Martinborough’s Drunken Nanny Cheese Farm has been churning out award-winning goat cheese since 2016, just months after the family-owned business entered the specialist cheese market.
And to prove they’re not kidding around, Amanda Goodman and husband Lindsey have just added another two gongs to their already groaning trophy case in this year’s NZ Champions of Cheese Awards, the winners of which were announced yesterday.
The couple’s Black Tie fresh goat cheese – which is coated in a hand sprinkling of black ash from burnt grape vines that are imported from France – took out the OJI Fibre Solutions Goat Milk Cheese Gold Medal – while their Chillin Cheese placed for silver in the Filtercorp New Cheese category.
The Black Tie cheese is a consistent winner at the annual awards, with this year’s win marking the fourth year in a row it’s earned the gold, something that Amanda anticipates will “give it a little more oomph” when it comes to sales.
The Chillin Cheese, which placed in what was its first awards outing, is made using chilli oil from local olive oil producer Olivo.
“We’re thrilled to get an award at first pop, and it’ll really help in creating interest for this brand new product,” Amanda said.
The Goodmans got into the cheese-making business due to a desire to diversify their sheep and beef farm – due to “bouncing from drought to drought” every season, “the old sheep farming model my dad used to run isn’t financially viable anymore” – and an aversion to thinning the growing herd of goats the couple had initially started due to their kids’ cows’ milk intolerance.
Amanda hopes the awards will encourage more punters to try Drunken Nanny’s produce – “just like medals on wine bottles, it does have an effect” – especially given they can initially be a little reluctant if they haven’t grown up with goats milk and have gotten the erroneous idea that “it tastes like old socks”.
