Cheesemaking demands a high quality milk to produce a top quality cheese, Derg Cheddar is produced from top quality raw milk from Paddy and Kay’s herd.
Derg Cheddar is gently made using traditional farmhouse methods and it is left to mature for 9-12 months to give it its distinctive flavour.
The first taste of this artisan fresh milk cheese is packed with the scents of mushrooms, busy with the heat of mustard, alive with the sweetness of unprocessed milk, and freighted with a long, fudge-filled finish that seems to go on forever, a true torrent of tastes. To achieve this level of expertise with fresh milk cheesemaking is no small matter, and explains why Paddy and Kay went home with a medal having impressed the judges at the 2015 Irish Cheese Awards. But it is an extraordinary achievement to be able to produce such a complex and a complete artisan cheese with only a few years cheesemaking under their belt. Maybe its the fact that their happy cows graze while gazing out over the waters of Lough Derg that make Derg Cheddar so special, but here is a totem amongst the new generation of Irish farmhouse cheesemakers.
John McKenna 2016
The exceptional quality and local nature of the milk provided the raw material for an excellent cheese with ‘terroir’ and this,
together with a high standard of production, ensured that it quickly attracted an appreciative following of people who loved the
rich tangy flavour and firm texture of the mature cheese.
Signifcantly, it also impressed the judges at the 2015 Irish Cheese Awards, where it took the title of Best New Cheese.
Georgina Campbell 2016
Thanks for the cheese. Catch ya’s later.
Conor McGregor
