Paxton & Whitfield’s Classic Continentals

“Over the past five years our sales of continental cheese has been fairly constant, they equate to a third of our annual sales,” says Ros Windsor, managing director of Paxton & Whitfield. “Where we have seen a slight shift is in actual countries – French cheeses have always had the highest number of sales for us, but over the past few years we’ve seen increases in cheeses from Italy, Ireland and Spain, and the relative percentages between countries shift.” The single best-selling Continental cheese at Paxton & Whitfield remains unchanged since last year and is “Brie de Meaux PDO from Donge. This classic and delicious cheese is the best Brie available,” Ros says.

“It’s the classic Continental cheeses that sell well,” Ros says, “but we do carry a range of over 50 continental cheeses and the challenge is to get customers to taste the lesser known ones, which are also delicious. They all deserve to be better known and enjoyed and we support them by having them on taste on a regular basis. A new cheese for us this year is Moliterno with truffle. Produced in Sardinia, Pecorino Moliterno al Tartufo is a raw sheep’s milk cheese shot through with thick veins of truffle. During maturation, the cheese is rubbed with vinegar and local olive oil. This creates a rich earthy cheese enhanced by the truffle flavour. It’s simply delicious!”
 
At Paxton & Whitfield our customers are still interested in these Continental varieties and we sell a good amount of them. Customers are looking for good cheeses for their cheeseboard, whatever the cheese’s country of origin. Demand for Continental cheeses Ros says, is presently stable. “As a cheesemonger for over 200 years, Continental cheeses have always been popular,” she says. “Customers want the best and we expect sales to continue as they have. What I would also like to see is newer cheeses coming onto the market from the Continent. We are seeing some new cheeses from Spain and Italy coming through as both these countries now have good routes to market.”

Best Sellers
Blue: Roquefort PDO* (French)
Rind-washed: Epoisses PDO* (French)
Goat: Mothais sur Feuille (French)
Sheep: Roquefort PDO* (French)/Ossau Iraty (French) 
Hard: Parmigiano Reggiano PDO* (Italian) 
Soft and semi-soft: Brie de Meaux PDO* (French); in-house made Brie aux Truffes (made with Brie de Meaux, Brillat Savarin (French) and minced black truffles a close second