Camembert de Normandie

Camembert de Normandie cheesemaker Marc Brunet took on the Fromagerie du Val D'Ay at a young age but with a mature head. The dairy uses a farmhouse recipe, techniques and equipment to make semi industrial quantities of cheese. They work with over 60 local herds which average at 70 Normande cows (less than half the average UK herd size) and the farmers are paid so's to encourage diverse flavour-producing bacteria in their milk. As a result, Reaux's Camembert uses only very small quantities of starter culture, added to partially skimmed milk and left to ripen overnight in a room kept at 30C. Their cheeses are ladled by hand from small basins of curd and drain on reed mats. This is an elegantly subtle Camembert with complex flavours ranging from vegetal, buttered spring greens to more ethereal, ozone, sea-side qualities.