Say cheese for artisanal legend and eco champion Charles Martell

Hosts can sweep the boards this Christmas by wowing guests with artisanal cheeses crafted by maker and distiller Charles Martell & Son whose pungent creation Stinking Bishop is a sure way to liven up festive gatherings by delighting many and deterring others. Washed in perry, a fermented juice from a special pear variety grown on the Gloucestershire-based business’s Hunts Court Farm, the Bishop’s delicate creamy texture and nutty hints are in spectacular contrast to its pong.

Its historic name, referencing a native pear and a bad tempered local, still finds fame having featured in Wallace & Gromit’s The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. But while that’s all marketing gold, Royal Warrant holder Martell’s production of seven other cheeses and four spirits is extraordinary too, collectively embodying powerful themes of heritage, survival, environmental protection and revolution. In the latter’s case that’s being part of the artisan-led transformation of the UK into a premium cheesemaker respected the world over.

Building the business from a rundown property in 1972 and in 2010 starting spirits production after discovering a 17^th century distilling house, Martell has reinvented the farm with a herd of Gloucester cows its stars. Less critically endangered than they were but still at risk, Martell’s original motivations were to save the breed by making cheese and encourage others to stock them. Today the cheeses use their milk and that produced by other local farms minimising transport impacts and helping other enterprises.

The company’s triumphant Single Gloucester, now awarded Protected Designation of Origin status, can be only made on Gloucestershire farms with a herd of Old Gloucester cows. Martell has also revived the full fat hard Double Gloucester cheese that died out and remains tricky to make. Pastures are no-till, a practice that conserves soil structure increasing biodiversity and 87 bird species now visit. “Being mindful of our environment is in our DNA, we were planting hedges and heritage varieties of apple, peak and plum when everyone else was ripping them out,” says Martell.

Hulla Baloo is the latest cheese, a zesty, full fat semi soft blue good in sauces and salads. Among the others chopped nettles coat the rind of its May Hill Green adding an enigmatic flavour and Slack-ma-Girdle, which takes its name from a local apple, is delicate and lemony.

With a £600,000 turnover forecast for 2026/27 the operation has a team of seven and sells to cheese wholesalers and retailers nationwide as well as being distributed in 32 countries including Ukraine.

“Now the distillery needs to catch up,” says Martell who, as a satisfied farmer, is a rarer thing these days. “We get support for our orchards,  our product names arouse interest in customers of all ages, we’ve been unbelievably lucky and are always culturally opportunistic, looking at ideas for the next 300 years.” www.charlesmartell.com