Cheese tasting in Tasmania
Tasmania is a great place to visit if you enjoy good quality food and drink, made from fresh local produce. If cheese takes your fancy, then I can recommend a number of cheese makers where you can enjoy tasting their delicious range.
Ashgrove Cheese
6173 Bass Highway, Elizabeth Town
www.ashgrovecheese.com.au
Ashgrove Cheese is in the north of Tasmania, and is the easiest to find. It's on the main road between Devonport and Deloraine, about 4km north of Elizabeth Town. The place is easy to spot from the road - I'd like to say that you can't miss it, but I'm sure someone could.
One thing which distinguishes Ashgrove is its unique flavoured cheeses. I normally steer clear of cheese "contaminated" with non-cheese additives, but at Ashgrove they do such cheeses well, using flavours to complement and enhance the cheese rather than overwhelm it.
Best known is their wild wasabi cheese, which does have an unusual but surprisingly pleasant taste. It still tasted like cheese - but with an extra dimension. My favourite, however, was their bush pepper variety. The cheese itself was good, but the hint of spicyness from the native Tasmanian alpine pepper made it something special. Any reservations I had about flavoured cheeses disappeared.
Ashgrove produces "normal" cheeses too - including blue vein, havarti, and a selection of cheddars. The tasting area is well stocked, with all their cheeses (about 40 varieties) laid out in bite sized samples that almost cry out "pick me!". Like with wine tasting, there are notes describing the cheeses, and even a recommended order for tasting so that the mildest can be enjoyed first.
Having had your fill of tastings, you can buy any cheeses you particularly liked, or just make note of them for future reference - many supermarkets around Australia stock them. There is also milk, butter, cream and ice cream for purchase, all originating from the local cows who are grass-fed all year round. If that isn't enough, there is a cafe, although I haven't eaten there so I can't comment on it.
Bruny Island Cheese Company
1807 Main Road, Great Bay, Bruny Island
brunyislandcheese.com.au
This one differs from the others in that it is a small-scale artisan cheesemaker, and as the name suggests, it is located on an island.
Bruny Island is located just off the coast south of Hobart, accessible by a fifteen minute ride on the car ferry from Kettering. Although not hard to get to, the island is often missed by those on shorter visits to Tasmania, so if you can make the time to visit you won't be sharing it with too many others.
The Bruny Island Cheese Company is about fifteen minutes drive from the car ferry, along the main road (and only road) leading to the south. You probably won't find plates of pre-chopped samples laid out waiting, and you may only get to sample what happens to be available on the day - it's a bit of a lucky dip. When I first visited there was little available, but as I was on the island for a few days I was advised to try another day. I did, and was very glad I did, because much more was on hand to try.
I was served my samples by the owner Nick Haddow, who makes the cheeses using traditional techniques. As he cut lumps off various large blocks and wheels of cheeses, he described each one in the way that a father might proudly describe the achievements of a much loved child. I got the impression of a craftsman who enjoys what he does, and loves doing it well.
The results were outstanding. I could have happily bought any of them, but ended with a soft one named "1792" and one made from a mixture of leftover cow's and goat's milk with the blunt but descriptive name of "Bastard". Thanks to traveling in a campervan with a refrigerator, I was able to enjoy a chunk of bastard each day for the rest of the trip.
Organic wood-fired bread is also on the menu, but I didn't notice any when I was there - maybe a disadvantage of visiting mid-week during the low season.
Pyengana Dairy Company
St Columba Falls Road, Pyengana
pyenganadairy.com.au
Located in the north-east of Tasmania near the main road between Scotsdale and St Helens, this one has been going for a long time. Cloth-bound mature cheddar has been made at Pyengana using traditional methods for over a century, and fourth generation cheese maker Jon Healey continues this tradition. Like Ashgrove, it also has a cafe - the Holy Cow Cafe.
I passed by this cheesemaker in 2000 but for reasons I can't remember, I didn't go in - so unfortunately I can't say anything about it from personal experience. This omission is something I hope to rectify in 2012. I mention it here so as to include the major cheesemakers in Tasmania (excluding King Island) where samples can be tasted.
No longer operating
In 2010 I visited the now-closed Lactos cheese tasting centre in Burnie, not far from Devonport on Tasmania's north coast. Like Ashgrove, there was a large tasting room with all of their cheeses chopped into small pieces and available for free tasting ... guaranteed to tempt any cheese lover.
You might not have heard the name Lactos, but if you've spent much time looking at cheese in Australian supermarkets then you've probably seen their products. They make a wide range of cheeses under brand names including Tasmanian Heritage, Mersey Valley and Australian Gold. The cheese is still in production, but sadly I was advised by their site manager that the cheese tasting centre has been closed.
I mention this one because there is probably much tourist literature still in circulation which refers to cheese tasting at Lactos. It was good when it was there, but now it isn't.
As for my favourite of the ones I've visited ... they are all different and therefore hard to compare, and of course taste is very subjective. But for me, the Bruny Island cheeses stirred my cheese-appreciation nerves the most, and I loved the small-scale hand-crafted nature of the operation. If you're a cheese lover touring Tasmania, I'd recommend visiting whichever cheese makers you can get to. Just be aware that any intentions of tasting but not buying might be overcome by the temptations of some really great cheeses.
Image credits - cheese photo is from the Bruny Island Cheese Company website. Logo images are from their respective websites. I didn't think to take photos of my own when visiting ... must have been distracted by the cheese.
