Yorkshire Wensleydale

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Yorkshire Wensleydale is a cow's milk cheese made in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, and only cheese made there may use the name. It is known for a supple, crumbly body, a faint honey aroma, and its fame as Wallace's favourite cheese.

Key Facts

Country of Origin	England, United Kingdom
Specific Origin	Wensleydale
Protection	PGI (2007)
Milk Type	Cow
Milk Treatment	Raw or pasteurized
Fat Content	Minimum 48% of dry matter
Moisture Content	Minimum 54% dry matter
Rind	Cloth-bound or none
Texture	Firm, Crumbly
Flavor	Slightly acidic, mellow, and honeyed; stronger and more complex when aged
Aroma	Lactic, slightly acidic; develops stronger notes when aged
Colors	White to ivory-yellow
Forms	Truckles, cylinders (500g to 21kg), 20kg blocks
Age	2 weeks to 12 months

What is Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese?

The cheese began with French Cistercian monks from the Roquefort region who settled in Wensleydale and built a monastery at Fors, later moving to Jervaulx in Lower Wensleydale. They brought a recipe for sheep's milk cheese. The monastery was dissolved in 1540, and local farmers carried on making the cheese.

In the 14th century cows' milk replaced sheep's milk and the cheese changed character. A little ewes' milk was still blended in, which opened up the texture and let blue mould develop, so most Wensleydale of that era was blue and the white version was barely known. Today it is the other way round. Farmhouse production continued until the Second World War, when most British milk went into ration-era government cheddar, and output never climbed back to pre-war levels. The first commercial creamery opened in Hawes in 1897. Wensleydale Dairy Products bought the Wensleydale Creamery in 1992 and won Protected Geographical Indication status for the Yorkshire Wensleydale name in 2013.

It is a medium cheese, supple and crumbly, with a slight honey aroma.

The flavour works with sweeter food, sweet apples in particular. Restaurants and delicatessens often sell a version studded with cranberries. In Yorkshire and North East England people eat it with fruit cake or Christmas cake.