Milawa Cheese company wins a gold medal at Australian Food Awards

LOCAL milk of the highest quality is a crucial building block to making Milawa Cheese Company’s King River Gold cheese which won a gold medal at the Australian Food Awards.

Smelly socks: Ceridwen Brown won gold at the Fine Food Awards in Melbourne with her King River Gold cheese in the washed rind section, and silver with the Milawa Brie. Picture: Dannika Bonser

LOCAL milk of the highest quality is a crucial building block to making Milawa Cheese Company’s King River Gold cheese, which won a gold medal at the Australian Food Awards.

The washed rind cheese won gold in the mould surface or washed rind category.

It has won several other awards since Milawa Cheese Company founders David and Anne Brown started producing it soon after they opened in 1988.

Their daughter, assistant general manager Ceridwen Brown, said the cheese had always been popular because of its unique flavour profile.

“We physically wash the rind regularly to allow a bacteria to grow, which provides a much strong ‘smelly socks’ smell and a richer taste,” Ms Brown said.

She said her parents set up their cheese business in Mil­awa because it is surrounded by many of ­Victoria’s northeastern dairies.

“The King Valley and ­alpine regions do some ­amazing dairy farming and we are so lucky to be pro­ducing our cheese from such good quality milk,” she said.

“At the moment our milk is coming from a farm at Whorouly as we try to use single source milk, which ­increases the chance of producing good cheese.”

Ms Brown said it had been hard to watch local dairy farmers struggle since the price of milk dropped earlier this year.

“It has been so devastating for many of our really good friends who we do business with and have invested a lot of money into the industry.”

She said she the gold medal win at the Australian Food Awards could be attributed to the good quality milk used and she hoped the dairies would see it as “a little brightener to their day”.