One of the speciality cheeses made by Isle of Man Creamery, based at Cronkbourne, has been awarded the prestigious Gold Award at the World Cheese Awards.

The awards take place each November and form part of the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham. This year there were over 2,700 entries and the difficult task of judging the 131 classes fell to a team of 250 expert judges from all over the world.

The Isle of Man Creamery Cracked Peppercorn Mature Cheddar took the gold award in the ‘hard pressed cheddar with savoury additives’ category. The base cheese is 12 month old mature cheddar and the peppercorns are then added to the cheese by hand after maturing.

Managing Director, Findlay Macleod said: “Winning a Gold Award at the World Cheese Awards is an amazing achievement for us here at the Creamery and is testament to the superb craftsmanship and dedication of our team of experienced cheesemakers. It is important to us that our cheese is of a consistently high quality, so that whether we are selling our cheese on-Island, abroad or sending it to be judged at an international show, we can be sure that it meets our own high standards. Our Cracked Peppercorn Mature Cheddar is a personal favourite and perfectly blends the creamy full flavour of the cheese with the warmth of the cracked black peppercorns.”