The Yorkshire Post says: What's in a name? Local taste of the West Country
THEY fought a long and hard battle to ensure that Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese remained the exclusive preserve of the Dales, so there is some irony in the fact that the creamery which produces it is now introducing Yorkshire Cheddar, a variety native to the West Country.
But why not? At least half the cheese sold in Britain is cheddar and by no means all of it comes from the Mendip Hills. In fact, if it isn’t sold as West Country Farmhouse Cheddar – which, like Yorkshire Wensleydale, enjoys “protected brand” status across Europe – it has almost certainly emanated from somewhere other than a limestone gorge in Somerset.
More to the point, the word Yorkshire, when attached to food and drink, has come to be seen as a badge of quality, and the more it can be leveraged for the benefit of the dairy farming community the Wensleydale Creamery supports, the better.
They may not like in the Mendips, but that, dare we say, is hard cheese.