When I came back from our Aug UK hol I brought back 2 packs of Wensleydale. Sell-by date on them Oct 8th, but I'd learned to disregard those kind of dates for actually opening and eating cheese, the internet advice and my experience being that you can bank on another couple of months past the stated date. Well, not with the blocks I bought. I ate the first pack in a few days around the time of the sell-by and it was lovely. The second I opened yesterday while wife and son were out, planning on Sunday afternoon Wensleydale and crackers on the sofa while I sipped red wine, listened to music and read the new Smiley novel. The bastarding block was stale. It had an old sock smell, was mottled and the crumb I tasted before admitting defeat was very unappetising.
For me, this is a disaster: mature cheddar you can get here at a price but there's no Wensleydale, Cheshire or Lancashire. We're not planning to be back in the UK until the year after next so it's going to be a miserable Wensleydale-less 21 months or so.
