Navigating our way through DeLaurenti’s diverse and exceptional cheese collection to curate a list of 12 for the holiday season was a delightful challenge. We’ve handpicked a variety that spans the spectrum — from velvety soft to robustly hard, from sumptuously creamy to elegantly crumbly, and from subtly delicate to boldly piquant. This carefully selected assortment represents the finest styles and flavors from renowned cheesemaking regions across the globe. Accompanying each choice, you’ll find insightful descriptions and thoughtful pairings to help you plan your holiday gatherings. 

1. Fougerus

This soft, handmade French brie gets its name from the fern fronds that decorate the bloomy rind. The mold-ripened cheese is made with cow’s milk sourced from local farms in the Seine-et-Marne region south of Paris. The rich cheese has a creamy texture and a delicate flavor. 

Pairing: Champagne, Côtes du Rhône, crusty bread, crisp pears.

2. Stilton

Colston Bassett, founded in 1913 and one of the smallest Stilton dairies in the UK, makes this fantastic blue cheese. The curd is still hand-ladled before draining, which preserves its structure, resulting in a luscious, creamy texture when the cheeses are mature. The rind is a mottled orange-brown with patches of natural white mold. Flavors are rich and lactic with a beautiful balance of blue mold, earth, and butter. 

Pairing: As a topping for your favorite steak hot off the grill, candied nuts, port. 

3. Roquefort

The undisputed king of French Blues! The cheesemongers at Mons Fromagerie have been sourcing and maturing artisanal cheeses since the 1960s. Roquefort starts with baking loaves of rye. After aging for a few weeks, this bread will yield an entire year’s supply of Penicillium roqueforti, the mold used to inoculate the cheese curds. This mold, combined with raw sheep’s milk, gives Roquefort its unique character. The cheese’s powerful aroma has notes of bread and yeast. The texture is crumbly yet creamy, with a taste that is at once pleasantly salty, sweet, briny, and piquant.  

Pairing: Amazing on its own, on a salad, or with a glass of Sauternes. 

4. Adarré

A spectacular cheese from the Basque region in France, selected by renowned affineur Rodolphe Le Meunier. Sweet, nutty, bright, and tangy, all its components are in balance. It gets its creamy mouthfeel from an ideal mix of sheep and goat’s milk. 

Pairing: Walnuts, stone fruit, a full-bodied white Rioja. 

5. Ossau Iraty

An excellent sheep’s milk cheese produced in the French Pyrénées. The name is derived from the production area that includes two neighboring provinces: the Ossau Valley, located in the Béarn, and Iraty, a forested area in the French Basque Pyrénées. This particular cheese, aged by affineur Hervé Mons, is made only during the spring and summer months. The summer milk yields the most favorable flavor profile, resulting in a nutty and sweet cheese with notes of earth and cellar. The texture is uniformly smooth, creamy, and dense. 

Pairing: Black cherry jam, cured meats, wine. 

6. Beaufort d’Alpage

One of the finest alpine cheeses in the world! This cheese has been produced for over two millennia in the Haute-Savoie region of France, an area highly regarded for superior pasture during the summer months. Enormous in stature, each wheel of Beaufort weighs an impressive 80 to 130 pounds. The rind of Beaufort is a reddish-brown color and slightly sticky. Aromas are mildly pungent and pleasantly barnyardy. Flavors are savory, herbaceous, and fruity, with notes of butter, grass, and salt underpinned by a granular sweetness. We get a whole wheel every year just before Thanksgiving — when it’s gone, it’s gone, so don’t miss it!  

Pairing: Walnuts, Champagne 

7. OG Kristal

This aged Belgian gouda-style cheese is produced in the Roeselare region. The award-winning cheese is aged over 18 months and has a creamy, full-bodied flavor with a dense texture and lovely crystallization. 

Pairing: A good bottle of cabernet and some dark chocolate. 

8. Beurre De Baratte

If you want great butter, go with the one that comes from a world-renowned affineur. If you know cheese, you know butter. This butter is from Rodolphe Le Meunier, maker of many fine cheeses that we enjoy in our case. It is rich and silky with flecks of course sea salt.  

Pairing: A crunchy baguette and a glass of wine. 

9. Carboncino

This lovely Italian cheese hails from the agricultural heart of Piemonte. The name comes from the dusting of charcoal gray ash that covers the soft, silky white interior. Made from a blend of cow, goat, and sheep milk, each of which adds delicate nuances of flavor to the cheese. The texture is light and spongy. 

Pairing: Crackers, Prosecco, light pale ales. 

10. Besace du Berger

From the Dordogne Périgord in the southwest, this French goat milk cheese gets its unique pear shape from the traditional method of hanging the curds in a muslin cloth and gathering the ends at the top to hang and drain. Once drained, the cheese is rolled in vegetable ash, which, before refrigeration, helped preserve the cheese and keep flies away. Nowadays, the tradition continues because of the contributions it makes to the flavor. The ash softens the acidity by drawing out moisture. The texture near the rind is dense in contrast to the soft and milky interior. 

Pairing: Sauvignon Blanc or Chablis, green salads, crusty bread. 

 

11. Schnebelhorn

Crafted by third-generation Swiss cheesemaker Reto Güntensperger, Schnebelhorn is a departure from his family’s traditional Appenzeller production and stands out for its balanced blend of Alpine spiciness and creamy richness. Made from the raw milk of Swiss Brown and Braunvieh cows and enriched with cream, this cheese is aged for eight months, developing a firm, pale gold paste dotted with protein crystals. Its flavor is rich and complex, featuring notes of toasted hazelnuts, brown butter, and roasted onions, with a creamy, slightly gritty texture. Named after the highest mountain in the Saint Gallen region, a region famous for its cheese, Schnebelhorn is a standout and reflective of Reto’s innovative approach. 

Pairing: Pinot Noir or a dry sparkling wine, charcuterie, sliced apples. 

12. Sagittarius

This rich gouda-style cheese is at once sweet and savory. Aromas of melted butter and berries on the nose, with notes of nuts, olive oil, and fresh herbs on the palate. The paste is golden with a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Shooting Star Creamery is an offshoot of the Central Coast Creamery, founded when owner Reggie Jones asked his daughter, Avery, if she wanted to try her hand at artisan cheese making. One of Avery’s debut cheeses won an American Cheese Society award in 2019, and she continues to make outstanding cheese. Sagittarius is one of her best.  

Pairing: Viognier or a lightly-oaked Chardonnay, almonds, prosciutto, figs.