Well, the south of Europe might have substituted cheese for meat on fast days (or when the heat wrecked the meat).

However, my guess for regional differences is the molds and yeasts that occur naturally in caves where the cheese is cured. It also may be (though I'm just guessing) that there are fewer useful caves in the northern regions such as Denmark and northern Germany where the land is flat, relatively low, and often ill drained. Different molds in the dairy house, I'd wager.

s'Curius