Patrick’s been writing about cheese for close to two decades. He’s a World Cheese Awards judge. He’s got that rare journalist’s gift: he can celebrate the joy of cheese without losing sight of the tension underneath it. And he’s just co-written a new book with Carlos Yescas, One Cheese to Rule Them All, a title that’s playful on the surface, but actually points straight to the big question at the heart of modern cheese.

This is not your average Pinot Grigio from the Veneto. It is a varietally true example of this often misunderstood grape. A member of the extended Pinot family of grape varieties, Pinot Gris (Grigio) is a pink-skinned mutation of Pinot Noir. The two grape varieties are indistinguishable in the vineyard right up until veraison.

From Finance to Farmhouse: The Curlew Dairy Story. This month we meet Ben Spence of Curlew Dairy, the maker reviving raw-milk Wensleydale in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. His cheese, Yoredale, is lactic, buttery and bright, capturing the true flavour of place and the quiet craft of real farmhouse cheesemaking.

Few dairies capture the quiet integrity of British farmhouse cheesemaking quite like Doddington Dairy. Set in the rolling pastures of Northumberland, it stands as a model of how tradition and sustainability can coexist, a place where the rhythm of the land still shapes what ends up on the table.