Berrys Creek tantalises on world stage

Grace Griffith

BERRYS Creek Gourmet Cheese’s Riverine Blue has been recognised at an international level, taking out a silver medal in a global class amongst 5000 other entries.

It was one of several of the local makers’ cheeses to receive a prestigious award at the Nantwich World Cheese Awards in the UK recently.

The company also won gold medals for Riverine Blue and their wash rind cheese, Spring View, within their respective Australian class categories.

This year marks the third consecutive year the Fish Creek based company has collected gold for best Australian cheese at the international awards.

It was their Riverine Blue however, a cheese produced from buffalo milk, that stole the show again, winning silver in the buffalo milk world class.

Owner and master cheese maker of Berrys Creek Gourmet Cheese, Barry Charlton, admitted to having never heard of using buffalo milk for cheeses until a buffalo farmer in Giffard, Bryan Jans, reached out to him.  

“I didn’t think it would eventuate initially. He wanted to trial it and he kept persevering, so I said if he got 100 litres of milk to me, we’d do a trial,” Barry said.

The first trial of Riverine Blue was then entered into a worldwide cheese show in Birmingham where it collected a bronze medal.

Berrys Creek Gourmet Cheese was the first Australian company to produce it.

Fast forward five years, the Riverine Blue – which has been cultivated and improved – has taken out numerous awards in both national and global arenas.    

While the team at Berrys Creek Gourmet Cheese work passionately to create delectable cheeses, Barry said there was much more to the process than meets the eye.

“We put love into our cheeses but we have to start with quality products,” Barry said.

“Farmers here are passionate about their animals. Happy animals make good milk and it shows in our cheeses.”

While the local company is able to supply commercial quantities, their core values are to maintain artisan standards and provide an uncompromising standard of excellence.

And despite recent challenging weather conditions that impacted milk production, the cheese making team has adapted to ensure quality of milk has been retained.

“Cheese is a living organism,” Barry said.

“Making it is a science. We adjust cultures. In the Riverine Blue, there are three different cultures to produce, which all create different flavours and textures to the cheese.”

According to the expert cheese maker, the creaminess of the buffalo milk and the way it sits on the palate form part of what makes this cheese so remarkable.

“It’s a sweetish sort of milk, and it’s high in fat and protein,” he said.

Mossvale Blue and Spring View Blue also received awards for producers originating outside of the UK.

Short URL: /?p=30150

Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Oct 8 2019. Filed under Business, Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry