6 stores · curated ORBIS register
Sonthofen-Tiefenbach, Allgäu (near Kempten)
Bernhard and Jutta Krötz run this working farm dairy from a homestead their family has occupied since 1965, on a site with a timber beam dated 1740 uncovered when the farm was relocated. They make speciality cheeses flavored with herbs from their own garden and sell directly from their farm shop and at the Friday market in Kempten.
Best for Farmhouse cheese with herb garden flavors
Camembert, Normandy
The birthplace of Camembert cheese — the village where Marie Harel created the world's most cheese in 1791, with a museum and farm visits.
Best for Camembert cheese, Marie Harel's legacy, and the home of France's most fromage.
Affoltern, Bern
The Emmental Cheese Factory in Affoltern im Emmental remains open to visitors after its commercial Emmentaler AOP production ended in June 2025. The shop sells Emmentaler and other Swiss cheeses, and there is still a restaurant at the site. The Königsweg experience explains the regional dairy tradition, and groups can still book a two-hour session making Stöckli cheese by hand in the 1741 building.
Best for Swiss cheese shopping and Emmentaler interpretation in Affoltern
The Emmental Cheese Factory in Affoltern remains a place to buy cheese and learn about the surrounding dairy tradition. Its purpose has changed since commercial Emmentaler AOP production at the show dairy ended in June 2025. The shop and restaurant continued operating, so that closure should not be mistaken for the whole visitor site closing.
The cheese shop offers Emmentaler alongside a wider Swiss selection, with cheeses of different styles available to compare. That makes the visit useful for choosing something to take home rather than assuming every wheel was made here. The restaurant offers another way to spend time at the site without following a production tour.
The Königsweg visitor experience explains the story of Emmentaler, while former production equipment forms part of the site's changing presentation. Anyone planning a visit specifically to watch commercial cheesemaking should account for the end of that activity. Cheese is still made here on a small scale. The Stöckli session runs for two hours by advance booking, led by a cheesemaker in the building dating from 1741. The group price is CHF 530 for up to 20 people and includes one wheel of 8 to 10 kg, with a second wheel at CHF 215. The wheels mature for four months and are then cut, vacuum-packed and posted within Switzerland only, so nothing goes home on the day.
Paarl
A Paarl wine and cheese estate dating to 1693 and restored by the Back family from 1937, Fairview is known for the 1981 goat tower Charles Back built after seeing one in Portugal, alongside wine and cheese tastings and an on-site restaurant.
Best for Estate wine and goat’s-milk cheese
Fairview is a wine and cheese estate at the foot of Paarl Mountain in South Africa's Western Cape, with a history tracing to 1693, making it one of the region's oldest wine-producing properties. The modern estate dates to 1937, when it was purchased and restored by the Back family, whose descendants still run it. Its best-known landmark is the goat tower: in 1981, owner Charles Back — who kept a herd of roughly 750 Saanen goats — built a two-storey brick tower with a spiral wooden staircase and windows, inspired by a similar structure he had seen on a producer visit to Portugal, giving the goats somewhere to climb and rest. The estate is also the origin point for its Goats do Roam wine range: according to the family's own account, Charles's son Jason once left a paddock gate open, letting the goats wander into the vineyards and select some of the ripest grapes, which inspired the playful, punning wine label. Today Fairview combines commercial wine and cheese production — it is particularly known for its goat's and cow's milk cheeses — with a visitor program of tastings, a restaurant, and public access to the goat tower itself.
Sparkenhoe Farm, Upton (Leicestershire/Warwickshire border, near Hinckley)
David and Jo Clarke revived farmhouse Red Leicester at Sparkenhoe Farm in 2005, 49 years after the last local maker had stopped, on land that had made the cheese from 1745 to 1875. The cloth-bound Sparkenhoe wheels are still made from the farm's own Holstein-Friesian herd, aged six to seven months, with a Vintage held back for eighteen.
Best for Traditional cloth-bound Red Leicester cheese
Jermyn Street, London
Tracing back to a cheese stall Stephen Cullum set up at Clare Market in 1742, the business took its name after Harry Paxton and Charles Whitfield joined the Cullum family firm and has sold cheese from 93 Jermyn Street ever since. It has held Royal Warrants continuously since 1850, beginning under Queen Victoria and currently under King Charles III.
Best for British and European artisan cheese
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