responsibility doesn’t prevent them from shipping the cheese out west to somewhere I can buy it regularly.

And finally, we need a winner. You may be astonished to learn that it is not a West Country cheese. It is, however, a cheese that explodes your taste buds. I’m familiar with Sparkenhoe Red Leicester from the Trethowan’s Dairy stall in Bristol, but at the show they had a vintage version and it was absolutely awesome. Red Leicester is well known for its flavour — indeed it is often recommended for cooking because of this. While I was at their stall I overhead someone say that she didn’t like it because it had a “very cheesy” taste. Goodness only knows what she was doing at the show. But I love it, and Jo bought a big wedge too.

My Best Hard Cheese and Best in Show prizes go to Sparkenhoe Vintage Red Leicester.

By the way, American readers, the red colour in Sparkenhoe comes from Annatto. Wikipedia says that before that was available they used carrot juice instead, which must have given a very different flavour. I’d be interested to see someone revive that recipe.

And that, I think, is enough for now. I do have some photos, but I’m trying to give the shoulder a day off from the computer so you’ll have to wait for those.