Don’t just go for stilton and cheddar – Christmas and New Year is a time for experimenting on the cheese front with these tasty little numbers.

Winter is the perfect time to enjoy cheese that is rich and buttery, fruity, hard and well-aged, rather than the light, airy varieties better matched to warmer days. And while it is always pleasing to see a big chunk of cheddar or stilton on the table, I like to create cheeseboards celebrating the diversity of cheese. For a decidedly wintry board, here are five cheeses that would make a good progression of flavour and texture this festive period – and the wines to enjoy them with.

**Cathare Saint-Felix, Haute Garonne, France, unpasteurised goat’s milk **

This cheese is the size of a coffee saucer and it has an ash-coated rind emblazoned with the cross of the Cathars (a medieval religious group in Carcassonne). Mild and gently nutty, this one should be enjoyed as fresh as possible. A younger pinot noir would match perfectly.

**Bix, Nettlebed Creamery, Oxfordshire, unpasteurised organic cow’s milk **

This one, from Ms Rose Grimond’s family dairy farm, is an utter delight. Cream added to the curds gives this rich, buttery cheese an unctuous flavour with a dense, grassy sweetness and a yoghurt twang to finish. Its milk is from Merrimoles Farm’s organic herd (Montbeliarde, Swedish Red and Friesian Holstein breeds). Champagne would go perfectly with this.

**Comté D’estive Grand Reserve Cru, Franche-Comté, France, unpasteurised cow’s milk  **

These are hand-picked cheeses made from the milk of cows that graze on Mr Marcel Petite’s higher pastures in Fort Saint Antoine on the France/Switzerland border. Matured for three years, these premier cru cheeses have a bittersweet butterscotch flavour. Perfect with sauvignon blanc or an unoaked chardonnay.

**Crayeux de Roncq, Pas-de-Calais, France, unpasteurised cow’s milk **

This is a washed rind cheese by Mr Philippe Olivier, a master cheesemonger and refiner in Boulogne. We like to ripen it a little further in our cellar to bring out its strength and texture. It has a full, rich, gamey taste which is strong but not bitter and will work with both red or white wines from the Rhone or Bordeaux.

**Roquefort Papillon Premium Special, Rouergue, France, unpasteurised ewe’s milk **

This roquefort is balanced and elegant with the refined, complex, and sweet-earthy taste of ewe’s milk. Matured for nine months and characterised by a creamy-white buttery curd scattered with large blue ‘craters,’ its texture – melting, fine and smooth – makes it perfect for Bordeaux reds and sweet wines such as Sauternes.

Choosing a wine to go with a cheeseboard can be daunting as lighter wines will not necessarily go with richer, heavier cheeses, and denser Gruyere types really need a buttery white. A good way of dealing with this is to look at the class of grape – a pinot noir, for example, usually means a deliciously fruity aromatic wine. ‘Trust’ is a word often used about Pinot, but vineyard recommendations can be expensive. However, we have a fantastically priced Pinot Noir from the Savoie vineyard of Mr Jean-Francois Quenard that goes really well with mixed cheeseboards.

Other good grapes for cheese come from the southern Rhone, its big, meaty reds reminding you of hot summer days and gentle evening breezes. These wines will pick up the flavours of the cheeses and work with them rather than mask them. But I have a real love of white wines with cheese, and the richer styles of Rhone whites, such as Viognier or Condrieu have a good acidity to balance the cheese flavours. I also love whites from Piedmont in northern Italy with their woody notes as well as the richer, denser Jura wines. They’re more bracing and earthy than Sauvignon and full of character – a wonderful cheese partner.

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