A truckle with a tale to tell, Oak Smoked Cheddar delivers Home Farm charm this Christmas

A cheese shaped by every corner of the Quicke’s estate, the award-winning Oak Smoked Clothbound Cheddar can bring a true taste of Devon to this year’s Christmas festivities. Combining a subtle smoke with the cheesemaker’s distinctive buttery cheddar, this is a wedge ready to shake up the Christmas cheeseboard, pair up with the drinks cabinet and bring homely flavours and aromas to a range of recipes.

Beginning with the grass out on the pastures of Home Farm, an unadulterated Devon diet for Quicke’s world-famous hybrid cows, this lush resource provides milk like no other for the dairy. A true taste of the land from which it came, this milk is then combined with natural rennet, heritage starters and Cornish Sea Salt to create the cheese’s unique flavour profile. Wrapped in cloth and moved onto the maturing rooms for 9-12 months, the farm’s unique microflora impacts upon its taste, texture and appearance as the cheese slowly comes of age.

Venturing around the farm more than most, the Oak Smoked Clothbound Cheddar is finally cold smoked using oak chips from trees grown in the ancient woodlands of the Quicke’s estate, which have been dried for many months in an old barn nestled in the farm’s winding lanes. Making the most of every gift that the landscape has provided, this is a smoked cheddar that’s worth the wait, pairing well with Devon tipples ranging from Sandford Orchards’ Devon Red Cider to Lyme Bay Winery’s Damson Liqueur.

Quicke’s Oak Smoked Clothbound Cheddar is available to buy at selected Marks & Spencer and Whole Foods Market stores, as well as from many independent retailers across the UK. The cheese can also be purchased from www.quickes.co.uk; 200g £4.75, 500g £11.10, 1.5kg £30.00.