Serra da Estrela cheese accompanies slow-roasted pork in the sandes de pernil at Casa Guedes on Porto's Praça dos Poveiros. Brothers and their wives have run the business since 1987, with cheese boards also among its offerings. Gérardmer's La Cave au Géromé matures Munster-Géromé cheese in its own cellars, with regional products sold alongside the wheels. Seattle's DeLaurenti Food & Wine offers cut-to-order cheese alongside pizza and espresso, continuing a specialty-food business established in 1946.
Porto sandwich institution on Praca dos Poveiros, run since 1987 by two brothers and their wives. Known for the sandes de pernil - slow-roasted pork with Serra da Estrela mountain cheese - adapted from a Brazilian recipe, plus francesinhas and sausage-and-cheese boards.
Best for The pork-and-mountain-cheese sandwich at a Porto institution
Casa Guedes has operated in Porto's Praca dos Poveiros since 1987, run by a pair of brothers and their wives out of a small, tile-lined eatery. Its signature is the sandes de pernil, a roast pork sandwich topped with melted Serra da Estrela mountain cheese, built from a recipe the family adapted from a Brazilian original. It is regularly cited by Porto food guides as the city's best sandwich, known for long queues, sometimes over an hour. Beyond the pernil, the menu includes bifanas, francesinhas, boards of cured sausage and cheese, slow-cooked chicken gizzards, and homemade chocolate mousse. The business has since grown into a small local group with several Porto locations.
Caseificio Luigi Parlato has produced Provolone del Monaco and other fresh and aged cheeses from its dairy in the Arola hills above Vico Equense since 1973, continuing a family cheesemaking tradition that traces back to the seventeenth century. The dairy sells directly from its Via Aiello premises to visitors and local buyers.
Best for Provolone del Monaco and aged cheeses from a family dairy tradition tracing
Dutch artisan cheesemaker started in 1974 when Henri Willig and Riet Visser took over the family's Jacobs Hoeve farm in Katwoude; expanded with farms in Volendam and on the Zaanse Schans, plus shops from the mid-1990s.
Best for Farm-fresh Dutch Gouda and Edam.
Henri Willig's cheese business began in 1974, when 23-year-old Henri Willig married Riet Visser and took over his parents' farm, the Jacobs Hoeve, in Katwoude, North Holland. The couple took a cheesemaking course and began producing artisanal cheese on-site; the farm went on to draw well over 100,000 visitors annually. The operation expanded with two more working cheese farms - the Alida Hoeve in Volendam, and in 1992 the Catharina Hoeve on the Zaanse Schans. Henri Willig opened dedicated retail shops in Edam in 1994 and in Amsterdam's Magna Plaza in 1996, the start of a chain of shops under his name.
A cheese-ager (affineur) of Munster-Géromé since 1967, this Gérardmer shop matures wheels in its own cellars alongside more than 500 regional products. The shelves run to Vosges charcuterie, beers and spirits, with a restaurant a few doors down on Rue Charles de Gaulle.
Rue de Médran 2, 1936 Verbier / Verbier / Switzerland
On Médran, a few steps from the square. The door opens and the smell of proper cheese meets you — raclette, tomme, the shelf that is not a plastic-wrapped airport tray. Armand started it in 1959. Philippe keeps the counter. The same family, the same craft, people walking in for the evening’s raclette or a piece of tomme to take back to the chalet. This is the kind of door that makes a village feel authored. Not a concept. Not a franchise. A family that has simply stayed. Walk it when the evening needs cheese that.
Best for Valais cheese and fine food — Blanc family, continuous since 1959
Anne and Christophe, from a family of cheesemakers, run this affineur at 41 rue des Sablons that has sold cheese in central Fontainebleau since 1986. The counter carries aged cheeses, charcuterie, wines and the local fresh Fontainebleau, with raclette and fondue in winter.
Best for Aged cheeses, the local Fontainebleau and charcuterie
Founded in 1961 and still family-run, this Evora dairy at Quinta da Lage sells its own sheep's-milk cheeses, fresh curds, requeijao and almece straight from the source. The farm shop shares the site with the working dairy and a small animal park, opening daily including Sunday afternoons.
Best for Farm-fresh Alentejo sheep's cheese and requeijao
Since 1985 this Casar de Cáceres dairy has revived Extremadura's traditional cheeses, led by its Gran Casar Torta del Casar D.O.P. The online shop sells the full range, from fresh and goat cheeses to cream of Torta.
Recuits Nuri has hand-made goat-milk recuit and other Empordà dairy specialties from its small family workshop in Ullastret since 1972, when it pioneered the region's signature recuit de drap. Visitors can taste the recuit with honey, figs, or sugar right at the shop, which sells directly from its premises on Carrer de Valls.
A fourth-generation, family-owned cheesemaker running since 1961, now led by Chris and Ann Renard alongside their Rosewood Dairy. The Sturgeon Bay shop sells artisan cheeses made to heritage recipes and runs the on-site Melt Bistro.
In business at Carmel Plaza since 1975 and led for decades by cheesemonger Kent Torrey, The Cheese Shop cuts hundreds of world cheeses to order alongside gourmet foods and wine. It ships nationwide and runs monthly cheese and wine clubs.
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