Wedginald was a wheel of English

cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. It originates from the English village of Cheddar, Somerset, Cheddar in ...

, made famous in 2007 when its producers broadcast its maturation process on the Internet. The livestream went

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, receiving national and international attention. Following the broadcast, the cheese was auctioned to raise money for

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Cheese

Wedginald, a wheel of

, was produced by Westcountry Farmhouse Cheesemakers of Westcombe Dairy,

Evercreech Evercreech is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. The village is southeast of Shepton Mallet, and northeast of Castle Cary. The parish includes the hamlet of Stoney Stratton and the village of Chesterblade. History The village w ...

, near

Shepton Mallet Shepton Mallet is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England, some southwest of Bath, Somerset, Bath, south of Bristol and east of Wells, Somerset, Wells. It had an estimated population of 10,810 in 2019. ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. The company set up a website, ''Cheddarvision'', that

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the cheese's maturation. The cheese's name was chosen after the site hosted a naming contest; it is a

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wedge A wedge is a triangle, triangular shaped tool, a portable inclined plane, and one of the six simple machines. It can be used to separate two objects or portions of an object, lift up an object, or hold an object in place. It functions by conver ...

and the given name

Reginald Reginald is a masculine given name in the English language meaning "king". Etymology and history The name Reginald comes from Latin meaning "king" and "ruler" symbolizing authority and leadership. It comes from combining Latin “ rex” meaning ...

Internet broadcast

Initially only an

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of limited scope, the website soon received attention from major UK media outlets including the

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, ''

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'', and ''

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''. Wedginald also drew global attention with coverage in

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and ''The

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Radio Show'' in the United States. More than 1.5 million people watched the stream of the 9-month maturation. A

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video on

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attracted several hundred thousand page views, and a

profile Profile or profiles may refer to: Art, entertainment and media Music * ''Profile'' (Jan Akkerman album), 1973 * ''Profile'' (Githead album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Pat Donohue album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Duke Pearson album), 1959 * '' ''Profi ...

for the cheese gained over 1,300 friends on

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. The cheese's creator, Tom Calver, stated that the company never expected Wedginald to go viral. He insisted that broadcasting Wedginald's maturation was to educate on the art of

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and to highlight the effort that goes into the production of gourmet food at a time when there is increasing detachment between consumers and producers.

Maturation

On 19 September 2007, nine months into the cheese's maturation, Calver took the first sample to determine its quality and suitability for human consumption. Calver described the cheese as having "a caramel nose, a sweet twiggy greenness and a creamy good length of flavour... lemony, with a certain 'spritziness'". On 19 November, Wedginald was sold in an online auction on

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for £1,145, with the proceeds going to

. The winner was a former resident of the Somerset village of

Chew Magna Chew Magna is a village and civil parish within the Chew Valley in the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 1,149. To the south of the village is Chew ...

, who had migrated to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

as an architect, and subsequently became involved in the wine industry. Wedginald remained online for viewing on the official website until 19 December 2007, after which it was exported to New Zealand on 22 December 2007.

References

External links

Official website
*{{youtube, KXMYF7xPD7A, cheddarvision.tv : time-lapse : complete 12 months
Westcombe Dairy
Viral videos English cheeses