We love cheese. Hard, soft, mild, stinky, British, Spanish, French, we love it all!!! No other food is so versatile. You can have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. As part of a starter, a main course, after dinner or even in a dessert (if you've never tried a cheesecake made with Brillat Savarin then I insist you make one immediately, and bring some to me!). Cheese is made in virtually every country in the world, and the varieties are endless. At Whitmore & White we stock over 40 cheeses and this barely even scratches the surface of what's out there. This is one of the reasons we keep our selection of cheeses constantly changing, with a few firm favourites as staples. Where's it from? We have cheeses from just down the road to as far afield as Greece and Italy. Our most locally produced cheese is the Burt's Blue. This semi-soft creamy blue is made by Claire Burt near Knutsford and has won Gold at the Nantwich Cheese Awards and Silver at the British Cheese Awards. Burt's Blue is a perfect after dinner cheese, fabulous with a glass of port. Claire also makes a Drunken Burt, which is washed in cider and also the DiVine, which is washed in cider and wrapped in vine leaves. We also have a range of other fabulous British cheeses including Perl Wen, Perl Las, Appleby's Cheshire, Richard III Wensleydale, Cornish Yarg and many more! At Whitmore & White we pride ourselves on our range of Continental food, and our cheese selection is no exception. From France we have a variety of fantastic cheeses including Camembert, Brillat Savarin, Munster, Comté and Langres. From Italy we have Parmesan, Pecorino Nero, Taleggio, La Tur and Carboncino. From Spain there is gorgeous Manchego. If we haven't got your favourite, let us know and we'll see what we can do! When to have it? As with all food and wine, there are no rules, only suggestions. As a wise person (either Eleanor Roosevelt or Bart Simpson, take you pick) once said "Do what you feel". In Scandinavia cheeses such as Gouda, Gruyere and Emmental are widely eaten at breakfast. In Britain no Ploughman's Lunch would be complete without a piece of crumbly Cheddar or a hunk of Stilton. In Italy the perfect lunch would be a fresh salad with ripe tomatoes, basil and deliciously milky Buffalo Mozzarella. Think cheese should only be served after dinner? In America it has become the fashion to serve platters of cheeses, crackers and other accompaniments in place of a starter with a good glass of wine. Virtually any cheese can be used in this way, although we think cheeses like Brie, Camembert and Pecorino are ideal, blue cheese at the start of a meal just doesn't seem right! In Spain it is traditional to serve Manchego, Membrillo quince jelly and a glass of sherry as an appetiser (we stock all three!). Want to take the traditional French route, then serve your cheese with a nice glass of red immediately after the main course. Robust cheeses such as Epoisses and Munster are great after dinner, as are blue cheeses such as Roquefort, Perl Las and Stilton. We British however seem to have taken to enjoying our cheese after dessert. It's not wrong, again "Do what you feel". There is sometimes nothing nicer than grazing a platter of delicious cheeses for an hour or two at the end of a meal with friends. What to have with it? We stock a huge range of accompaniments for cheese. We've got delicious crackers from The Fine Cheese Co. and Paxton & Whitfield. We also have the famous Fine Cheese Co. Toast for Cheese. These are fabulous little crispy slices of toast studded with dried fruits, nuts and seeds. We stock a fantastic range of chutneys, some made locally and others from as far as Spain and Italy. Posh Pickles, made in Frodsham, are a firm favourite in both our shops. Their chutneys are simply divine and absolutely packed with flavour. Our personal favourite is their Sticky Pear and Ginger, which is perfect with our Colston Bassett Stilton. If you're feeling more adventurous we also stock a fabulous array of the weird and wonderful to go with your cheeses. We have Spanish fig wedges (perfect with Manchego), dried Moscato grapes (fabulous with salty soft blue cheeses) and truffle acacia honey (great with parmesan and gorgonzola). Our absolute favourite? Our locally produced walnuts in honey, no piece of stilton should be without them!

Love your cheese? Then pop in and see what we have to offer! We'll be having a cheese tasting in each of our shops in the next two weeks, Saturday 11^th July in Heswall and Saturday 18^th July in Frodsham. We'll have some cheeses, crackers and chutneys out for you to try, and maybe a little wine to try to help wash it all down!