MELBOURNE | The City Lane recently attended “King Island Dairy presents A Night Of Blues” as part of the 2016 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. It was a night that showcased King Island Dairy’s blue cheeses along with cheese inspired snacks, drinks and blues music. The event has been and gone, however all of the lovely cheeses that we sampled are available in supermarkets across Australia. For those who don’t know, King Island is a tiny island situated in the Bass Strait between Victoria and Tasmania. The conditions on the island, with its rich, salty windswept pastures are ideal for cheese making and everything about the process of making the cheese from start to end happens on the island. What does this all mean? Some fantastic tasting cheese. Here’s a rundown of the cheese that we sampled on the night.
Discovery Ash Blue
King Island Dairy Discovery Ash Blue is a complex mix of flavours and textures.
- Hand-crafted cheese offers sweet mushroom aromas and a creamy richness
- Unique ash coating provides delightful smoky overtones
- Mossy veins add a wonderful texture and subtle saltiness that gently bites through the rich body, but does not dominate
Endeavour Blue
King Island Dairy Endeavour Blue is a traditional gorgonzola style cheese with a soft creamy texture and a feisty “blue” flavour with fruity overtones. It is the most complex blue vein cheese King Island Dairy produces, due to its slow maturation process involving careful monitoring. This was one of our favourites on the night.
Roaring Forties Blue
King Island Dairy Roaring Forties Blue is a full flavoured blue with a sweet, slightly nutty character, a rich mouth feel and good aftertaste.
- Rindless cheese is matured in its wax coating, which cuts off the oxygen supply, promoting its sweet and fruity flavour
- Wax also assists in retaining the blue’s moisture, creating a smooth and creamy texture
Black Label Blue Triple Cream
A blue brie style, Blue Triple Cream can thank the addition of generous lashings of King Island cream for its rich, buttery texture.
- After the creamy milk arrives at the dairy, cheesemakers add their original blend of three strains of blue mould spores and culture to it
- The mixture is cut and stirred by hand until a robust curd is formed
- The following day it is salted and put into the maturing room, then hand pierced, allowing the entry of oxygen which reacts with the mould creating the blue veining
This one was the highlight of the night. So indulgent and so tasty – a great option for those who think they don’t like blue cheese.