The History of our Kit Calvert Old-Style Wensleydale Cheese

Do you love our Kit Calvert Cheese? Are you aware of its history?

Kit Calvert Old-fashioned-Style Wensleydale cheese is named in celebration and honour of Kit Calvert MBE, the legendary Yorkshire businessman, who helped save the Wensleydale Creamery from closure in the 1930s. It is a lovingly handcrafted old-style Wensleydale cheese with a buttery, and especially creamy texture.

Award-winning, Kit Calvert Old-Style Wensleydale cheese is lovingly handcrafted by a team of skilled cheese-makers at the Wensleydale Creamery, in the market town of Hawes, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, using milk from local farms and the Creamery’s very own unique cheese-making starter culture.  A lot less cheese-making starter culture is used to make the cheese, which ultimately slows the process right down.  It takes nearly twice as long to make the cheese compared to Yorkshire Wensleydale.

The cheese is bound in muslin, before being naturally matured for around 16 weeks on open shelves in an atmospherically controlled cheese store, under the watchful eye of the Creamery’s specialist Cheese-Grader.  During this maturation period the outer surface of the cheese forms a natural rind, whilst the buttery, creamy, complex rounded flavour and texture of the cheese continues to develop.   The earthy notes of the rind of the finished cheese lead you through to the creamy, buttery body of the cheese with a complex milky flavour with citrusy notes and a lemony back flavour.

Emulating a cheese recipe used by farmers wives in their farmhouses & dairies around the turn of the century & throughout Kit Calvert’s era, the cheese-making process for Kit Calvert Old-Style Wensleydale is slowed right down, resulting in a softer and creamier textured cheese, which is markedly different to the bright, creamy, crumbly textured Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese we know today. It is also made using animal rennet, as it would have been done throughout this era too.

Cheese Grading Notes….

The back of the cheese iron (a tool used to check the cheese) will not be shiny ‘clean’ like we would expect with a Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese.

There should be a trace/covering of fat – which is a good sign!  It’s a result of the creamier texture that we’ve achieved through altering the cheese-making process

 Great paired with….

Enjoy with oatcakes, crisp grapes and slices of apple.  Kit Calvert cheese is fantastic served with a red onion marmalade or an apple chutney.  A fine port, or Rioja is perfect for drinking alongside Kit Calvert.