Stichelton

About the Cheese

Stichelton is an exceptional traditional British blue cheese, made with raw cow’s milk and using time-honoured methods including hand-ladling and an extended resting of the curd.

Rich and generous in texture, it is buttery and creamy with a wonderfully complex flavour. Notes of toasted nuts, malt and sweet milk unfold slowly, balanced by the savoury depth and gentle spice of the blue veining.

As with all great farmhouse cheeses, Stichelton changes subtly with the seasons and as it matures, making every batch a little different. Summer milk, when the cows are grazing on fresh grass, can produce particularly expressive cheeses that mature beautifully into the winter months.

Enjoy Stichelton with port or other red-grape-based dessert wines, whose sweetness provides a lovely contrast to its rich, savoury character.

Cheesemaker: Stichelton Dairy, led by Joe Schneider

Stichelton is made at Collingthwaite Farm on the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire, in a dairy built into a former brick barn on the northern edge of Sherwood Forest.

Head cheesemaker Joe Schneider places great importance on making the cheese close to the source of the milk. Working on the farm allows the dairy to maintain a close relationship with the herd and to understand how changes in the milk throughout the year influence the finished cheese.

The curds are carefully hand-ladled and the cheese is matured slowly, allowing its characteristic creamy texture, blue veining and complex flavour to develop naturally.

The Welbeck Estate is also home to the School of Artisan Food and a growing community of independent food producers, making it a particularly fitting home for one of Britain’s most distinctive farmhouse blue cheeses.