“Despite its Welsh origins, Caerphilly has been made by West Country cheesemakers since the late 1800s, originally as a way to generate some short term cash while their slow-ageing traditional cheddars matured.
We make our Caerphilly alongside our Cheddar, using the same beautiful unpasteurised milk. We call it ‘Duckett’s’ in honour of Chris Duckett, from whom we acquired this cheese. Chris was from nearby Wedmore and his family had been making Caerphilly on their farm since the 1920s. When he gave up farming in the late 1990s, Chris moved his cheesemaking operation over to Westcombe, but sadly ill-health forced him to retire a few years later.
Not wanting to see Chris’s fabulous Caerphilly disappear, we adopted his recipe and continue the Duckett family’s tradition to this day. We even diverted a spring through one of our cellars to make a dedicated Caerphilly ageing room, creating the perfect temperature and humidity for the cheeses’ maturation.
Tasting Notes: You only have to taste Duckett’s Aged Caerphilly to understand why we did all this. It has a lovely fresh taste with a clean lactic tang, followed by bright flavours of fresh grass, raw mushroom and citrus. Firm, but soft and springy, it has a lightness and delicacy that is the perfect foil to the richness of our Cheddar.”
– Westcombe Dairy
