La Fête du Fromage - Beaufort d'Été

There's still a bit of time left to get a hold of Beaufort d'Été, but you better hurry! 
And you'll have to find a Fromagerie that will sell it to you.

The friend who carefully transported this generous slab from the Alps to the Languedoc a couple of weeks ago told us that the Fromagerie where he bought it refuses to sell this seasonal cheese after September 15.
The rules state that Beaufort d'Été must be made from Tarine and Abondance cow's milk produced between June 1 until the end of October, however this particular Fromager thinks the cheese is past its prime after mid September. 
So if you don't care to follow the Fromager's advice, you still have a chance to try it.  And you'll be happy that you did.

Beaufort d'Été is packed full of fruity and zingy yeast flavors, and has a delightful, slightly crumbly, dense texture.  Much less complex, buttery and grassy than a more mature Beaufort, but equally delicious. 

White wines from Burgundy or Beaujolais pair well with this cheese. Pin It

La Fête du Fromage - La Brique du Forez

The Auvergne is home to many of France's well known and loved cheeses; sublime Cantal, gorgeous Gaperon and two beautiful bleus, Fourme d'Ambert and Bleu d'Auvergne.

In the extreme eastern edge of the Auvergne lies the le pays du Livradois-Forez, home to this week's cheese, La Brique du Forez (also called Chevreton du Livradois).

La Brique du Forez is soft - in texture, aroma and flavor. Nothing about it is over the top.
This is a humble, well rounded cheese that has beautiful butter and hazelnut flavors, and I also detected gentle hints of goatiness. Its earthy aroma has a tiny bit of barnyard to it, but not aggressive at all.

Made from 100% unpasteurized goat's milk during the spring and autumn and a blend of cow and goat's milk the rest of the year, this cheese is produced both on small farms and by artisan cheese makers.
One website did state that la Brique has become industrially produced, however the Fromagerie where I bought it said that this one was lait cru and fermier.

If you find yourself in the Auvergne or see this cheese for sale at a Fromagerie in France, don't hesitate to try it. It is a wonderful cheese!

Wine recommendation: a fruity Beaujolais or a floral Viognier.

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La Fête du Fromage - Le Rogeret

It's funny, but I'm always a bit disappointed when I find out that a cheese is pasteurized. Raw cheese just appeals to me. It is more real, has more attitude.

On my last visit to the cheese counter in les Halles I picked up several delicious new cheeses, all of which were unpasteurized, with this one exception. Thankfully Monsieur le Fromager was so enthusiastic about Rogeret that I decided to trust him.

In the future I vow to be more open minded about pasteurized French cheese!


Le Rogeret is made from a blend of pasteurized* goat and cow's milk in the stunning Ardèche region of southeastern France. It is matured for about two weeks on straw mats, giving the exterior a striated texture, similar to Saint-Félicien.

It is a very agreeable, likable cheese that is deliciously soft and creamy. The flavor is rich with hazelnuts and earthy mushrooms, and there is a slight tangy bitterness on the finish. We both loved it!

A glass of Beaujolais would pair perfectly with le Rogeret.



*There is a fermier, unpasteurized version of le Rogeret called Rogeret de Lamastre that I am now eager to try. Pin It

La Fête du Fromage - La Bonde de Gâtine

Another week. Another goat's cheese.
This is the fifth week in a row that I've tasted a fromage de chèvre for La Fête du Fromage.

Why so many goat's cheeses lately? Well, they just seem to be everywhere.
They come so many interesting shapes and sizes, and in all sorts of tempting textures and stages of affinage, I find that I just can't resist them.

And the most recent discovery, la Bonde de Gâtine, has proven itself to be irresistible!


La Bonde de Gâtine is produced on small farms in the marshy Gâtine region, in the picturesque Poitou-Charentes. It takes a full 2 liters of unpasteurized goat's milk to make one little, drum shaped cheese. A fact that is unmistakable when you bite into its ultra rich, dense, chalky and finely textured pâte.

A pleasant, fruity tang hits your taste buds first, followed by hazelnuts and a fair amount of saltiness. The crust is lightly sprinkled in ash and allowed to develop a layer of natural, edible mold during its 1-2 months of affinage, resulting in a sometimes fuzzy, blue-grey, wrinkly appearance.

This is a cheese to savor. Slowly.
It is so luxurious and full-bodied that a small morsel goes a long way. La Bonde de Gâtine is one that you must try!


Enjoy with a dry white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay, or a light red such as Beaujolais. Pin It

La Fête du Fromage - Vacherin du Haut Doubs (a.k.a. Mont D'Or)

This cheese is one of France's most succulent wintertime treats.

Vacherin du Haut Doubs has been produced for over 200 years high in the Alps, in the Franche-Comté. It was previously called Vacherin du Mont d'Or by both the French and the Swiss, who each claimed that they were the first to produce it. In 1973 Switzerland quietly laid legal claim to it. Then, to add insult to injury, in 1983 they began producing the cheese from pasteurized cow's milk!
Sacré bleu! The French were forced to call the cheese from their side of the border either Mont d'Or or Vacherin du Haut Doubs.

Most French cheese is produced during the summer months, when the animals feed on sweet, summer grasses, so this cheese is unique in that it is produced from the unpasteurized milk of the Montbéliard and Simmentaler cows during the winter months, when they graze on cold weather vegetation and grain. AOC guidelines state that the cheese may be produced only between August 15 and March 31.



Breaking through the moist, thick, wavy rind with your spoon reveals a creamy, beige interior. The flavor is mild, yeasty and subtly infused by the spruce wood box in which the cheese ripens. Warming Vacherin in the oven only improves its flavor, bringing out the richness of this cheese.

So get your spoons ready to scoop up some of its runny deliciousness, and pour yourself a glass of Côtes du Jura, Beaujolais or Chardonnay to enjoy alongside.

This is truly a fabulous seasonal cheese, so get some while you can.



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La Fête du Fromage With a Heart

I *Heart* Cheese!

This week we tasted Coeur de Neufchâtel and le Petit Polignac.


Our Coeur de Neufchâtel was very ripe. As soon as we cut into it, it oozed all over the plate.
Heart shaped, AOC Neufchâtel cheese is made from cow’s milk in the town of Neufchâtel in the Pays de Bray region of northern Normandy. It dates back to 1035, making it one of the oldest cheeses in this region. According to a romantic legend, during the 100 years war, young French ladies gave Coeur de Neufchâtel to their suitors.
We found the flavor to be a bit too sour. Did I buy a bad piece? I honestly don't know. It had a nice, mushroomy aroma and a creamy, soft, oozing texture. Oh well, you can't love them all!
Pair Neufchâtel with some fruity red wine such as a Beaujolais or Côtes du Rhône.

Le Petit Polignac is a fermier cheese made from raw ewe's milk in the Haute-Loire département.
That's it! That is all the information I have on this cheese. It wasn't in any of my books or anywhere on the Internet. (how is this possible?) If anyone has information about le Petit Polignac, I would appreciate your help.
Its flavor was mild and earthy and its texture was creamy and soft. Really a delicious little brebis!
We had a glass of red Minervois wine with it, which was wonderful.


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La Fête du Fromage - Comté and Ossau-Iraty

They may look similar, but these two cheeses, Comté and Ossau-Iraty, produced on opposite sides of France, are quite different.



Comté, on the right, is one of France's most popular cheeses. After production in cooperatives, called fruitières, in the villages of the Franche-Comté region of eastern France, each cheese must pass strict quality tests before being allowed into the marketplace. It takes the daily production of 30 cows to make one 80 pound (35 kilo) wheel of Comté.

It's flavor is sweet and caramelized with a slightly nutty and salty tang, and it melts in your mouth. In the kitchen, this is an extremely versatile cheese. It is delicious cut into cubes and added to salads, eaten with fruit, melted in a sandwich or used to make fondue.
Really wonderful!
A glass of fruity Beaujolais or white Sancerre pair nicely with Comté.


Ossau-Iraty, on the left, is an unpasteurized ewe's milk cheese that is produced in two areas of the Pyrénées in southwestern France: Ossau Valley in the Béarn and the hills of Iraty in the Basque country. Historians maintain that this cheese has been produced for more than a thousand years.

It has a soft, supple texture with a mild, nutty flavor that we both loved. I wasn't expecting much from Ossau-Iraty, but it is scrumptious!
Savor a cold glass of Jurançon or a red Madiran with this cheese. Pin It

La Fête du Fromage-Charolais and Chèvre Bleu

Well, it looks like I accidentally repeated a cheese this week. I picked up a couple in Béziers last Friday without consulting my list, et voilà, I purchased more Bleu de Chèvre, thinking that I had tried a Bleu de Brebis before. It looked completely different than the Bleu de Chèvre I bought last month and even had a slightly different name, Chèvre Bleu.

So, we got to taste this one again. Not such a terrible thing....

I also picked up a little drum of Charolais.

This Chèvre Bleu, the cheese in front, is made locally, in the Corbières. It is covered in ash and matured to perfection.This chèvre has a lovely, tangy taste mixed with the flavor of aged goat's cheese that I find very desirable.
A glass of Corbières red was the perfect pairing.



The tall, cylindrical Charolais comes from the granite plains of the Charolais region of Burgundy. It is a férmier cheese, traditionally made from two parts unpasteurized goat's milk and one part unpasteurized cow's milk.
Charolais is discreetly salty and slightly sweet, and offers a nice, long finish. Its texture is chalky, dense and rather dry. I loved the way its flavor opened up in my mouth and thought it was excellent.
Enjoy a glass of Beaujolais with this cheese.


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La Fête du Fromage - Munster-Géromé and Camembert de Normandie

No obscure cheese this week. We're taking it easy.
Just a couple of pleasant, friendly cheeses that I'm sure everyone has heard of and possibly tasted at one time or another. (unlike the noxious Boulette d'Avesnes from a couple of weeks ago!)

Munster-Géromé and Camembert de Normandie


The Vosges mountains in eastern France are the home of the Vosgiennes cows, the sole providers of milk for Munster or Munster-Géromé as it is also called. In Alsace it was known as Munster and in Lorraine it was called Géromé, the names were joined in 1978 when the cheese was given it's AOC status.
The slightly sticky and distinctive looking orange-red rind and strong, earthy (read: barnyard) aroma make this one easily recognizable on a cheese cart. It's flavor is complex, rather mild and salty and melts nicely on the tongue, but prickles the nose as you nibble on it. If you have a very sensitive nose, the aroma could be a challenge!

Drink a Gewurtztraminer, Tokay or Pinot Noir alongside.


Camembert de Normandie hails from a village in Normandy of the same name where, as legend has it, the cheese was first created in the 18th Century by a woman named Marie Harel. The name Camembert, to many, is synonymous with French cheese.
 The production is strictly controlled within a small area, as before it was granted its AOC in 1983, it was the most copied cheese in the world.

The rind of this cow's milk cheese is covered in a white mold which, as it darkens and ages, produces little, pale red flecks, all the while developing a nutty, earthy aroma. The interior is creamy and pale yellow colored and the flavor is slightly salty, mushroomy and sometimes fruity.
Camembert de Normandie has a great nickname - les pieds de dieu or "the feet of god."

Pour a glass of St. Emillon or Beaujolais to enjoy with this one.




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La Fête du Fromage - Chaumes, Tomme Noir des Pyrénées and Crottin de Chavignol

The cheeses chosen for this week's tasting were Chaumes, Tomme Noir des Pyrénées and Crottin de Chavignol.

Chaumes is made from pasteurized cow's milk, has an attractive, tangerine colored rind and a springy textured, ivory interior. It is a popular table cheese in France and is produced in the Dordogne region. The flavor is pleasantly nutty and soft, but the odor is quite pungent! Chaumes is a great cheese for grilling.

Tomme Noir des Pyrénées has been produced in the French Pyrénées mountains since the 12th Century. It wrapped in black wax (hence the "noir") and the interior is creamy white with little holes. It is made from unpasteurized cow's milk and offers mild buttery and slightly salty flavors. It is a friendly, easy to eat cheese, but not that interesting.

Named for goat or horse dung, yes dung, Crottin de Chavignol, was named such because its little, squat, drum shape resembled just that. And the name stuck. Bizarre, non ?
It has been produced since the 16th century in the tiny village of Chavignol in the Loire Valley. Crottin de Chavignol is made from goat's milk and was granted AOC status in 1976. It can be eaten young when the flavor is nutty and the texture soft, or aged when it shrinks in size, becomes stronger and the rind becomes moldy and brown colored. Now you understand where it gets it's name!
Delightful when paired with a glass of white Sancerre or fruity Beaujolais.

Bonne Fête du Fromage!


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