Did you know there are more than 1,800 named cheeses in the world? In the UK alone, there are over 700 varieties – more, some argue, than France. And, that’s not to mention the dozens of new cheeses being created by the artisan community every year – all of it, by the way, made from just four ingredients: milk, starter culture, rennet and salt.
No wonder then that no matter how hooked we are on the hard stuff (and the soft, washed, smelly and blue), we shy away from adventure and instead default to the blocky, pre-cut, shrink-wrapped cheeses available in the supermarket. After all, life’s too stressful to add yet more decision-making to your plate.
To help you take that first step over the threshold into a whole new world of fromage fantasia, Perry Wakeman answers the top 10 questions he’s asked in his job as boss of Rennet & Rind in Stamford, Lincolnshire. He really knows his stuff. Not only is he a judge at various cheese awards – including a coveted place on the Super Jury at the 2025 World Cheese Awards in Bern, Switzerland, where he championed the winning gruyère – he’s also a three-time winner of the industry’s most prestigious accolade, Affineur of the Year.
So, over to Perry:
“A great cheesemonger is one of the most underused resources in British food culture,” says Perry. “So, don’t waste their expertise – use it. Here are the questions you should ask to get the very best from your cheesemonger.”
What’s tasting best right now?
“This is the question every cheesemonger wants you to ask. The honest answer changes weekly, sometimes daily. Right now, it’s the Wigmore: the summer milk has sweetened it up and it’s eating as well as I’ve ever known it. Ask this every time you walk in – a good cheesemonger’s answer will never be the same twice.”
Can I try it before I buy?
“Always. Any cheesemonger who hesitates is in the wrong job. Tasting is how you learn and discover, and how you end up buying something you’d never have picked off the counter yourself. Don’t be shy about it either: try two or three things. That’s what we’re here for.”
How should I store this?
“A lidded plastic container is your best friend. Every time someone opens the fridge door to grab the milk for their tea, the humidity fluctuates. A container stops all of that and keeps conditions stable. If you’re planning to keep cheese for a while – unlikely if you’re any kind of cheese fiend – open the lid every now and again to let it breathe.”
What’s new that I probably haven’t heard of?
“Shameless self-promotion: Dillon, which should be ready in a few months. This is the cheese that won Affineur of the Year 2025. It’s a cheddar made using highly experimental maturation methods that draw out moisture progressively throughout the ageing process, creating an extraordinarily dense paste with an epic savoury depth. Watch this space.”
I’m cooking [dish] – what would work?
“My secret weapon for almost anything: a microplane and a chunk of Sparkenhoe red leicester. The moment that cheese hits a little heat, it almost disappears into the dish, leaving behind this lingering funk and savoury finish. I finish scrambled eggs with a light dusting. Try it once and you’ll never stop.”
Is this made with pasteurised or unpasteurised milk?
“Raw milk cheeses will give you more seasonal variation, because the cheesemaker is working directly with whatever the cows were eating and how they were feeling that week. But, the bigger conversation is about dedication to traditional practice: choosing to manage the natural variability in your milk, rather than standardising it into a consistent status quo. That’s a fundamentally different philosophy, and it shows in the cheese.”
How long should I age this at home?
“Honestly? Go to a good independent cheesemonger and trust them to give you cheese at exactly the right profile to eat now. Once a cheese is cut, it’s going downhill. It will dry out and the texture will move in a direction you probably didn’t ask for, unless you specifically like that kind of desiccated, claggy chew. Most people don’t.”
What would you pair this with?
“The easy rule: what grows together, goes together. Find something from the same region as the cheese, and eight times out of 10, it will work. For a more technical pairing, think about balancing the basic flavours: fat against acid, salt against sweet.”
What’s your personal favourite right now?
“For me, right now, it’s Dillon, which I’ve been maturing for the last year using methods I’ve never seen applied to a cheddar before. It won Affineur of the Year 2025 and it’s almost ready. But, ask your cheesemonger this question every visit. The answer tells you more about what’s worth buying than anything else on the counter.”
Can you cut me a smaller piece?
“100 per cent, that’s what us cheesemongers are here for. We don’t mind how much you take, providing you’re taking it.”
My favourite summer cheese right now
Perry picks six cheeses worth seeking out this season…
Templegall, Hegarty’s Cheese, County Cork
“Dan Hegarty and his French cheesemaker Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin make this in Whitechurch, Cork, and it’s one of the most exciting things to have happened to Irish cheesemaking in a generation. JB grew up in the Jura, and it shows: Templegall is an Alpine-style cheese in the tradition of comté and gruyère, made only from summer milk when the cows’ pasture-rich diet is at its peak. Raw milk, 42kg wheels, brushed and turned and aged for a minimum of nine months. The result is sweet, nutty, deeply savoury, with a slight crystalline crunch that tells you something serious has happened in the cave. It won Supreme Champion at the Artisan Cheese Awards, and it deserved it.”
Wigmore, Village Maid Dairy, Berkshire
“Anne Wigmore’s washed-curd sheep’s milk wheel is one of the most underrated cheeses in Britain, and was one of the top 16 cheeses in the world at the 2023 World Cheese Awards. Gentle, buttery, faintly floral – it’s the cheese I give to people who think they don’t like sheep’s milk. In summer, the milk sweetens and the paste softens to something almost yielding. It disappears from the counter faster than almost anything else we stock, and rightly so.”
Pyghtle, Broughton Hall Dairy, Suffolk
“Emily Tydeman only started making this in 2024, and it’s already one of my favourite things to put in front of a customer. A small, log-shaped, lactic sheep’s milk cheese from Lleyn-cross ewes in Suffolk, with a pale, wrinkled rind and fluffy white paste, opening with yogurt, warm milk and meadow. Sit with it and citrus starts to emerge, then a quiet nuttiness, then, with a bit more age, a whisper of spice and smoke. Pastoral on the surface, but more interesting than it looks. It’s a seasonal cheese – get it while it’s here.”
Graceburn, Blackwoods Cheese Company, Kent
“David Holton’s background tells you everything: Neal’s Yard Dairy, Mons Affineurs, Mary Holbrook at Sleight Farm. Then, he based his dairy on a regenerative organic farm in Kent and built something entirely his own. Graceburn is inspired by a Persian feta recipe that David first encountered in Australia – raw cow’s milk, brined, then broken by hand into pieces and steeped in a blend of British cold-pressed rapeseed oil and extra virgin olive oil, thyme, garlic, bay and pepper. The oil it comes in is worth using, too. The most summery thing on this list and possibly the most versatile.”
Yoredale wensleydale, Curlew Dairy, North Yorkshire
“Ben and Sam Spence left careers in finance to restart something that hadn’t been done in the dale since 1957: clothbound, farm-produced wensleydale, made on site using their own raw milk and a slow pre-war recipe. The result has nothing in common with the supermarket block – it’s smooth and buttery, rather than crumbly, with a clean, lemon yogurt acidity and mineral, earthy notes as you work towards the rind. In summer, this is the cheese I reach for when serving stone fruit – ripe apricots, a few walnuts and a glass of something lightly chilled.”
Barkham blue, Village Maid Cheese, Berkshire
“Village Maid acquired Barkham blue from Two Hoots Cheese in 2024, when founders Sandy and Andy Rose retired, and it’s kept everything that made it great: the same Guernsey milk from Laceys Family Farm that the cheese has always been made with, the same ammonite-shaped round, the same measured approach to the blue. The paste is rich and buttery, the veining gentle rather than aggressive and the flavour more cream than spike. It won Best Blue Cheese at the 2024 Artisan Cheese Awards, and it’s the blue for summer: approachable enough for the nervous, complex enough for the converted. A spoonful of honey and you’re done.”
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