Cheese of the Week - Dorset Blue Vinney

Dorset Blue Vinney

Dorset Blue Vinney is a genuine regional cheese made in the Sherbourne Valley.It is a hard cheese made from cow's milk with the fat content of 40 to 46%. This cheese is made from the skimmed milk. Maturing could last up to 12 months or even 18.


Country: Great Britain
Milk: cow milk
Texture: hard
Fat content: 40-46 %


Dorset Blue Vinney (frequently spelled "vinny") is a traditional blue cheese made near Sturminster Newton in Dorset, England, from skimmed cows' milk. It is a hard, crumbly cheese. "Vinney" is a local Dorset term related to the obsolete word "vinew", which means to become mouldy. Another explanation has it that "vinny" is a corruption of "veiny", referring to the blue veins running throughout the cheese.

Historically the cheese was merely a by-product of the much more lucrative butter market. Milk was of little value before the railways as it couldn't be brought to market before it went off, thus cheese and butter production was the main focus of dairy farms. Dorset butter was highly regarded in London where it fetched a premium price but making butter left the farmers with large quantities of skimmed milk which they turned into a hard, crumbly cheese.

While the cheese was a common farmhouse cheese in Dorset for hundreds of years, production dried up around 1970 and the cheese became extinct. However, in the 1980s Woodbridge Farm in Dorset revived the old recipe, and it is now producing the cheese again.

It is often made from unpasteurised milk. This is considered healthy by some and risky by others due to the potential for tuberculosis from infected cows passing into the milk. It has a strong taste and smell.

Blue Vinney goes well with Dorset Knobs, another traditional product from Dorset. The cheese was Thomas Hardy's favourite.

Dorset Blue Cheese has been awarded Protected Geographical Status, ensuring only cheese originating from Dorset may use the name.

Local myth describes how in years gone by, due to its supposed illegal nature, Blue Vinny would be left on the doorstep of those who ordered it on the black market.