Australia's best specialty cheese has been crowned
We Australians love our specialty cheeses, and as we enter peak cheeseboard season, a lot of thought is going into which delicious fromages will feature.
Experts recommend no more than three cheeses per board, and they should be served at room temperature.
One cheese you may like to add to your next platter, but which may be a little difficult to get a hold of, is one called Inverloch Blue.
Award-winning Inverloch Blue is a perfect addition to your next festive cheese board. Prom Country Cheese
Inverloch Blue is the work of Prom Country Cheese in South Gippsland, Victoria, and it has just been named Grand Champion Cheese at the 27th Australian Grand Dairy Awards.
It was also named Best Australian Cheese at the World Cheese Awards.
What goes into the creation of this award-winning cheese is truly extraordinary.
Daniel Hales from Prom Country Cheese has taken nine.com.au through the intricate six-month process, which uses the highest quality ingredients Victoria has too offer.
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What goes into the creation of this award-winning cheese is truly extraordinary. Prom Country Cheese
Daniel and his wife Chelsie had a long history in dairy farming before they took over the company in 2022 from its previous owners, cheesemaker Burke Brandon and his wife Bronwyn.
Before leaving, Burke taught Daniel how to make cheese, starting with camembert.
"With cheese, it's always made the same, so to speak. So it's milk, you add bacteria, yeast and malt to the milk," Daniel explains.
"When the pH of the milk is right for that particular cheese, then you add your rennet, which coagulates the milk to a curd, and then you cut the curds.
"If you want a soft cheese, you cut the curds quite large and don't stir it much because it holds a lot of moisture. If you want a hard cheese, you cut the curds a hell of a lot and then you stir the hell out of it."
It is one of their more aromatic cheeses that took out the top prize at the awards.
Inverloch Blue, a recent creation, is made from organic milk produced by a fifth-generation family farm in South Gippsland.
One of the secret ingredients that has helped create its incredible flavour is a local wine called Moyarra Vineyard Fumé Blanc.
Daniel Hales from Prom Country Cheese. Prom Country Cheese
The first cheese he learned to make was camembert. Prom Country Cheese
The cheese matured for six months wrapped in grape leaves from the same vineyard that provides the wine.
"We use the milk from our cows and we hand-pick the grape leaves that we then soak in the flume blanc," Daniel says.
"It's not a strong blue cheese, so to speak, it's quite subtle and sweet and its got a fruity spice to it."
Daniel always recommends trying cheese on its own at room temperature before pairing it with anything, to get it "in its purest form".
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Inverloch Blue is made using this local wine. Prom Country Cheese
The cheese was named Grand Champion Cheese at the 27th Australian Grand Dairy Awards. Prom Country Cheese
Inverloch Blue is pricey, selling for $160 per kilo. It has sold out for the year, but production plans are already in place for the next round of the award-winning fromage.
The next batch of Inverloch Blue is officially underway.
"We already have an order for 500 wheels, and we're going to stagger the release a bit," Daniel says.
"We'll do a release in July and another at the end of October and then another release at the start of December."
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