Red Lion’s very tasty festive cheeseboard

We love to find out about cheeses.

We recently discovered the Red Lion of Stathern’s new cheeseboard and thought we’d share info on the individual cheeses. If you visit this Vale of Belvoir pub, this is what could await the end of your meal…

1. Fivemiletown Irish goat’s cheese
Mild and creamy with a zesty tang. A good way to start the board, with subtle flavours. Fivemiletown

2. Clawson’s Aged Leicestershire Red
This cheese’s full title is Thomas Hoe Stevenson, named after a renowned Vale of Belvoir cheesemaker. It’s aged for six months and cloth-bound, giving a mellow but very distinctive caramel and toffee flavour. Thomas Hoe Stevenson

3. Keen’s Cheddar
Made on the same farm near Wincanton, Somerset, since 1899, this cheese has made it into the Slow Food Ark. It’s aged for at least 10 months, cloth-bound and made with rennet and unpasteurised milk. Tangy and powerful. Keen’s

4. Lancashire Black Bomb
An extra-mature Lancashire from the Shorrock family of Goosnargh near Preston. Very creamy and full, with an acidic backnote that guarantees a gum-tingling sensation. Great as a Christmas gift as the full, wax-sealed cheese looks like a black bomb (see below). Available from the Melton Cheeseboard

5. Munster
Pungent rind-washed cheese made in the Alsace region of France. Strong aroma with a robust, meaty taste. More here (in French though)

6. Lanark Blue
‘Scotland’s Roquefort’ – famous cheese made by Humphrey Errington in his farmhouse creamery 1000ft above sea level from unpasteurised ewes’ milk. Full flavoured, with a hint of peat smoke, it will stand up to a smoky Islay malt. More here

7. Cropwell Bishop Blue Stilton
Producer from south Notts. Creamy Stilton with a deep, lingering flavour – Supreme Champion at 2009’s International Cheese Awards. Cropwell Bishop

You can win a meal for two at the Red Lion. Click here to enter.