Break from the herd

Japan's highly prized, and very pampered, Wagyu beef cattle have arrived in Britain. Natasha Goodfellow reports

Regular massages, top notch food, as much beer as you like and the odd sake skin treatment sounds like an enviable existence. Actually this is the regime of some of the world's luckiest cows: the prized Wagyu cattle of Japan. Declared a "living national treasure" by the Japanese government, their meat is highly marbled with unsaturated, and therefore relatively healthy fat, and is considered the beluga of beef: rich, tender, moreish and astronomically expensive.

Traditionally available only in Japan, recent decades have seen the development of select Wagyu breeding programmes in countries with more space at their disposal, such as Australia, Canada and America. More recently still, thanks to farmer and former agro-industrial banker David Wynne Finch, Europe's first herd of Wagyu cattle is now munching buttercups and clover in north Wales.

As he was about to take over the family farm four years ago, Wynne Finch looked into the idea of starting a small hobby herd of the fine-boned, docile Wagyu. "I'm very into my food," he says, "but I'd practically stopped eating beef as it was always a disappointment. I'd known about these massaged cows that produced extremely high quality beef and I was intrigued. The more I looked into it, the more I realised it had potential as a business on its own, and as soon as I tasted it I just thought 'this is it'. It was absolutely fantastic."

Because of Wagyu's unique traits, particularly the high percentage of intra-muscular unsaturated fat which gives the meat its special texture and flavour, genetic purity was vital. Scouring the world for a reputable supplier who could guarantee the integrity of his cattle, Wynne Finch hooked up with Ted Davis, an American, who was building a pure-breed herd in Oklahoma based on Wagyu cows he had bought from an abandoned breeding scheme. He also found a business partner, Wim Claessen, a Dutchman with similar plans. Today, the two men form Chateaux Wagyu and between them supply private chefs in Britain, and the Amstel Hotel and a top butcher in Amsterdam, with meat imported from Davis, while impatiently awaiting the end of next year when their own herds will finally mature and begin producing meat.

"Beef is almost the last commodity," says Wynne Finch. "There are dozens of different types of bread in supermarkets nowadays, but beef is just beef. We're aiming to put some structure into the beef industry, to be the Bentley of beef, to give people something to aim for.

"What the cows are fed very definitely has an effect on eating quality," he continues. "We're feeding them to be as good as possible, not as cheap as possible." This means the beef retails at around £50 per kilo, but he aims to give his cows the best of everything. Calves spend their first 12 months suckling, then a year grazing the lush green fields around the farm. After that, they are "finished" on a diet of maize grain and hay (also grown on the farm), which is based on what the best Japanese Wagyu houses, and indeed racehorse owners, feed their livestock. Although not certified as organic, "we're going for a very natural system," claims Wynne Finch. "If our cattle have to have any antibiotics at all, they won't be sold under our label and will just go to the commodity market"

Massages will be used, but not to the same extent as in Japan, where this is often a way of maintaining healthy blood flow in cattle with limited space to move. Chateaux Wagyu "finishers" will have space to walk about and, in lieu of a masseur, will be free to take advantage of the "mini carwash" Wynne Finch has invented, whenever they feel the need and fancy a bit of pampering.

Not that their lives are stressful. Wynne Finch's affection for his cows is obvious, not least in the spacious winter accommodation he is currently building for them, based on ideas taken from horse exercising yards. And just in case their bovine bliss is in any doubt, Wynne Finch will also be feeding the finishers beer. "In Japan they do this during the long, hot summers to stimulate their appetite, but I'll do it more frequently," he says, musing that "they seem to prefer lager to bitter".

At Asia de Cuba at the St Martin's Lane hotel in London, where Chateaux Wagyu beef is a menu staple, head chef Shaun Gilmore serves the beef "basically raw, just put in a pan for a few seconds to bring the fat to room temperature". When the dish arrives, strip after strip of ruby red meat is fanned around a dollop of boniato (Cuban sweet potato) and spring onion mash. Chewing is almost redundant. Rich, smooth and clean tasting, with a delicious dusting of pepper and a trickle of citrusy ponzu sauce, it is, as the menu had promised, "unsurpassable ... the most tender, most succulent, tastiest meat". Try it now and find out what you've been missing.

For more information, visit www.wagyu.net