Tintern Abbey Cheese Co.
Hand-ladled Wye Valley cheddar, cloth-bound and cave-aged.
A small dairy on the western edge of the Wye Valley, half a mile uphill from Tintern Abbey. We make cheese three days a week with raw milk from a single neighbouring herd of Holstein-Friesians who graze the river meadows. Every truckle is hand-ladled into moulds, cloth-bound in muslin and lard, and matured in a converted stone barn cut into the hillside, the same cool, damp conditions the Cistercian monks used to ripen their cheese here nine hundred years ago. We make one cheddar, one smoked cheddar, and a soft blue we developed during lockdown that has quietly become our best seller.
Visit us
Dairy shop open Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm. Tasting flights £6 (refunded against any purchase). Behind-the-scenes tours on the first Saturday of the month, £12, booking essential.
The team
Sarah Llewellyn
Head cheesemaker
Trained at the School of Artisan Food and came home to start the dairy in 2014. Makes every batch herself, three mornings a week, by hand.
Tom Llewellyn
Affineur & sales
Looks after the maturing rooms, turning, brushing and grading every truckle. Also drives the Friday van round the Wye Valley pubs and restaurants.
Jamie Okafor
Dairy assistant
Joined from a goat dairy in Pembrokeshire last spring. Quietly improved the blue recipe within a month and refuses to take credit for it.
Gallery
What we make
Mature cloth-bound cheddar
Hand-ladled, cloth-bound and matured for twelve months in our stone room. Crumbly, sharp, with a long savoury finish.
£9.50 / 250g truckle
Oak-smoked cheddar
Six-month cheddar cold-smoked over oak shavings from a local cooper. Mellow, gently smoky, melts beautifully.
£8.50 / 200g wedge
Wye Valley blue
A soft, creamy blue with a gentle tang and a natural rind. Made in small batches every Tuesday.
£11.00 / 180g round
Three-cheese gift box
A wedge each of our mature cheddar, oak-smoked cheddar and Wye Valley blue, wrapped in waxed paper in a hand-stamped pine box. Includes a folded card with tasting order, pairing notes and the story of the dairy.
£24.00 / ~600g box