I decided to cut the "stilton" last night as my grand daughter likes blue cheese.
Nice and creamy texture, much different than when first made, with a definite blue aroma. The aroma from the PV strain of PR falls somewhere between strong and intense. Definitely has the PR tang with cheesy milky undertones. The veining was well developed and pretty much exactly what I was looking for.
The taste - home run on this one. Rave reviews at work from my foodie buds. The taste is definitely stilton with an intensely salty piquant blue flavor. I think this strain of blue might be a little much for a normal stilton so I'm glad I didn't age it out to 90 days or pierce it again. The flavor starts off as salty like in an "artisan" stilton with the milk softness and grassy flavors for a fleeting instant until the strong blue tang from the PR kicks in and dominates the flavor. The texture came out as slightly crumbly with a really nice creaminess. You can feel the mold veining on your tongue which gives an added depth to the texture. Overall, not a cheese for the faint of heart but not totally overwhelming either.
Next time I'll reduce the salt slightly just to see what effect it has and I'm either going to buy a piece of quality stilton from the local cheese monger and use it's PR or order something a little less "in-your-face" just to keep with the style though I do really like this one. (Usually when I go to Venissimo and buy cheese, I ask for the one that will grab you by the tongue and beat you with it.")
My wife pronounced it fit to eat and announced we are having roasted potato salad with watercress and crumbled stilton this weekend.....guess I'll have to start another one!
Extremely happy with this cheese. And now a picture.