A Cork-based cheesemaker has been named Supreme Champion at the Irish Cheese Awards for the second successive year.

Hegarty's "Templegall Extra Mature" raw cow’s milk cheese scooped the top award at the ceremony in Kilshane House in Tipperary on April 24. 

Hosted by CÁIS, the Association of Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers, the biennial celebration of Irish cheese is now in its 10th year and features 17 different award categories. 

Hegarty's Templegall cheese also scooped the Supreme Champion award at the most recent Irish Cheese Awards in 2021. 

The cheese is named after the village of Whitechurch just outside Cork City where it is made - An Teampall Geal in Irish. 

"Templegall Extra Mature" is a hard alpine-style cheese that was specially developed by farmer Dan Hegarty, with the assistance of French cheesemakers Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin and Quentin Duboz. While it is made using raw milk from Hegarty’s pedigree Friesian herd. 

"We're absolutely thrilled to have retained the Supreme Champion title. A special mention should go to the 150 cows we have back home who are in for milking at the moment as without them none of this success would be possible," Hegarty said after receiving the award. 

"What makes our Templegall Extra Mature cheese so special is that we only make it during the summer months, when the cows are grazing outside and at their happiest, with milk produced in the morning.

"Having complete control over the entire process, from what the cows eat to when we make it, is what allows us to produce such an outstanding cheese." 

Hegarty added that his farm's milking parlor and cheese-making room are just four meters apart, meaning the cheese is produced with the freshest milk possible. 

Dick and Helene Willems of Coolea Farmhouse Cheese, who were among the founders of CÁIS, were presented with a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony, while Mayo-based Rockfield Dairy's Cloonbook cheese was named the best New Cheese at the awards.