Fine Winter 2019

Blue Cloud Thinking
From marketing to cheese making!
When Chris Heyes left his job
in the city in marketing, most
people probably didn’t expect
him to start making cheese. And not just
any cheese, but a soft, blue artisan cheese
made just feet from where the cows
whose milk is used are grazed and milked
on the beautiful Balcombe Estate.
More extraordinary perhaps, is that Chris’s
passion and dedication to cheese making
was sparked and nurtured by traditions
that have their roots both in Italy and in
the remote Aberdare mountain range in
Kenya.
It all started when Chris got a job at High
Weald Dairy in Horsted Keynes helping
with their marketing. But then when one
of their cheesemakers left, Chris both
applied and got the position, thereby
changing the course of his future.
Skills learnt from the best
As a novice cheesemaker, Chris was
mentored by Michael Wisdom who
had worked for many years for both an
Italian cheesemaking family in the Kenyan
mountains and on his own farm there. In
fact, Michael’s talents were such that in
2009, one of his semi soft cheeses was
named as the fifth best cheese in the
world at the World Cheese Awards!
A rare opportunity
Inspired by his mentor’s passion and
attention to detail, Chris went on to study
with the Artisan School of Food and take
over from Michael when he retired as
Master Cheesemaker. Six years on, and
Chris was offered the unique chance to
use the old milking parlour at Balcombe
Dairy. But as he explains,
“The old milking parlour was OK but it
wasn’t ideal and when the opportunity
came up last year to buy four large
transport containers that had already
been adapted by Cornish cheesemakers, I
knew this was a once in a life time chance
to create and establish my own brand of
cheese. The herd here at Balcombe are a
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