This cheese is of one of a range made at Willett Farm near Taunton (Exmoor Jersey Blue is another). Although only about 15 years old, Ian and Ruby Arnett's business is now firmly on the cheesemaking map, and offers a selection that includes some great blues, a quality goats cheese (Baby Brendon) and Blissful Buffalo.
Originally made especially for Partridges in Sloane St, this cheese is now more widely available but has kept its name. Made in Somerset from rich Jersey milk (like Exmoor Jersey Blue - another one of Ian's), this is a strong blue cheese with a luscious soft and creamy texture.
Unpasteurized / 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!
