Charlie is known as the big man of cheese though he describes himself as “a penniless shopkeeperâ€Â. He owns a delicatessen – an excuse to sell (I suspect that means eat) cheese – in Shaftesbury, Dorset, and judges cheeses including for the Guild of Fine Food‘s World Cheese Awards, being held today at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham – the reason I was standing in front of three wheels of Grana Padano. The World Cheese Awards are supported by Grana Padano, the world’s number one PDO cheese and the world’s number one selling PDO product. If Charlie is the big man of cheese, Grana Padano is the big cheese of cheese – which should make your brain stop and think when next you reach for a chunk of something previously nameless.
And nameless is how the cheeses are judged – tasted blind, graded by type, the judges assess the best of each type and it’s far from simple. With seven classes of cheese, each is then subdivided – the smallest with seven subdivisions, the largest with 50 subdivisions (some very complex, others utterly straighforward). The final tasting is for best in show – choosing from 13 cheeses, this, as Charlie put it, is about the pleasure of it. See his tips on tasting – at the end of this article.
Four members of the Trethowan family, with five others, make ‪Gorwydd Caerphilly, a far creamier version of this slightly lemony Welsh unpasteurised cow’s milk cheese. Matured for two months, its precise taste varies slightly according to the cows’ feeding habits and the weather – a sure sign of an artisanal cheese. Creamily complex, I kept nibbling.
As for the three wheels of Grana Padano, the most stunning moment came when Carlo Canale, Grana Padano’s marketing manager, broke open the 24-month aged wheel using a small almond-shaped knife to create schisms in four places which, together, made the wheel fall in half. The aroma it exuded – nutty, earthy, warm, salty – made us all breathe in compulsively and reach for more tastes.
I wonder how these cheeses will fare in today’s World Cheese Awards …
Charlie Turnbull’s tips for tasting cheese
- Start with the obvious: describe to yourself everything you see and feel. What is the colour? Texture? Shape? The talent for judging is not just in tasting, but in recognising what you taste.
- Say it out loud: give words to what you are experiencing, especially if you are judging as a team. Others may give words to what you are feeling, or say something that prompts you.
- Imagine it as a journey: consider how the flavour changes as it is placed on your tongue, as you chew, and after you swallow.
- Give it time: does it have legs? Sometimes the best flavours come out and allow you to fully appreciate the cheese a minute later.
- Compare it to reference points in your life: what does it remind you of? It can be another food, a place, a style of dining, a location, or something it might go with. This will inform you of the quality of the product.
- Once you’ve completed your journey with the product, try and sum it up: even if it is as simple as a straight yes or no opinion.