Nettlebed Creamery ‘proud’ of winning artisan cheese awards

Nettlebed Creamery won the top prizes in two categories at the 10th annual Artisan Cheese Awards 2026, a series which supports cheesemakers in the UK and Ireland and celebrates their achievements.

This year, the awards saw 644 entries from more than 100 micro- and medium-sized artisan cheese producers, and a judging panel of 80 representatives from some of the top food retailers and supermarkets.

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Across 20 classes, from hard to soft cheese, raw milk to blue, smoked and flavoured, Nettlebed Creamery came away with two ‘gold’ awards.

Nettlebed Creamery Cheese: Bix and Witheridge in Hay won gold awards at the Artisan Cheese Awards 2026 (Image: Nettlebed Creamery)

The creamery’s Witheridge in Hay six-month aged cheese was awarded class winner in the organic cheese class, while it’s Bix cheese won ‘highly commended’ in the soft cheese class.

Nettlebed Creamery’s executive cheesemaker Sabrina Langley said: “It’s always really lovely to get recognition for our cheese, we work really hard to make the cheese we do.

The executive cheesemaker at Nettlebed Creamery said they’re ‘proud’ of what they do (Image: Nettlebed Creamery)

“We’ve got a great team at the moment who work together really well, and it can be hard work, it’s hot and tiring and quite a physical job, so when you get awards coming through it makes it all worth it.

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“It’s also really nice for a small business to be recognised in this way, we’re very proud of what we do”.

She added that the care put into every aspect of their cheese production – from using organic milk from local herds which ‘shines through’ in the project to the time it takes to perfect a new cheese is a key part of their approach.

Along with its cheeses, Nettlebed Creamery is beloved for The Cheese Shed cafe, a delightfully rustic barn which specialises in cheese toasties.