Isle of Man Vintage Cheddar, a distinctive luxurious 18-24 month aged creamy vintage cheddar, has won the Hard Cheese Category in a national competition run by Tesco to find delicious new British cheeses.

This annual competition is now in its seventh year and cheesemakers from all over the country produce entries in a variety of categories. 

The Category Winners get widespread distribution in their local Tesco region in line with their production capacity.

The producers of the cheese, Isle of Man Creamery Ltd, have had an exciting few weeks.  In May, Isle of Man Creamery’s Gordon Smith got the call to say that Isle of Man Vintage Cheddar had made it through the first round of judging to get to the Final. 

'That was fantastic news', recalls Gordon. 'The judges all know their cheese – there are dairy industry experts, food writers and members of the Tesco Cheese Team on the judging panel.'

Subsequently, the team at Isle of Man Creamery prepared another batch of Isle of Man Vintage Cheddar to send to the Final. On 11th June, Gordon Smith and his colleague Andy Thornton travelled to the Bluebird Restaurant on London’s fashionable King’s Road to hear the outcome of the judging first hand. 

'We had a fantastic time at the Celebration Lunch' said Andy.  'We got together with the other finalists before the results were

announced. 

'It was great to meet them and hear about all the hard work they had put into creating their entries – the cheesemakers of Britain are an enthusiastic lot!'

'We were so excited when our cheese was selected as winner in the Hard Cheese category. This guarantees us a regional listing in Tesco and help from the Tesco experts. 

'It was the high spot of a perfect day. We are already planning the production of our cheese for Tesco and we are really looking forward to going into our local Tesco store and seeing our cheese on the shelf.'

'Next year, we aim to go for the big one and bag the Overall Winner Award and national distribution!'