Milawa Cheese

Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine - Oct/Nov 2003

It’s fitting to think that the home of the Milawa Cheese Company was once an old butter factory. Where once the milk was brought in from the lush King Valley to be churned into vast quantities of butter, today it is home to a small operation turning out handcrafted European-style cheeses. When David and Annie Brown took over the 1893 building in north-eastern Victoria, it was derelict, with little more than a few cool rooms inside. “We had something of an iconic building but we had to totally rebuild a cheese manufacturing plant,” says David. They sold their first cheese just before Christmas 1988 and their Milawa Gold and Milawa Blue were soon received with widespread acclaim. David had found his niche.

It was a change for the man who had worked as an economics teacher in Victorian high schools until he found that he was “a bit more of a free spirit than being a teacher allows you to be”. He had also done odd jobs as a house renovator, “failed electronics entrepreneur”, outback cook and spent much of the 1970s working at various wineries, including Chateau Reynella. But he and Annie had always loved cheese - “we were at the early end of foodieism before it got fashionable” – and after spending a year running a popular Melbourne luncheon club, they headed off overseas where they further indulged their passion for it. The idea of making cheese was “slowly fermenting” and on their return, they linked up with David’s old school friend, Richard Thomas, who had been working as a cheesemaker at Gippsland Blue (now Tarago) and King Island.

The Brown children were in primary school and pre-school at the time, and David and Annie “thought it might be nice to raise them in the bush … we preceded the sea change by about 30 years”. David scouted around and found the old Milawa butter factory and everyone set to work. “He (Richard) was going to make the cheese and I was going to count the money.” But like all the best laid plans, it wasn’t so simple. Within two years, the partnership fell apart, and David and Annie realised that with everything they owned hanging on the business, they had to quickly make it a success or they would lose the lot. Enter David Brown, cheesemaker. He had learnt enough of the fundamentals to take over the production side and from there, it’s been a case of trial and error, and never giving up.

“We keep modifying our production to improve the flavour and consistency, and we keep learning all the time,” he says. At times, they had young French students working with them who helped them develop the quality of their white mould cheeses such as their Milawa Camembert, made in the Normandy style with a mushroomy aroma and mild salty flavour, and their Milawa Brie, which won a gold medal at the 2002 Australian Specialist Cheesemakers Awards. The Milawa Gold and Milawa Blue they started with are still strong sellers. Milawa Gold, inspired by classics such as Port Salut, is very piquant, even pungent at times. “It’s the one Europeans go for when they come into the shop.” Both go particularly well with the Patricia Noble Riesling from nearby Brown Brothers, which David (no relation) works closely with. He and Brown Brothers chief executive, Ross Brown, are active in local tourism circles and were instrumental in getting the Milawa Gourmet Region off the ground.

While the Milawa Blue has a mild flavour, an Aged Milawa Blue with a Stilton-like complexity has since been introduced, along with numerous goat’s cheeses, including one coated with grapevine ash, a camembert and a washed rind goat cheese,which is firm textured and matures to a nutty flavour. But while goat’s cheese accounts for about half of the company’s production and makes it one of the country’s biggest goat’s cheese producers, most of the goat’s cheese is sold around Australia, not at the Milawa shop. There, the cow’s milk camembert accounts for about 80 per cent of sales. The company’s total production has grown from about 30 tonnes a year to 90 tonnes a year since it started, but the real growth has been in the tourism side of the business, something the Browns had not anticipated. “Early on we identified tourism as a pretty important part of our game,” says David, who thought tourism would constitute about 10 per cent of their business. It now accounts for more than half.

The old butter factory was much bigger than they needed, so in 1997 they opened a small café, which really began to flourish when it was taken over three years later by Will Flamsted, who with his brother Steve had earlier set up the King River Cafe at nearby Oxley. Passionate breadmaker Adam Rivett came on board and thus the Milawa Factory Bakery & Restaurant was born. The menu is quite sophisticated and highlights some of the Milawa cheeses in dishes such as Cauliflower and Milawa Blue Tart, and Grilled Eye Fillet with Potato and King River Gold Gratin. In the past year, an icecream and lolly shop have been added, a local potter has opened a gallery, and Wood Park Wines has opened a cellar door in the complex. David is constantly expanding his product list, not because he needs to – it’s big enough already – but “more for personal change … I like pushing the boundaries”. He is working on a goat’s cheese inspired by those from Ste Maure in France’s Loire Valley. A matured cheese with a “very waxy texture and some lovely flavours”, he expects to have it to a standard he is happy with by the end of the year.

As president of the Australian Specialist Cheesemakers’ Association, David says it has taken a “fair bit of cajoling” to encourage Australians away from supermarket cheese. “From a base of zero, now there’s a lot of people who understand, but there’s still a lot of people coming in who don’t understand the pleasures of specialist cheese.” Australian cheesemakers are getting better at their craft too. “Everyone, at some time over the years, has made the cheese of their dreams. The point is to make the cheese of their dreams more often.” David says he wants to excite people’s palates. “The whole thing about specialist cheese is flavour. You can get cheese that feeds you, but to develop maximum flavour, you have to have consistency, you have to make it by hand, and you make it with care. It makes our labour costs extraordinarily high but it’s a niche we want to be in.”

Milawa Cheese Company and Milawa Factory Bakery & Restaurant, Factory Road, Milawa, Victoria. Ph: (03) 5727 3589. Open 9am to 5pm daily; Thursday to Saturday nights.

© Christine Salins

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