Foot-and-mouth's cheesy vintage

The Quickes have been farming in Devon for more than 400 years

A Devon family is attributing its success at this week's World Cheese Awards to foot-and-mouth disease.

The family company, Quickes Traditional Cheese, from Newton St Cyres faced competition from more than 1,600 cheeses from around the world.

Mary Quicke said because the cheese shop had to close during the outbreak their cheeses matured for longer.

She said: "It's fantastic that as an accident of foot-and-mouth, it's become world class."

Everybody on the farm and in production is out to make world-class cheese Mary Quicke

"We usually sell Quickes Vintage Cheddar when it's about 15 months old, but during foot-and-mouth we had to close our shop for about nine months," she said.

"These cheeses became two years old and when we tasted them they were just wild."

The Quicke family, which has been farming in Devon for more than 400 years, was competing against some big manufacturers at the competition at London's ExCeL this week where its Quickes Extra Mature picked up two top prizes.

Mary Quicke said: "It's down to the whole team.

"Everybody on the farm and in production is out to make world-class cheese.

"It's the whole process, from beautiful milk from the cows, making the cheese with real expertise and love, looking after it and turning the cheese to cutting it up and packing it in a way that really does it credit."