Cloth-Bound Farmhouse Cheddar (12 Month)

Twelve months in cloth and lard in the cold store behind the Derbyshire parlour: this is cheddar as it was made before plastic, with a natural rind you can eat or trim and a texture that is firm but never dry. The flavour builds in layers — clean milk first, then broth and hay, finishing with the slow crunch of calcium crystals that marks a properly aged wheel.

Cut pieces are wrapped to order in two-ply cheese paper and posted in Woolcool chilled packaging on Monday to Wednesday, so nothing sits in a depot over a weekend. Whole 2.4kg truckles are available to reserve for weddings, Christmas and serious cheeseboards — message through the listing for wheel selection, as each one is photographed and tasted before reservation.

Keep it in the paper it arrives in, inside a loosely closed container in the fridge, and bring it to room temperature a full hour before eating. It matters more with cloth-bound cheese than with anything else on the board.