Price range: £2.95 through £17.70
Rutland Red is a traditional cloth-bound Red Leicester, matured for around six months for a buttery, nutty flavour with gentle caramel sweetness and a wonderfully flaky texture.
Rutland Red is one of my favourite cheeses. It looks fantastic on a cheeseboard, thanks to that wonderful deep orange colour, but thankfully there’s plenty going on underneath the good looks too.
Made by Long Clawson Dairy in Leicestershire, Rutland Red is essentially a traditional Red Leicester taken very seriously. It’s cloth-bound, buttered and matured for around six months, giving it a depth of flavour and texture that sets it apart from the younger block Red Leicesters you might be more familiar with.
And I think it’s absolutely delicious.
Red Leicester itself has been made in and around Leicestershire for centuries. Traditionally known simply as Leicester cheese, its distinctive colour helped differentiate it from other regional cheeses. Various natural colourings were used historically before annatto became the usual choice.
Annatto comes from the seeds of the achiote tree and gives the cheese that unmistakable rich orange colour. It doesn’t really add flavour; it’s there to make the cheese look fabulous.
Which, in Rutland Red’s case, it certainly does.
Rutland Red is made by Long Clawson Dairy, a farming cooperative founded in 1912 near Melton Mowbray.
The dairy is perhaps best known for making Stilton, but Rutland Red is another brilliant example of the traditional cheeses of this part of England. It is particularly unusual because it is still made using the old cloth-bound method rather than being matured as a rindless block.
Once made, the cheese is wrapped in cloth and buttered before being left to mature for around six months. The cloth allows the cheese to breathe as it ages, while the butter helps protect it and encourages the development of its characteristic texture and flavour.
And all that care has certainly paid off.
At the 2025 World Cheese Awards, Rutland Red was named Best British Cheese and finished 11th in the world. Not bad for a cheese that sometimes gets overshadowed by its rather famous blue neighbour!
The first thing you notice is obviously the colour. Rutland Red is a gorgeous deep burnt orange, and I love putting it onto a cheeseboard where it immediately stands out amongst all those creams and yellows.
The texture is firm but slightly flaky, with a lovely creaminess as it warms in your mouth. It’s more substantial and complex than a young Red Leicester, without becoming dry or overly crumbly.
Flavour-wise, I get nuttiness and butter first, followed by caramel and a gentle savoury tang. Then there’s a lovely sweetness that develops as you eat it — sometimes almost butterscotch-like.
It’s not trying to compete with an extra-mature Cheddar for sheer strength. That’s not what Rutland Red is about.
For me, it’s the balance that makes it so good: buttery, nutty, slightly sweet and savoury all at once, with enough character to keep you going back for another piece.
Which I invariably do.
Jen’s note: We often use Rutland Red in our cheese wedding towers. Its gorgeous colour makes it stand out amongst the other cheeses, but more importantly, it tastes fantastic too. It’s become a real favourite with couples who come into the shop for their wedding cheese tasting — although I’m always secretly pleased when there’s a bit left over for us!
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Storage Advice
Delivery and Collection
Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, salt, starter cultures, vegetarian rennet, annatto
Normal opening Monday – Saturday 9am – 4pm until:
Sunday 22nd 9am – 4pm
Monday 23rd 9am – 4pm
Christmas Eve 9am – 12pm
Christmas Day Closed
Boxing Day Closed
Friday 27th Closed
Saturday 28th 9am – 4pm
Sunday 29th Closed
Monday 30th 9am – 2pm
Tuesday 31st 9am – 2pm
New Year’s Day Closed
Thursday 2nd January Closed
Friday 3rd 9am – 4pm then open as normal
After Christmas our courier delivery slots start from 8th January.
