It’s All About You

If you want to be in the know at dinner parties this Christmas, I suggest you brush up on your cheese knowledge. New cheesemakers are popping up all over the place, and here in Gloucestershire we’re home to one of the most famous of them all: former bass player for Blur turned independent cheesemaker and gent of the land, Alex James. Working with a renowned cheese-making expert, James launched Little Wallop this year from his farm near Chipping Norton. He only makes 200 of the cheeses a week, and this is typical of these small-batch, independent cheese-makers.
Meanwhile, the owners of Neil’s Yard Dairy are controversially resurrecting Stichelton – a raw milk Stilton named after the town from which Stilton originated (and which is now made only in the counties of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire). Controversial because Stilton’s big cheeses (so to speak), who control the brand much like the Champagne makers in France, stopped making raw milk versions of the blue-veined stuff years ago (when we all meant to have stopped doing anything with raw eggs, or eating anything that hadn’t been blasted by heat to make it ’safe’) and won’t let any cheese-makers use the word ‘Stilton’ when associated with an unpasteurised cheese.
If you’re a fan of cheese and are hoping to purchase some hard-to-find varieties, then two must-visit cheese emporiums are the Fine Cheese Company in Bath and the Jermyn Street outlet of Paxton and Whitfield, where you’ll find a nose-twitching, mouthwatering display of cheeses from all over the world served by passionate experts. Definitely the places to start swotting up on your cheese facts and figures. And if you want to make a seriously good impression at a dinner party: take a wedge of Stichelton and a round of Little Wallop with you and a bottle of Port to wash it all down with.