England Cheese Journey: Explore Dairy Royalty with CT's Fairfield Cheese Co

Tenaya Darlington February 03, 2022

Imagine waking up in a 16th century English country house where designer cows graze just off the ballroom. You’re in Somerset, the seat of England’s best Cheddars, and you’re staying in a beautifully restored bedroom -- one of 25, no less -- in the opulent manor belonging to the Montgomerys, one of the best Cheddar-making families.

Cheese royalty? Maybe you didn’t know such a world existed. But the royal family does. They’ve served award-winning Montgomery’s Cheddar for years. Now, thanks to a luxury food-tour company called Cheese Journeys, you can travel to the Montgomery estate (a.k.a. North Cadbury Court) and learn to make Cheddar with the head of the family, plus feast on the best British cheeses, wines, ciders, and whiskies from October 2-9, 2022.

That’s where you’ll find Laura Downey, owner of Fairfield Cheese Co.

“No one curates a trip like Cheese Journeys,” Downey says. “It’s a great way to combine a vacation with our passion for cheese and good food.”

Downey, who specializes in fine artisan cheeses at her Greenwich store, will function as the tour’s co-host -- her third time. For Downey, the tour is not just about meandering along the moors and eating Montgomery’s Cheddar, it’s a chance to travel with her customers. In fact, anyone keen to learn about cheese may join her. There are approximately 20 spots.

Downey sees cheese tourism as a growing niche. During the pandemic, her popular cheese school went virtual, giving her an opportunity to peer into newly renovated kitchens where customers were devouring cookbooks and deepening their cheese connoisseurship.

“As people care more and more about where their food comes from and how it is produced, a cheese-focused food tour helps connect their favorite cheeses to the place it comes from, the culture, the tradition, and the history,” Downey says. “Often these cheeses have been made for hundreds of years, and a tour like this allows them to understand how important preserving artisan cheese and foods are.”

Cheese Journeys is the invention of Anna Juhl, a former cheese-shop/restaurant owner and nurse who once developed projects for hospitals. Bringing the mixed experience together -- her contacts from sourcing fine artisan products, her strong business sense, and a passion for international travel -- she began leading trips to exclusive dairy-centric destinations seven years ago.

“I’m passionate about artisan cheese,” says Juhl, “so I made it my mission to bring food lovers into the homes and creameries of the world's best artisans.”

Juhl’s staff includes a pair of private chefs who prepare meals using local ingredients on all her tours, and she favors chateau stays over hotels. That way, guests can enjoy luxury but still feel at home. Plus, they can hang out in the kitchen, drinking wine and chatting with the chefs or with dairy celebs, like “the King of British Cheese,” James Montgomery.

“Jamie’s a legend in the cheese business and a great host,” Juhl says. Guests will meet Montgomery’s beloved herd, spend an afternoon in the aging cave, and then likely finish out the day golfing with him off the roof. There’s also an epic tasting night where Juhl invites 15 of the best artisan cheesemakers from around England to dinner in the ballroom -- one of the trip’s highlights.

“For anyone looking to get a cheese education and have fun, this is it,” Juhl says.

Other tour highlights include a private tour and tasting of Neal’s Yard Dairy (London’s premier cheese shop and aging facility), a walking tour through London’s Borough Market, cooking classes, clay shooting with a local instructor, a day trip to Bath, plus free time to relax by the estate’s beautiful indoor pool and spa.

Or, why not spend an afternoon in the garden pretending you are a character in a Jane Austen novel? After all, North Cadbury Court was the setting for the film Persuasion.

To learn more about Cheese Journeys and sign up for the England Cheese Odyssey in October, 2022, please visit www.cheesejourneys.com.

Photography c/o Winter Caplanson