A temperamental little cheese

'A bit of a prima donna'

Petite, curvaceous and with delicate dusky skin, Golden Cenarth has become a pin-up of the cheese world, but there’s more to this Welsh beauty than stunning looks. Made with organic milk from the verdant Teifi Valley and hand washed in cider, the cheese has a rounded character taking in nutty, savoury flavours and a rich creamy depth.

Judges at last year’s British Cheese Awards were certainly swept off their feet by its charms. They awarded it the ultimate compliment by naming Golden Cenarth Supreme Champion ahead of over 900 other cheeses in the competition. What made the accolade even more remarkable was that the cheese had only been launched two years previously - a meteoric rise that is almost unheard of in the dairy world where cheeses often take up to five years to achieve such recognition.

The overnight fame and adulation has not come without its fair share of heartache, however. Carwyn Adams, MD of Camarthenshire-based Caws Cenarth, which makes the cheese, admits that like all true superstars Golden Cenarth can be a bit of a prima donna.

“It’s quite a temperamental little cheese,” he says. “If we don’t get conditions spot on, it doesn’t thrive at all. To be honest, it’s been the bane of our life trying to get it right, so winning the award made it all worthwhile.” 

To read the rest of this article, which was first published in the September edition of Harrods Magazine, click here