The cheeses that I love: Paul Donoughue, Green & Lovely

Paul Donoughue, co-founder and owner of Green & Lovely store in Surrey wishes he had a cheese deck twice the size it is so he could continue to build and grow his selection.

“We hold in the region of 60 cheeses, which varies depending on the season,” he says. “We’ve sold over 125 types of cutting cheeses and about 20 types of pre-packs since we opened three years ago, and we try to maintain at least an 80% British selection. I absolutely love finding new gems so am always excited when something really special comes along. We’re still really quite new so I am like a kid in a sweet shop with all the great cheeses available to us in the British Isles. Choosing only 10 of the cheeses that I love is a tough call, but here we go.”

Saval, Caws Teifi

There’s something about Welsh cheese that sings. Most likely it’s the lush land, the air, and the dedicated craft of the farmers and cheesemakers that know their herds. Saval is a favourite - one of our ‘top five’. A semi-hard, washed-rind raw cow’s milk cheese with remarkable balance: full-flavoured and tangy, yet not brash. It’s layered and lingering, with a rind that begs admiration. On a board, it mingles with the mild and the bold without overpowering. Caws Teifi, rooted in Ceredigion, is the kind of farm we love - connected to its land, its animals, and its craft.

Blue Clouds, Balcombe Dairy

Blue Clouds is a soft thunderclap of joy - gentle, creamy, and enchanting. With its almost chewy rind and delicate, brothy blue, it lands somewhere between indulgence and revelation. Eat with a peach. Eat on a baguette. Pop a grape on top or spread over a stick of celery. It’s an any time of the day or year cheese that makes you smile. No wonder it took Gold at the British & Irish Cheese Awards. Balcombe Dairy’s brilliance is unmistakable.

Old Winchester, Lyburn Farmhouse Cheeses

This is a cheese with gravity. Dense, crystalline, and deeply savoury, Old Winchester has the texture of an aged Gouda, with the soul of a nutty Cheddar, combined with a good crystalline Parmesan. It’s one of Britain’s great hard cheeses - confident and complex. It works beautifully shaved over pear or grated as part of a pasta dish. Pair it with a traditional cask ale or a good Perry and dream of orchards and old stone dairies. Stately, but never stiff.

Harbourne Blue, Ticklemore Cheese

We affectionately call this our ‘Certificate 18: Adults Only Blue’. Harbourne is unruly and glorious - a blue goats’ cheese that hits all the pleasure points: salty, tangy, floral, and undeniably strong. It crumbles at the first opportunity and floods the palate with herbaceous energy. This is a finale cheese - one for late-night Port (perhaps chilled in summer), a plain cracker, and a quiet moment. Not for the faint-hearted. But if you’re the type to savour boldness, it’s an absolute beauty.

Rachel, White Lake Cheese

Bought originally as a joke to play on my sister, Rachel is a gentle shape-shifter: elegant, subtle, and full of quiet charisma. Made by Roger Longman and the magicians at White Lake Cheese, she’s that rare thing - a goats’ cheese beloved by those who swear they don’t like goats’ cheese. Smooth, sweet, and layered, she pairs well with a glass of cider and warm bread, and friends and family.

Cheesemaker’s Special, Alsop & Walker

We’d long stocked Mayfield by Alsop & Walker since we opened. It remains incredibly popular as the proper version of a creamy Alpine style cheese where many mass-produced versions tend to disappoint. Then one day Arthur Alsop popped into the shop with a sample of something ‘coming soon’. This was Cheesemakers Special. I’d put it in the same family as Mayfield but it is stronger, harder, has crystals in it, more hints of caramel. Think Mayfield after a night out dancing, if you get what I mean. When we offer this as part of our regular wine and cheese tastings at the lovely ‘The Wine Room’ just a few doors down from the shop you can see the eyes light up, hear the sighs of joy and ‘do you have this in stock?’ from across the room. And yes, we usually do.

Abaty, Caws Penhelyg

Another proof on why Welsh cheese is some of the best in the world. When looking for a brilliant alternative to traditional French Brie-style cheeses, we came across this one via the wonderful Welsh Cheese Co. There’s something quietly magical about it. It has an oozy, Brie-like texture, and a delicate bloom on its rind. Handmade in tiny batches near Aberystwyth using raw, organic milk, it tastes like the Welsh landscape. There’s a gentle earthiness, a buttery richness, and a whisper of mushroom. It’s a cheese with soul, and loving it feels like rooting for the artisanal cheesemaker: small-scale, honest, uncompromising and utterly joyful.

Baron Bigod, Fen Farm Dairy

This is a reoccurring cheese in this feature and for one very good reason; it’s quite brilliant. I’ve seen our Parisian customers admit it. Baron Bigod feels indulgent and honest. Indulgent because it is deep. Deeper than most Brie-style cheeses, meaning you get more of that creaminess. Honest because it develops and changes over time and temperature, unlike a lot of alternatives that remain rigid, tasteless and chalky. Famously made on the farm using milk from Montbéliarde cows, the result is a soft, silky centre with a creamy breakdown, and a rind that brings gentle mushroom and earth. I love it because it’s not just a Brie alternative - it’s a cheese with its own identity, rooted in Suffolk soil and made by people who are simply obsessed with the quality of the milk. Whether or not our Parisian friends admit it is British when serving to their friends remains to be seen.

Stilton, Colston Bassett

It won’t be surprising to hear that I taste a lot of cheeses. All the time. And every time I taste Colston Bassett Stilton I am reminded why this multi award-winning cheese is considered pretty much ‘The King’. It’s hand-ladled, which gives it a rich, creamy texture. The flavour is deep and balanced - sweet, savoury, and just the right amount of blue. It’s made using milk from a farming co-operative within a couple of miles of the dairy, and that sense of place comes through. I love it because it’s consistent, comforting, and complex without being aggressive, and as much a part of our heritage as Morris dancing.

Cheddar, Montgomery Cheese

Montgomery’s Cheddar is a benchmark of British cheese tradition, and deeply rooted in Somerset soil. The Montgomery family began crafting cheese in 1911 and have endured two world wars the rise of supermarket homogenisation and endless government intervention.

Fighting the ‘powers that be’ against the drive for standardisation, they’ve safeguarded unpasteurised Cheddar through challenging times and carry the legacy on renewed purpose. Standing shoulder to shoulder with its heritage, and made with raw milk from their own herd, it delivers dense, nutty complexity and a crumbly texture that has rightly earned it awards and enduring respect.

I love it because of its history and arguably without the Montgomery’s there would be no artisanal cheesemakers around and a crucial part of our heritage would have been lost, sold off and forgotten to the mass producers. I love it because it is a world class cheese. It doesn’t chase trends; it just delivers flavour, structure, and integrity every time. It’s a cheese that feels like it’s been around forever - and I hope it always will be.