27/12/2025
Truly the last new cheese we will introduce to all of youâŚThe Shepherdâs Wheel.
I didnât make the name up, I swear it is a real coincidence how I discovered it, what itâs called, the timing of it all and what you now know of my future.
Some of you will remember that we were closed very unusually for the month of September this year. We were closed because I wanted to work the very last of the shepherding season this year before it ended in October. And so off I went to a farm in France.
(For those who are still curious about this shepherding job / life, you can see what I did in the September highlights reel on IG).
It was at the farm where a giant block of this cheese appeared on the dinner table and I would have eaten no less than a kilo of it in the 3 calorie-burning weeks I was there. And continued to fuel me on the 12hour car + train + bus journey back to Paris to catch the flight back.
This is a classic French Tomme style - think St Nectaire, Tomme de Savoie, both of which weâve never ever stocked because itâs a style that when young doesnât doesnât carry much character and doesnât quite lend itself to ageing for extra flavour. Itâs not impossible, just tricky and takes time. In the few occasions when I have time and space to play with it, the transformation was amazing.
So when I ate this cheese, I was pleasantly surprised by how much better it tastes compared to its other counterparts of the same genre, age for age.
For a cheese of a mere few months, itâs incredibly sweet, tangy and fruity. And it truly is the kind of cheese you would find a hunk of in the bag of a shepherd along with his bread, saucisson and indispensible Opinel.
See you all very soon, we expect this to run out fast!
