Ian Arnett's Exmoor Blue Cheese dairy is based at Willett Farm, tucked in between the Brendon Hills and the Quantocks, just south-east of Exmoor proper. As the name suggests, they're blue cheese specialists, but this cheese is the exception that proves the rule. It's a small (500g or so) white cheese without a fleck of blue in sight.
Dryish, mildish and with an atraictive rind, it's a relatively subtle thing which stands in quite a contrast to some of Ian's Ian's stronger, take-no-prisoners blue cheeses.
Vegetarian
More about Ian Arnett and Exmoor Blue Cheese
People arrive at cheesemaking in all sorts of ways. Once upon a time, Ian Arnett managed a carpet warehouse! Made redundant in the early 90s, a neighbour, Alan Duffield, offered him some work in his cheese dairy at Willet Farm, gorgeously located just off the SE corner of Exmoor, between the Brendon and Quantock Hills. Ian's cheesemaking experience was precisely nil, but he loved the work from the start: "it was the best thing I'd ever done", he says.
Alan retired, and in due course Ian and his wife took the business on and have never looked back. Alan - a former ICI scientist - liked to experiment with cheesemaking and had produced quite a stable of different types. Ian's aim, since taking over, has been to consolidate - to work on consistency, refining the existing cheeses.
A man of firm opinions, he won't sell to the supermarkets on principle, and has little time for cheese shows, awards and so on.
All the cows' milk cheeses use Jersey milk from the farm next door. This includes the big seller Exmoor Blue (about 80% of their output) as well as Partridge Blue and Somerset Blue. Quantock Blue, Brendon Blue and Blissful Buffalo use ewes', goats' and buffalo milk respectively. Brendon Baby - the only non-blue - is a gentle firm goats cheese.
Let it be known: Ian's milder blues - PB and EB - are strong. His stronger blues can be positively nuclear!
