Collection: French Cheese

Powerful, with vegetal and fruity notes. Nowadays, a true Camembert de Normandie is a rare cheese indeed. The real deal should be hand-ladled, made with raw Normande cows’ milk and have a thin, undulating rind. Just like this.Unfortunately, Brie de Meaux is currently out of stock. This is due to a temporary ban on the import of French and Italian raw milk soft and semi-soft cheeses due to an outbreak of a disease in cattle. There have been minimal cases, but DEFRA are maintaining a very cautious approach to protect our British herds.Suggested Alternative: Baby Baron BigodThe same shape and size cheese with an excellent full, vegetal flavour.Or TunworthAgain, the same shape and size but with a slightly milkier flavour.

Rich, ice cream texture. Buttery, with crème fraiche notes maturing to meaty ‘mushroom’. The Lincet family have been making cheese in Burgundy for the past 125 years, and this utterly decadent triple cream is a speciality. The smaller cheeses have a marvellously thin geotrichum rind, while the larger cheeses pick up the spicier flavours of a downy white penicillium coat.

Soft and silky. Both milky and savoury. For Rodolphe, an AOP status can get in the way of experimenting with a much-loved cheese. This is a Selles-sur-Cher in all but name, yet Rodolphe’s maturation brings balance and greater complexity.

Complex. At the same time, it is rich, vegetal and ‘mushroomy’. Made since 1930 by the Dongé family, one of the cheese’s last seven producers. The Medaille d’Or is an award that might be won once in a lifetime. Family Dongé have won it nine times. Unfortunately, Brie de Meaux is currently out of stock. This is due to a temporary ban on the import of French and Italian raw milk soft and semi-soft cheeses due to an outbreak of a disease in cattle. There have been minimal cases, but DEFRA are maintaining a very cautious approach to protect our British herds.Suggested Alternative: Baron Bigod (Click Here)An excellent Montbeliarde milk cheese from Suffolk, made in the style of Brie de Meaux but demonstrably its own unique cheese. A full flavour and a fabulously gooey texture.

Sticky, savoury and slightly floral. Washed in Marc de Bourgogne, this baby brother of Époisses possesses the same pungent quality but can easily be consumed in one sitting. Helpful for avoiding an ‘aromatic’ fridge.

Rich and delicately textured, with a subtle, herbaceous complexity. Rodolphe ages his cheeses to the palates of his customers. For us Brits, Rodolphe ensures St. Maure is creamy, savoury and contained by only a wafer-thin rind.

Sweet and mouth-filling, with notes of ‘hazelnut’. Nurtured by Rodolphe to grow a soft, fluffy coat. As the cheese becomes firmer, the paste grows denser and the floral flavours are balanced by deeper, nuttier tones, but Crottin is delicious at all ages.

Moussey and rich. Sweetly herbal. Approachable saltiness With a nod towards the cheeses of Provence, this quenelle of young goats’ cheese is given just a touch of thyme oil. It is then ripened only to the point that the herbal quality lingers without dominating the milky flavour of the cheese itself.

Ice-cream texture. Begins fresh and milky, and ripens to earthy and salty. Made in Burgundy since the Middle Ages, this cheese is prized for its snowy texture and trickling cream line. The long, slow set comes from the farmers’ historical habit of leaving their morning milk to rest as they went out to tend to their grapes.

Plump and hearty. Salty and 'yeasty'. Made on a family farm with only 200 lively goats, this speciality of the South is aromatised with rosemary oil, then dried and ripened in Rodolphe le Meunier’s caves.

Fruity, smooth, mellow and nutty. Made in a small, village-based co-operative called a fruitière. At a few weeks' old, this Comté then enters Marcel Petite’s maturing rooms where it is regularly turned, brushed and rubbed.