MIKE PULLIN glances over his emails. He has a new one from Canada from a man congratulating him on his farmhouse cheddar.

With a hint of desperation between the lines, the emailer asks where he can get more of it.

"It's nice to get that sort of thing," said Mike. "It shows us we're getting it right."

Having returned victorious from the Food From Britain Export Awards, the team at Ashley Chase Estate is on a high.

The export market accounts for 27 per cent of the Dorset firm's sales and so to win the top gong in the dairy category is a major achievement for the 30-strong company.

It has sent its cheese to all sorts of destinations - the USA, Canada, Switzerland. The firm sells cheese to the French and has had representatives from Korea and Japan visit to show their interest.

It signals positive times for an industry so entrenched in Dorset tradition and one that has had to diversify to remain successful.

A white sign reading "Ashley Chase only" is the only pointer to the place where 1,500 tonnes of cheese are made every year.

Although cheese has been made here by the same family ever since the Second World War, the methods of production have evolved continuously.

Mike was farming in Somerset with his father and uncles.

When they died he found his way to the estate and Cedric Littman, the estate owner's son. He and Cedric joined forces and the pair have not looked back.

The Litton Cheney farm uses 15 million litres of milk each year. They come from the farm's herd of 700 cows.

Extra is brought in from four farms from Sturminster Newton and Beaminster.

The most exciting venture at the moment is their cave-matured cheese - the only such cheese made in England. It reflects how cheese would have been made hundreds of years ago.

The move follows a chance meeting between former circus owner Gerry Cottle - who owns Somerset's Wookey Hole Caves - and Mike.

"It was an idea I had about three years ago," said Mike.

"We did some experiments in the Cheddar Caves and that led on to do some in Wookey Hole caves, which didn't seem to be so wet.

"I bumped into Gerry Cottle and asked him if there was any chance of putting the cheese into the caves.

"He said that if I could make it into an attraction I could. It's selling very well.

"It's never been done in this country before... well, not for 400 years anyway."

About 40 different varieties of cheese come from the Ashley Chase Estate but of all of them, it is the cave-matured cheese that is the most exciting.

Covered in a dark brown bloom with patches of dusty grey mould, it smells and looks as though it has absorbed the very essence of the caves yet the cheese itself is creamy, sweet and full-flavoured.

It encapsulates everything that is so special about cheese; the simplicity of its creation and the primitive conditions in which it is matured that result in such a sophisticated product.

Mike explained that, with 95 per cent humidity and a temperature of 11 degrees Celsius, the caves are perfect for maturing cheese.

"The caves give it a definite farmhouse flavour but it's also got salty, earthy overtones," he said.

The firm's West Country farmhouse cheese has a PDO (protected designation of origin) meaning that only cheese made in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset can be called that.

It has proved to be a winner in the States - no doubt its British quirkiness appeals to the Americans.

Walking through the factory, all the different facets to the operation tick along.

In one room, someone blends up double Gloucester with freeze-dried chives and onions.

Refrigerated rooms are packed to the ceiling with tonnes of cheese from ordinary cheddar to those with additions such as horseradish or mustard and white wine. The farm also processes cheeses from outside with extra ingredients such as Cheshire cheese with marmalade or Wensleydale with cranberries or figs and honey.

In all, 2,000 tonnes of cheese pass through the factory each year.

Factory manager Martin Crabb, who has worked at the farm for 20 years, said: "The factory is about six times the size it used to be but the cheese is still made the same way, just on a larger scale.

"It's not much different to what Cedric did before."