Some of our local cheeses are incredible! The flavor of the cheese that comes from small producers surpasses anything you'll ever find at a grocery store, even if it is lait cru and artisanal. There is just something about earthy, farm produced, raw milk cheese that makes all the difference!
The two cheeses we tasted this week were both produced on small farms in the area; Brebis des Corbières and Tomme de Maquis.
This gorgeous, oozing wedge is the Brebis des Corbières, made in the style of Camembert from unpasteurized sheep's milk. The producers, Chantal and Jean-Gabriel Donnet, left their advertising jobs in Montpellier about twenty years ago to make cheese in the rugged, remote and beautiful Corbières. They currently have a herd of about 150 sheep and they produce the famous Tommette des Corbières, a hexagonal cheese with a Grenache (a local, fortified wine) washed rind. I haven't tried it yet, but it is on my list!
The Brebis des Corbières was perfectly ripe and was both creamy and tangy. The flavor was well rounded, smooth and meaty and it had a very pronounced, barnyard aroma. This cheese was pure heaven and we couldn't have been happier as we savored it slowly with a baguette and a glass of red wine from the area.
So, there we were, happily nibbling away on the Brebis des Corbières, thinking it was pretty much the best cheese ever, when we tasted the Tomme de Maquis.
I had absolutely no expectations for this cheese. It is produced on a small farm about five miles from our house, had a mild aroma, a firm, dense texture and a snowy white interior. It looked nice enough.
But oh! It. Was. Wonderful!
The Tomme de Maquis is made from a combination of unpasteurized sheep and cow's milk and is made on the Cooperative Cravirola, near Minerve. It was creamy, mildly salty and had a delightful tang to its flavor. I poured a Minervois white wine from our local co-op, les Trois Blasons and we sat in amazement that such incredible cheese and wine is produced within a few miles of our home.
It was a fantastic Fête du Fromage!
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10 comments:
Oh lou!! these cheeses look divine!!!
I can smell them in my loungeroom! I'm convinced of it!!! :-)
Would it be legal for you to ship a wedge of that Brebis des Corbières to the USA? Just wondering...
That first picture looks like a piece of cheese cake--I guess I say that because I want to eat the whole piece.
all things,
Thanks for stopping by! One of them was so smelly, I wouldn't be surprised if you could smell it all the way over there!
Marco
You aren't the first to ask and I have looked into it. The answer is no...if we're caught we both face severe penalties. Cheese is dangerous, don't you know! :) Citizens must be protected from bacteria!
You might want to check out CowGirl Creamery who usually have the Tommette de Corbieres.
La Belette,
Oh, we ate the entire thing, in one sitting. It was like a cheese orgy. We were very satisfied at the end!
I wish I was there !!
My favorite meal : CHEESE
Mélanie,
Isn't cheese the most fabulous thing?!
The more I taste, the more enamored I become!
WOW, these sound like such wonderful cheeses! I have to sheepishly admit that I haven't been taking full advantage of all the wonderful cheeses France has to offer in the last couple years, and now that I'm pregnant, I can't have anything with unpasteurized milk -- lait cru... So it'll be a while before I can enjoy incredible cheeses like this again! Obviously a worthwhile sacrifice, but boy does your Fête de Fromage post make my mouth water!
late bloomer,
Many heartfelt congratulations on your baby! After he/she is born you'll have to start tasting France's amazing cheeses!
The Brebis looks incredible... I need to get to France ASAP...
alejandra
It was sublime! Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.
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