On a hill in Cadbury where the castle of King Arthur perhaps once sat, the Montgomery family has been making cheese for three generations. Although famed for their farmhouse cheddar, the dairy makes an unexpected style of cheese from an unexpected heard of cows, at least for an English dairy. Montgomery’s Ogleshield is a raclette-style cheese. It’s made with Jersey cow’s milk and like many British cheeses, Ogleshield is grassy and earthy, but its washed rind gives the cheese a distinct boldness, reminiscent of beef stock. Ogleshield stars in this week’s pairing along with Mairposa, a delicious Chilean red made of 100% país grapes.
Ogleshield is sold to us by Neal’s Yard Dairy, the gold standard for British and Irish cheeses. Neal’s Yard has championed the success of British and Irish cheese since the late 1970’s. From selection to aging and selling, Neal’s Yard balances tradition and innovation, working with stunning dairy farms around the Isles to create unique, flavorful, iconic cheeses which get shipped around the world. Of the many incredible farms supplying wheels to Neal’s Yard, Montgomery’s is a standout both for their cheddar and Ogleshield.
A product of risk and experimentation, it took trial and error before Ogleshield became the cheese we know it as today. Jamie Montgomery usually uses his Friesian (Holstein) herd for cheesemaking, meaning Ogleshield is the first cheese made from Montgomery’s Jersey heard and the only cheese sold at Neal’s Yard to be made of 100% Jersey milk. Jersey milk is sweet and creamy and known to make great melting cheeses. When the experimentation began, the new Jersey cheese had a natural rind. A Neal’s Yard cheesemaker, who studied cheese traditions in the Alps, suggested that a salt water wash might improve the cheese’s maturation. Ogleshield was born. With the washed rind and meltable Jersey milk, the Montgomery farm found themselves with a West Country version of raclette.
We’ve paired this beefy, grassy, raclette-style with a frankly delicious red wine from Chile. Mariposa is made of 100% país grapes, introduced to Chile by Spanish colonialist priests sent to set up missionaries in the New World. Some país vines are around 100 years old, but Mairposa comes from 40 year old vines and is made by a husband and wife dedicated to sustainable, minimalist winemaking. This red is fruity and smooth, with a little bit of red berry tartness on the finish. In many cases, the fruitiness of a wine draws out similar notes in the cheese. In this pairing, the opposite happens as Oglesheild’s grass notes amplify the background notes of minerality and earth in the otherwise fruit-forward red. Enjoy Ogleshield melted for a raclette dinner or simply snack on a wedge at room temperature. Either way, make sure you grab a bottle of Mariposa and enjoy the two together.