Exclusive to Jacobsons.

Gunn’s Hill cheeses are produced in Oxford County in southwestern Ontario. This is a single source cheese with all of the milk coming from the family herd. A washed rind cow’s milk cheese that combines traits from Gouda and another Swiss variety called Appenzeller, Five Brothers has creamy and rich flavours with sweeter overtones and distinctive eyes throughout the body of the cheese. A perfect cheese for the hot summer – milder and lighter than a cheddar but with wonderful nutty notes.

Producer: Gunn’s Hill
Region: Oxford County, Ontario
Milk: Cow/Pasteurized
Type: Gouda/Swiss
Pairing: Pinot Grigio

The name “Cheddar cheese” is widely used and has no Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) within the European Union, but only Cheddar produced from local milk within four counties of South West England may use the name “West Country Farmhouse Cheddar.”

Traditional Farmhouse Cheddar has been made by Keen’s at Moorhayes Farm (Wincanton, Somerset) since 1899 when they moved here. Stephen and George Keen and their sons run the family business, Nick running the dairy herd and arable side of the business and James being the cheese maker. Keen’s Cheddar is a PDO cheese (Product of Designated Origin) West country Farmhouse Cheddar. Keen’s now have SALSA accreditation, having had BRC Higher accreditation for 10 years and is a member of The Specialist Cheesemakers Association, The British Cheese Board and West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers.

Proud to produce a unique cheddar cheese, which has won an array of awards, including winner of the best traditional cheddar and first prizes at the Nantwich International Cheese show 2009, Gold award at the World Cheese Awards held in Dublin, and the best PDO Cheese at the British Cheese Awards and prizes at the Royal Bath and West, Great Yorkshire, and Frome Shows.

Keen’s Cheddar is a “Slow Food” presidia product. Artisan Somerset Cheddar; a designation conceived to identify and protect the best qualities of traditional foods and to encourage their production.

The cheddar is made with milk produced by the cows on the farm, using a recipe which has been passed down through the generations, and time-honoured methods of cheese making.

Using unpasteurised milk, it is very important to keep a strict eye on the animals, their feed, and milk output. An un-pasteurized cheese has more character than that of a cheese made with pasteurised milk. All the natural flavours are kept in the milk and not removed through the pasteurisation process, producing a sweet, creamy, rich cheddar.

Milk from our own cows, which are grazed on the lush pastures at the northern end of the Blackmoor Vale, is warmed with a traditional starter culture which sours the milk, before adding natural rennet to produce a junket. The cheese maker cuts the junket in to curds and whey. Heating again hardens the curds and when the correct acidity is reached the whey is drained from the curds and the Cheddaring by hand process starts.

The curds are textured by cutting into blocks, layering and turning. To arrest the acidity growth the curd is broken up and salt added. After curing the curds are put in moulds to be pressed. Cotton cloth is smoothed onto the skin with lard and the cheese are ready to mature in our own store where temperature and humidity is closely monitored.

It is made in 27, 14 and 1.5 kilo traditional round cloth bound truckle cheeses. After twelve months maturing the cheese has a complex nutty flavour and is ready to be enjoyed

About Cheddar:

Cheddar cheese is a relatively hard, pale yellow to off-white (unless artificially coloured), and sometimes sharp-tasting, cheese. Originating in the English village of Cheddar in Somerset, it is now produced in several countries around the world. It is the most popular cheese in the United Kingdom, accounting for 51 percent of the country’s £1.9 billion annual cheese market, and the second most popular cheese in the United States, behind mozzarella, with an average annual consumption of 10 lb (4.5 kg) per capita. The United States produced 3,233,380,000 lb (1,443,470 long tons; 1,466,640 tonnes) in 2010,[4] and the UK 258,000 long tons (262,000 tonnes) in 2008. The name “Cheddar cheese” is widely used and has no Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) within the European Union, but only Cheddar produced from local milk within four counties of South West England may use the name “West Country Farmhouse Cheddar.”

Producer: Keen’s
Region: Somerset, UK
Milk: Cow/Unpasteurized
Type: Cheddar
Pairing: Cabernet or Chianti Reserve

Also featured are Red Leicester and Le Silo

Cornish Blue cheese is made in a pretty special place. Upton Cross is on the south-eastern corner of Bodmin Moor, a bleak and beautiful landscape of hills, heath and tors, studded all over with old mine workings, and the yellow flashes of gorse flowers on every side. Philip and Carol Stansfield moved here from Cheshire in 1994. But they didn’t come just for the landscape: Philip needed to leave the family farm and set up on his own, and at that time Cornish farms were good value.

But then the milk price dropped – from 24p a litre to 15p. Carol’s physiotherapy practice helped … but at that price dairying just wasn’t sustainable. A list of possibilities (yoghourt? ice cream?) was reduced to one – cheese – and so began a period of careful research. What they discovered in 2000 was that there were only 18 blue cheeses made in the UK, and none of these was a soft, mild variety. A gap had been found.

It took a year to develop the recipe and get it right. Making it, trying it, changing it (one thing at a time!), until it worked. Cornish

Blue went on sale in 2001: “It changed our lives”, Phil says. Sales really took off in 2004, and especially after a spectacular double whammy two years later, when they won Best English Cheese and Best Blue Cheese at the British Cheese Awards.

In retrospect, their timing was perfect. The cheese was developed when there were still gaps in the market (they’re harder to find now), and went into production just ahead of the huge surge of interest in British artisan cheese that still continues. Phil and Carol found themselves well placed to take advantage of this. They’ve never looked back, and Cornish Blue goes from strength to strength, with one-and-a-half tons being made every week by a team of five.

Phil looks out over a thriving cheese scene, but still thinks there’s an education job to be done – making more people aware of British cheeses beyond Stilton and Cheddar. The very successful Cornish Blue will remain their core product, though there are plans to resurrect Beast of Bodmin (!) a washed rind cheese.

Producer: Caws Cenarth
Region: Wales, UK
Milk: Cow/Pasteurized
Type: Blue
Pairing: Stellar Fairtrade Heaven on Earth Sweet Muscat

Perl Las, meaning “blue pearl”, is unlike any other blue cheese, strong but delicate, creamy but with lovely lingering blue overtones. It’s ideal for sauces, salads or soups – or simply as it is.

Producer: Caws Cenarth
Region: Wales, UK
Milk: Organic Cow/Unpasteurized
Type: Blue
Pairing: Beaujolais cru or a California Chardonnay

Mona Lisa is magnificent Gouda with slight granulization along with a perfect balance of scotch, nutty and sweetness for a delight on the palate. Aged between 12-18 months and has the flavour to prove it. So versatile, Mona Lisa can be grated as a wonderful alternative to Parmesan or chunked as a perfect crowd pleaser at cocktail time.

Producer: Mona Lisa
Region: Holland
Milk: Cow/Pasteurized
Type: Gouda
Pairing: Red wine or Beer