It's time to worship for followers of cheeses

IT was more than 800 years ago at Jervaulx Abbey that monks created a distinctive and memorable cheese called Wensleydale that has been delighting people inside and outside Yorkshire ever since.

Now, the historic former monastery is giving its name to a new product being launched by the Wensleydale Creamery in the Yorkshire Dales.

Jervaulx Blue, described by bosses at the Hawes-based creamery as one of the most important cheeses they have launched in recent years, will be launched at this weekend's Dales Festival of Food and Drink.

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The new product marks a multi-million pound investment for the company and is expected to ensure further growth at the creamery.

David Hartley, managing director of the Wensleydale Creamery, said: "We have chosen a name that reflects the long standing history of our cheese and its manufacturing process. Both the abbey and the creamery are famous landmarks and tourist attractions at either end of Wensleydale in Yorkshire."

"Jervaulx Blue has the texture and taste that will appeal to the modern British palate.

"We are becoming more continental in our tastes and this cheese mixes the best of the traditional British Blue with the creamy and soft texture more associated with continental cheeses. We are confident it will find favour with the customers of our supermarket, delicatessen and wholesaler clients."

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He added that Jervaulx Blue marks another step forward in the business's commitment to sustaining production, farming, and tourism in the Yorkshire Dales.

As a blue cheese, perhaps a product more readily associated with French cuisine, it also marks a departure from the traditional crumbly Wensleydale cheese.

The makers and graders of the cheese have worked hard on an improved recipe, which is typically matured for longer producing a smoother, rounded and more sophisticated flavour. It comes in new packaging depicting the window of the abbey and will be appearing in shops over the next few weeks.

Ian Burdon, owner of Jervaulx Abbey, said: "The abbey and the Wensleydale Creamery are both custodians of the Yorkshire Dales's traditions and are both proud of Yorkshire's fine heritage.

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"This along with the fact that Wensleydale cheese was first hand-crafted by monks at the Abbey makes it particularly fitting that Jervaulx has been chosen as the name for blue Wensleydale. We are delighted to be associated with this excellent cheese."

The creamery is also in the final stages of getting Wensleydale cheese protected by the European Union, a move backed by the Yorkshire Post. If granted Protected Designation of Origin status it would mean no one but them could call a product Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese, affording it the same status as champagne and parma ham.

Austere lives for Jervaulx monks

Founded in the 1100s, Jervaulx was created as a Cistercian abbey and was the daughter house of the abbey at Byland.

The monks lived under the values of austerity laid out by St Benedict and chose the location for its "wild and inhospitable" area where they could dedicate their lives to prayer, study, meditation and manual labour.

It was destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, leaving behind the imposing ruins seen today. It was bought by the Burden family in 1971.