The cheese takes 12 months to fully mature

Over the last nine months, more than one and half million people have viewed the site to watch a round of Cheddar cheese as it slowly matures.

On Wednesday, the 44-pound handmade cheese, named Wedginald by its creators, will undergo its nine-month grading test, live on web TV.

Later this year the Shepton Mallet cheese will be auctioned for charity.

An expert cheese taster will pierce Wedginald with a special testing device to remove a core.

Director's cut

The Cheddar core will then be sniffed and tested for "depth and maturity".

More than 100,000 viewers logged on to the website in March this year as Wedginald passed its first quality check with flying colours and organisers expect a similar figure to log-on on Wednesday.

Westcountry Farmhouse Cheesemakers are behind the cheddarvision website.

Cheese taster Tom Calver, who is involved in the project said: "The continued interest in the cheese is incredible.

"We never thought for a moment that the website would become this popular."

A "director's cut" video of the Wedginald's year-long maturation, condensed into two minutes, is expected to be released onto YouTube in the coming months.