St Jude

Ingredients & Allergens

Ingredients: Cheese (milk).
Allergen advice: for allergens see ingredients in bold.

Tasting Notes

Julie Cheyney's St Jude is a complex soft cheese made right here in Suffolk from rich unpasteurised cow's milk. The texture is dense and creamy. Its milky flavours are reminiscent of butter and fresh grass.

St Jude pairs extremely well with charcuterie and fruity white wine.

• Unpasteurised cow's milk
• Animal rennet

What is special about St Jude?

Julie Cheyney makes her very special cheese using milk from Montbéliarde cows. This breed is traditionally used for Alpine cheeses, such as Comté and Vacherin. At Fen Farm Dairy in Bungay, the herd is owned by Jonny and Dulcie Crickmore. Jonny hand-picked his cows from small farms in the French Jura to make their Brie-style cheese, Baron Bigod. Julie's White Wood Dairy, is now also based at Fen Farm and this is where she handmakes St Jude.

Julie has a background in dairy farming and she has been milking cows since the age of 16. Her cheesemaking career began in Hampshire with the co-creation of Tunworth in 2005. Incredibly, this soft cheese was named Supreme Champion at The British Cheese Awards just the following year. St Jude also started out in Hampshire. Julie moved to Suffolk in 2014 to use the high quality, protein-rich Montbéliarde milk available at Fen Farm.

At Fen Farm, milk travels straight from the milking parlour to the cheese room using a gravity feed - pumping could damage fat globules in the milk and spoil it. Julie's cheesemaking process then begins while the milk is still warm.

"Slow and gentle" is Julie's mantra. St Jude cannot be rushed and Julie is meticulous about every stage. After adding starter cultures and animal rennet, the cheese is set naturally, which takes between 12 and 24 hours. It is then hand ladled into moulds and left to drain, rather being pressed.

Maturation takes place at Neal's Yard Dairy in London. St Jude is aged for four weeks, in which time its flavour and rich, creamy consistency develops as well as a delicate geotrichum rind. Darker patches and green and white spots often develop with age.

St Jude was awarded the James Aldridge Trophy for the Best British Raw Milk Cheese in 2013.

Wine pairing with St Jude

Our wine expert, Katie Goodchild from Heritage Wines recommends Black Chalk Classic 2015 or Wiston Estate Cuvée 2009 - 

“Black Chalk Classic 2015 is Chardonnay-dominated (49% Chardonnay, 34% Pinot Meunier, 17% Pinot Noir) which provides a richness to the wine and pairs well with St Jude. A richer sparkling wine such as Wiston Estate Cuvée 2009 would also be a good match, with its more toasty notes and creamy texture."

Cheese Making Visit

In March 2019, we were lucky to be invited for a hands-on visit to get a deeper understanding of what makes this beautiful little cheese so special - you can find out more on the blog >

Online Cheese Club Tasting

St Jude was featured in our cheese club selection in July 2020 and we were delighted to host an online cheese tasting with cheese expert Sam Wilkin, head cheesemonger at The Cheese Bar London and host of the Cellarman podcast. Watch the video below to find out what Sam made of this wonderful soft cheese.