Highland Fine Cheeses: The story behind the 55-year-old Tain cheesemaker firm’s growth

It is 1967, the year that husband and wife Reggie and Susannah Stone establish Highland Fine Cheeses.

The process of cheesemaking started out as an accident with Reggie complaining that no one/business made Crowdie anymore. Susannah was up to the task and set about producing her own.

Roughly 55 years on, the Stone family are still firmly behind the reigns of Highland Fine Cheeses.

And the firm’s product range has expanded to now also boast Black Crowdie, Caboc, Morangie and Highland Brie, Strathdon Blue, Blue Murder, Fat Cow, and Minger.

There are around a dozen full-time employees in the Tain-based dairy.

Rory Stone

Rory Stone joined his mum, Susannah, and his older brother in the family business of cheesemaking in 1994, and has headed up the company ever since.

“I had a most spoiling childhood,” he says.

“Expensively educated, over-indulged and properly entitled, so other than a strong, inherent arrogance and belief that I’m bound to be right (just ask my wife), I actually have no basis at all to trust that I bring anything more than hope to the game.

“I’m like all other cheesemakers, merely fumbling about in the dark with a sense that we will create something edible eventually.”

Rory believes there needs to be an increase in cheesemakers across the country “so that people begin to recommend Scottish cheese”.

The cheesemaker added: “If we only had Glenmorangie, we wouldn’t have a single malt whisky industry.

“If tourists only had Strathdon and didn’t like it they’d rightly say ‘Scotland doesn’t make nice blue cheese’, but now they have options – Hebridean, Kintyre and the heavenly Arran Blue.

“Give people choice and they are bound to find something they like.”

Cheese, glorious cheese

Highland Fine Cheeses is now focused on mould-ripened cheese with brie, blue, and washed rind styles.

The milk comes from three farms. They include Sibster, just west of Wick, Thrumster with a herd of organic Jersey cows, and Rootfield on the Black Isle, which is converting to Ayrshire cows.

“We were beginning to look like a jack of all trades, with too many different types and styles,” says Rory.

“However it’s becoming apparent that we are getting better at mouldy cheese.

“Yes, we still make the traditional Crowdies and Caboc, even a little farmhouse cheddar when there’s spare milk. But the dominant brands are Strathdon, Blue Murder, Minger, Fat Cow, and Morangie Brie.”

It usually takes under six hours for the makers to produce a batch of cheese.

The process starts with the milk from the farms being pasteurised, before being transferred to vats – large stainless steel vessels.

Then, starter culture is added, which converts the milk, sugar and lactose into lactic acid/sour milk.

This is followed by the addition of rennet to coagulate and turn the milk into yoghurt, known as curd.

To conclude, it is cut and stirred depending on the cheese style.

“It involves patience, an even temper, and an ability to shoulder failure,” Rory joked.

Tackling England market

The dominant market for Highland Fine Cheeses is in Scotland. However, Rory said the business is beginning to “breach Hadrian’s Wall”.

“We also hope to work with the Scottish Dairy Growth Board which has been tasked for the last nine years to double Scotland’s dairy output, so far that hasn’t happened.

“We are flat-lining at 1.3 billion litres but I still have hope.”

‘Christmas is when the profit is made’

The business experiences an 80% uplift in December over any other month with cheese considered a popular festive treat.

Rory has multiple favourites in the Highland Fine Cheeses range, including Minger, Fat Cow, Blue Murder, and Caboc.

Rory said: “Christmas is pretty much when the profit is made. It’s huge for us.”

“It used to be all about Stilton and we should continue to extol the virtues of this national favourite but there’s a space there for all.

“Blue cheese is divisive, perhaps the Marmite moment.

“But dare to try one of the most innocuous St. Agur, simple perfection and a fabulous cheese that happens to be blue, some of the Italians – Gorgonzola or Dolcelatte  – or more vibrant blues.”

For more information, visit www.hf-cheeses.com