Tradition is much enjoyed, but breaking it can be awfully nice too.

Take this birthday cheese “cake,” for example, created especially for those among us—and there are many—who’d rather spoil themselves with a few sumptuous wedges of cheese than a fat slice of sweet cake. For such birthday honorees, we’ve rounded up, quite literally, a collection of some of our favorite cheeses ranging in age and increasing maturity. Beginning with a young, bright sheep’s milk specialty, this flight of six cheeses finishes with a deliciously meaty, complex aged Gouda. Tasting each savory slice, the flavors are many and the message is clear: every age has its benefits!

1
Vintage Gouda
Pasteurized cow’s milk,
traditional rennet
Aged 36 months

Produced in northern Holland from Holstein cow’s milk, Vintage Gouda is specially selected at a few months of age according to its potential for further maturation. Even after this initial distinction is made, cheeses are constantly graded and reassessed to make sure they are on the right track in terms of their developing flavor profile. The three-year Gouda is noted for its wide array of flavors including grass, butterscotch, and hazelnuts accompanied by a rich milky tang and crunchy crystalline flakes. Ironically, many of these flavors are not nearly as apparent in the older five-year Goudas, which makes the three-year a special treat. P: Dark ale or single malt

2
Manchego
Raw sheep’s milk,
traditional rennet
Aged 12 months

Manchego is the best known sheep’s milk cheese in Spain, if not the world. Its characteristic rind is a result of using esparto grass molds, which imprint a zigzag pattern on the side of each wheel. Today there are two kinds of authentic Manchego production: the farmhouse type, made with unpasteurized sheep’s milk, and the industrial type, made with pasteurized milk. Both use whole milk from Manchega sheep of the La Mancha region exclusively. Year-old Manchego will be firm with pronounced acidity balanced by mellow flavors of caramel and nuts. The texture becomes drier with age; the cheese has a straw-colored interior and a sweet, lingering finish. P: Fino sherry

3
Ticklemore
Pasteurized goat’s milk,
vegetable rennet
Aged 2½ months

Ticklemore cheese is a firm, pasteurized goat’s milk cheese, originally created by Robin Congdon of Ticklemore Dairy in England. To simplify production, the cheese is now crafted by his neighbors at Sharpham Farm. Ticklemore wheels are pressed by hand into a colander, which gives the cheese a distinctive flattened sphere shape—rather like a flying saucer. Dry-salted at the end of production and matured for ten weeks, Ticklemore is a firm-textured cheese with a crumbly center and a semi-soft paste just beneath the rind. It is light, moist, and delicate with small “eyes” or holes. Flavors are mild yet complex, with distinctive hints of grass, mushrooms, and milky tones that are both sweet and subtle. P: Spanish Albariño and Pinot Gris from Alsace

4
Fleur de Maquis
Pasteurized sheep’s milk,
traditional rennet
Aged about 1 month

Made in Corsica from the milk of the Lacaune sheep, this cheese is named “Flower of the Maquis”—maquis being the local word for thickets of rough underbrush in which bandits and guerrilla fighters used to hide. (The cheese also goes by Brin d’Amour, meaning “a breath of love.”) Crafted by small-scale producers and artisans, the cheese is encrusted with rosemary, fennel seeds, juniper berries, and, occasionally, a tiny fiery dried chile. For an herb-encrusted cheese, Fleur de Maquis strikes a wonderful balance between the flavors and aromas of the herbs and the warm, bright, sheepy quality of the interior. If allowed to mature fully, the paste breaks down and becomes runny and more assertive. P: Aromatic white wines, such as Albariño

5
Gorgonzola Naturale
Cow’s milk blue cheese,
traditional rennet
Aged 4 to 6 months

Italian law and tradition dictate that Gorgonzola may be made only in Lombardy or Piedmonte. It is broadly produced in two styles: dolce and naturale. The younger version is dolce, while the more traditional, matured style is naturale, also known as mountain Gorgonzola. Made with either raw or pasteurized cow’s milk, it is innoculated with Penicillium glaucum, a spore native to the area that creates blue/green/gray veining in the ivory paste. The texture of naturale is dense and smooth, with slightly crunchy crystals that punctuate the blue veins in more mature versions. Flavors can be assertive, robust, meaty, and spicy. An indicator of the intensity of the cheese is its interior color—the darker it is, the stronger it will taste. P: Robust reds and sweet dessert wines such as Vin Santo

6
San Joaquin Gold
Raw cow’s milk, vegetable rennet
Aged 16 months

Named San Joaquin Gold after the fertile San Joaquin Valley of central California, home to its producer, Fiscalini Cheese Co., this cow’s milk cheese is dense with a natural thin rind and a pale golden hue. Made in the style of a fontina, but with more salt and a firmer texture, its flavors are mild and buttery with notes of earth, caramel, and salt. As it ages, these flavors intensify and the cheese becomes sweeter and nuttier. P: Off-dry sherry or a rich California syrah c

(Cheeses are listed according to their order in the photo, clockwise from top.)