Highland Fine Cheeses of Scotland has announced the launch of Ooh La La, a bright lactic cow’s milk cheese with a natural geotrichum rind. Produced in Tain, Scotland by second generation cheese maker, Rory Stone, Ooh La La takes inspiration from the classic French Saint-Félicien style, and is enriched with a small amount of cream. Soft, supple and silky, this cheese has been in the making for over two years, picking up the titles of Best Scottish Cheese and Best Soft White Rind Cheese at the British & Irish Cheese Awards 2026, along with a gold medal. Following six months of further refinement, Ooh La La is now officially ready to be distributed across the UK in time for Christmas.

Made with a lactic cheese making process and gentle coagulation, the vegetarian Ooh La La has a luxuriously melty mouthfeel, the cheese maker says. The smooth texture is achieved through delicate handling of the curds, which are slowly hand-ladled into moulds in skinny layers to preserve moisture, before each layered mould is lightly salted and matured for around two to five weeks.

The cheese has a fresh, expressive yeastiness from the ripening rooms and flavours of fresh cream and cultured butter. The rind gives subtle mushroom and cellar character and there are distinctive notes of banana and pear drops with a gentle lactic tang. This bright lactic backbone balances the richness, giving way to a clean, elegant finish. At peak maturity, when Ooh La La is best enjoyed, the mild rounded flavour will deepen and become more complex.

Rory Stone, head cheese maker at Highland Fine Cheeses, comments, “We are very excited to be releasing a new cheese for Christmas, but the truth is that all I have ever done is plagiarise. Ooh La La is an entire rip off of the French delicacy, Saint-Félicien, one of those heavenly gooey, unctuous styles that some would say provide the casomorphins that make cheese addictive.”

Ooh La La (180g) is now available for retail, including pre-Christmas deliveries.