Isle of Mull Cheddar Review

The town of Tobormory on the Isle of Mull

The Isle of Mull is one of several small (both in population and square miles) islands off the West coast of Scotland. There is a tremendous amount of history on this island which has been inhabited since just after the last ice age. That was a long time ago! The rugged terrain that's a mix of moorland and rolling hills and the climate end up being the perfect environment for making aged cheeses, which is why cheddar cheese is so popular in this area and in Scotland in general. 

Aging Cheeses

The fact that there's very little grass for cows to eat on Mull doesn't deter cheese makers, as the nearby whisky distillery provides plenty of spent grain husks for the cows to savor. This diet is low in carotene and doesn't produce richly-colored milk products, so the cheeses are usually a little anemic looking, not golden or tinged with yellow. 

Isle of Mull Cheddar

Typically the cheeses of Mull are a tad more colorful in the summer months when the cows have better access to grass. 

Not quite as lush as some of the cheese-making towns in the Alps and Pyrenees.

A little bit about the cheese makers...

From Neal's yard Dairy: Jeff and Chris Reade moved from Somerset, where they had been making cheddar, to Scriob Ruadh Farm (pronounced Ski-Brua and meaning Red Furrow) in 1979. At that time, the farm was a shell: the farmhouse had no roof and the first thing they had to do was put a roof over the cowshed (it promptly blew off in a storm). It was 1999 before they had fully roofed the farmhouse as housing their herd and building a dairy took precedence. The Reades milk about 100 cows, mainly Friesian but with some Jersey, Ayrshire and Brown Swiss too.

The Isle of Mull Cheddar is a quiet cheese, but one that still warms the heart, especially after reading the history of the cheese makers. I keep wanting to say it's a sad cheese, but when I say the cheese is sad, I just mean that it's not robust, memorably creamy or outrageously stinky. It makes a statement only in it's subtlety, but in this subtlety, it becomes an intriguing little dairy product. Still, it doesn't scream out in any way or command attention. It makes you go, "Aww." instead of "Oooo!" 

Right away I noticed the cheese's sweet flavor. Toward the edges, the taste changes from mild and milky to something similar to a tomme-style cheese. At the center, it tastes more like a mild but flavorful traditional cheddar. Though the flavor is more subtle than any of the classic stinky cheeses or even most aged cheddar cheeses, there are still profound notes of grass and nuts, specifically Brazil nuts, reminiscent of these other cheeses. There's a nice hint of delicately toasted bread too. It's just missing any powerful tang or zest. 

Isle of Mull Cheddar

I found the texture to be dry and flaky, not creamy. It's somewhat gritty without being unpleasant. Warmed, both the flavors and texture become smoother and more even. 

Single Malt

The Isle of Mull Cheddar is made with unpasteurized cow's milk and standard animal rennet. It's aged 12 to 18 months. This shy cheese pairs well with many wines, but a single malt will elevate it and coax out its better qualities. It's likely that the malt will help people recognize that, in the end, this cheese does deserve attention. 

Jeff and Chris Reade