New!

This organic, funky, epicea spruce bark-belted soft cheese in the style of Vacherin Mont d’Or. Delicious eaten as is – or baked in its belt like a mini-fondue!

Texture: with a thin bloomy rind, the paste is creamy and melty, becoming oozy, runny and spoonable as it ages.

Ingredients: Milk, salt, cultures, non-animal rennet, with spruce bark belt

Flavour: mildly-woodsy, creamy and nutty, becoming stronger in aroma and taste with age.

Eat: Delicious eaten as is – just remove its bark belt and eat it like any soft cheese. Or when it’s really ripe and runny, we love to leave its belt on, cut off the top rind with a sharp knife to expose its delectable interior, and use it as a dip for bread or crackers – a great party piece! Or bake it in its belt like a mini-fondue – see our suggestions for Baked Driftwood below.

Pair: this luscious alpine-style cheese calls for more structured white wines and lighter fruit-driven reds. Try to avoid anything with much tannin as its spruce bark belt delivers enough. Savignan, from the same Jura region work beautifully – try an Australian version from Beechworth – as do Pinot Noir, white Rhone varieties such as Marsanne & Roussanne, or light Spanish Garnacha.

Baked Driftwood: remove cheese from box, remove wrapping, leave bark belt on, and drop cheese back into box or an oven-proof dish. Pierce the top of the cheese a few times with a fine skewer, drizzle with white wine, sprinkle with chopped thyme, stud with slivered garlic. Bake cheese in oven (pre-heated to 180°C) for about 15 minutes or until it is heated through and centre has melted. Serve immediately with crusty bread for dipping, or accompanied by cooked potatoes, cornichons, mushrooms – or try dipping in blanched broccoli or cauliflower florets.

About Long Paddock Cheese: 
An organic cow’s milk cheesemaker in Castlemaine, determined to make great cheese. Set up by cheese tragics – Ivan & Julie Larcher, Alison Lansley, Ann-Marie Monda and Carla Meurs – who share a vision to see Australia’s artisan cheese industry flourish.

’Our craft is cheesemaking, its culture and skills buried in the aeons of European history. But our home and terroir is central Victoria, Australia – Dja Dja Wurrung country. Djaara (Dja Dja Wurrung People) have lived on their traditional lands and cared for djandak (Country) over many thousands of years. We are privileged to be able to contribute in a small and temporary way to that care.’

Produced of the unceded land od the Dja Dja Wurrung People - Castlemaine