Wensleydale cheese wins accolade

That is the verdict of the Guild of Fine Foods, which awarded the Wensleydale Creamery its highest honour of three-star gold for its newly launched Jervaulx Blue Cheese.

The award was made at the guild's Great Taste Awards, one of the country's most important food awards and announced at this year's Great Yorkshire Show, at which the creamery had two stands on the site.

Jervaulx Blue was launched just a few weeks ago and is named after the Yorkshire abbey where Cistercian monks are thought have first invented Wensleydale cheese in the 1100s.

The creamery's Smoked Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese has also been awarded two gold stars in the Great Taste Awards.

The Wensleydale Creamery's managing director, David Hartley, said: "Our dedicated master cheese makers work extremely hard to ensure our cheeses are of the highest quality.

"It is a real coup for Jervaulx Blue, which was only launched recently, to win this outstanding accolade.

"These awards are highly regarded within the industry and to have Jervaulx Blue endorsed as faultless by our peers is a fantastic achievement.

"For the creamery's Smoked Real Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese to win two gold stars is also testament to the skills and expertise of our workforce.

"It is timely that we have been able to announce we have won these awards at the Great Yorkshire Show, which is the biggest event in county's agricultural and countryside calendar."

The firm's commercial director Peter Andrew was similarly delighted with the news.

"It was better than we expected, when I got the call to be told it was a three-star win I was so pleased.

"I think it has a lot of elements that secure the heart lands of Yorkshire – people who buy it are happy to know about what is happening with their food and want to know all about where it is from."

Mr Andrew added that the success of the cheese reflected well on the hard work of the dairy farmers in Wensleydale who supply the creamery:

"Every litre of milk that one of our farmers produces we will take. We like to share in each others' successes.

Elsewhere the Jervaulx Blue has recently secured a significant contract with retailer Waitrose and was a sell-out success at the Dales Festival of Food.

The Great Taste Awards, which have been running since 1993, have gained widespread recognition among the country's retailers and consumers and are regarded as the yardstick for fine food in the UK.

Guild of Fine Food director Bob Farrand said: "The Great Taste Awards have, during the last 17 years, become the most trusted benchmark for food and drink.

"The foods are blind tasted by a panel of independent judges from all parts of the fine food business. For a product to be awarded two or three-stars, the judges must unanimously agree that an entry has achieved absolute perfection."

The Wensleydale Creamery is currently in the final stages of its long-running campaign to give the cheese it produces Protected Designation of Origin Status with the European Union.

Its campaign is backed by the Yorkshire Post and, if approved by EU officials, it will become illegal to call a product Wensleydale cheese unless it has been produced in the actual dale – giving it the same level of protection and status as Parma ham and champagne.

A decision on the matter is expected later in the year.