Aussie cheese makers making headway into market

Aussie cheese makers making headway into market
Oakland Tribune

I ARRIVED at Gabrielle Kervella's biodynamic goat dairy in the hills of Gidgegannup, Western Australia, a bit frazzled. My nervousness had less to do with the fact that I had managed to drive on the "wrong" side of the road on the way there, but more to do with meeting the woman known as the "Australian doyenne of goat cheese."

Although she's a self-taught cheese maker, Kervella credits Sonoma's Laura Chenel as instrumental in her education and inspiration. Sheproduces a line of fresh and aged cheeses, including a lush fromage blanc, the tangy, clean, lightly aged, mold-ripened Affine, and cabecou, a traditional-style chevre that she marinates in olive oil and herbs to an exquisite creaminess.

Kervella and her partner Alan Cockman raise their 200 head of free-range goats themselves. Last year, the couple completed work on a new cheesemaking facility, which now includes a classroom for visiting chefs and cheese classes.

She is responsible for kick-starting Australia's fledgling chevre industry in the past decade, as well as advancing the country's burgeoning reputation as a producer of quality farmstead and artisanal cheeses and dairy products.

That reputation is also due to the purity of Australia's environmental conditions and livestock production methods, the indigenous flora that nourish the animals, and the skill, passion and talent of the cheese makers themselves. The results are spectacular cheeses, some of which are now available in some Bay Area stores.

One of the greatest challenges faced by Australia's cheesemakers are the country's rigid quarantine and production laws that prohibit production and importation of raw milk dairy products, unless they are made from cooked curd and meet strict parameters in terms of maturation and moisture content.

"The best Australian cheesemakers have traveled and trained overseas, and know what they're trying to make," says Will Studd, a television presenter, author, and Australia's only master of cheese. "They've got their eyes wide open but despite some of the cleanest cow's milk in the world -- (cows are) pasture fed year-round and (receive) no growth promotants -- they are unable to compete with counterparts overseas."

Producing cheeses in the age-old European tradition of using unpasteurized milk yields more complex flavors. "Tasting raw milk cheese for the first time is like watching color TV after years of black and white," says Studd.

Nick Haddow, from Bruny Island Cheese Co. in Tasmania, has been hailed as one of Australia's brightest new cheesemakers. The producer of aged cow's milk cheeses says the raw milk issue is a stumbling block, but it won't prevent the boutique Australian cheese industry from having a future.

"I strongly feel that I have the two ingredients common to many of the farms I've worked on or visited in France and Italy: excellent quality milk, and traditional methodology. As far as raw milk cheese production goes, I'm an advocate of it in part because it will respect the work put into raising healthy animals that produce healthy milk."

Julie and Sandy Cameron of Meredith Dairy raise their sheep and goats in the lush pastures of Victoria outside of Melbourne, where, says cheesemaker Julie, "the milk is made into cheese within half an hour of the animals walking in the paddock." The different grasses the animals forage on results in seasonal variations in the dairy's handcrafted cheeses. Lieberman sells their ultra-creamy, rich, mixed- milk marinated feta, as well as their natural rind, creamy, Southern French Auvergne/Languedoc-style goat's blue to Bay Area retailers.

Kervella is proud of all the growth she is witnessing in Australia's artisanal cheese industry. "I feel so humbled, having been part of Australia's developing food scene, and to see it evolve the way it has. The consumers and chefs are so supportive, and good to the producers -- it makes my heart sing to see all of this."

-Meredith Dairy Marinated Feta can be found at Bay Area Whole Foods, Andronico's, and Dean & Deluca in St. Helena, which also carries the Meredith Goat's Blue. Look for Bruny Island Cheeses and Kervella Biodynamic Goat Cheeses at Bay Area specialty food and cheese shops soon. For more information and mail order on any of the above cheeses, go to www.34-degrees.com, or call (303) 861-4818.