Le Mellois

Sometimes love comes at a price, and that is definitely the case with le Mellois.

But it's a price I'm willing to pay.



Every time I'm craving another little square of this delicious chèvre, I have to brave an encounter with the unpleasant (to put it mildly) cheese lady* at the Bayeux market.

Since discovering her wonderful cheese truck last winter I've tried my best to charm her, but with no success.
Maybe it's my accent? Maybe it's my smile? Maybe she's just in a bad mood all the time?
Who knows.

When the cheese is this good, who cares.



Le Mellois doesn't hide the fact that it's a goat cheese, in flavor or in fragrance - it's all around very rich and goaty. The texture is meltingly soft and smooth, and also very creamy and buttery.
In a word - luscious. And highly addictive.

This unpasteurized fromage de chèvre is produced on farms in le Mellois region of the Poitou-Charentes.
It can be eaten quite young, slightly mature or very mature - frais, demi-sec or sec.  I've tasted both the demi-sec and sec versions, and they're equally delicious.

Enjoy with white wine such as Sancerre.



*She also sells the most amazing Normandy salt butter.
But every time I ask for some, she tries to sell me a piece that is already past its expiration date, and every time I smile, hand it back to her and ask for a fresher piece. 
As I said, it's a price I'm willing to pay.




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Briquette des Gors

If you can, try to imagine a goat's cheese that is so light and fluffy, each bite is like a whisper-soft cloud of melt in your mouth chantilly de chèvre. 

No, I couldn't believe it either.
 
But I promise you, Briquette des Gors is pure cheese heaven.



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La Fête du Fromage - La Clochette

The cheeses that I discover for my French cheese tasting project, now in its fourth year, never cease to amaze me. There seems to be an endless array of alluring shapes and sizes to delight the consumer, and my most recent find is definitely proof of that.

Voilà La Clochette - "the little bell."



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La Fête du Fromage - le Chardin

Le Chardin is a melt-in-your-mouth, smooth, dense, buttery-rich dreamboat.

Need I say more?



Le Chardin facts:

• an unpasteurized fromage de chèvre from la Fromagerie Jousseaume (no these people are not paying me to wax lyrical about their cheese...I just think they're fabulous)
• produced in the Poitou-Charentes
• rich enough to stand up to our local Minervois red

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La Fête du Fromage - Le Braîsot Charentais

At first bite, this demi-sec version of Le Braîsot Charentais tastes soft and mild. A minute later the flavor starts to intensify and you think, "ah...not so mellow after all."

Then suddenly, wham! Your taste buds are hit by the rich, intense flavors of this cheese. Le Braîsot Charentais is surprisingly strong.
And totally delicious.

Its aroma is strong too - that typical, earthy, barnyard fragrance that often accompanies a serious goat's cheese. It has a dense, chewy texture and its flavor has hints of citrus and spice and is very, very goaty.

Le Braîsot Charentais is a chève lovers dream.

It paired well with our local Minervois red, though next time I would like to try it with some white wine from the Loire.

We have the Fromagerie Jousseaume in the Poitou-Charentes to thank for this fabulous fromage de chèvre. Two more of their creations:  la Taupinière and Briquette de l'Angoumois.


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La Fête du Fromage - Briquette de l'Angoumois

Well, it's official.
After several years of tasting French cheese for la Fête du Fromage, it appears that I've exhausted almost every single cheese supply in a 60 mile radius. I've been to the village markets and to les Halles in Narbonne and Béziers, and I've done all the driving around the region to visit the small farms.

The obvious next step was to find a website or two that would deliver some French cheese right to my door. So that's exactly what I did.

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La Fête du Fromage - Le Trois-Cornes d'Aunis

Le Trois-Cornes d'Aunis is incroyable!

Imagine a soft, velvety triangle of whipped cream textured unpasteurized fromage de brebis. Its flavor is a perfectly balanced mix of fresh milk, rich meatiness, fragrant meadows and a  bit of salt. Wrap it all up in a thin, slightly tangy tasting rind and you've got yourself one heck of a delicious cheese.

Need I say more?

Enjoy with a dry, fruity white wine or a fruity red.

Aunis:  ancient province of western France, corresponding to the northern part of the modern département of Charente-Maritime with the southern part of Deux-Sèvres. Subjected, from the 10th century on, to the counts of Poitiers, Aunis shared the political fortunes of neighbouring Poitou. In the pre-Revolutionary period it constituted, together with the islands of Ré and Oléron, a military gouvernement with headquarters at La Rochelle. (from the Encyclopedia Britannica)


Related cheese:
La Tricorne de Marans 
Trycorne du Berry

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La Fête du Fromage - La Tricorne de Marans

La Tricorne de Marans' sweet grass and fresh hay aromas would tempt even the most trepidatious cheese novice. Give in to the temptation, I say. Your taste buds will thank you!

This is a rich, rustic cheese; packed with deep, smoky and salty flavors and a fine texture that is dense, chewy and coats your mouth with its creaminess. Its natural rind is completely edible, and those little spots of blue mold add another layer of flavor to this delightful cheese.

La Tricorne de Marans is made from unpasteurized ewe's milk and is produced on the picturesque Île d'Oléron by the same farmer who makes la Pigouille des Charentes, another luscious fromage français.


Traditionally, triangular shaped cheeses from the north of the Poitou-Charentes are eaten with slices of fresh green garlic. Now, this I have to try! The spring garlic will be arriving at the markets soon.

We enjoyed it with some pain au levain and a glass of Minervois red. A dry, fruity white such as Condrieu would also pair well with la Tricorne. 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 - La Taupinière

Natural, blue-grey mold encases this ash covered, unpasteurized, award winning goat's cheese.
La Taupinière was invented by goat farmer Gilles Jousseaume in 1973 on his farm near Angoulême in the Poitou-Charentes region of western France.  All of the grain, which supplements the goat's diet of fresh grass, is grown on this small, family owned farm, resulting in a cheese that has a consistent quality and intense, rich flavor.
Cutting through the rustic looking, moldy exterior reveals a beautiful, winter-white interior that comes from highly concentrated milk. The texture of the cheese is super smooth, creamy and melts on your tongue. The flavor is deliciously hazelnutty, surprisingly mild, lactic and tangy.
La Taupinière is highly fragrant, to put it mildly. I had to triple wrap it for my train ride home from Paris so as not to commit an olfactory offense.
I couldn't recommend this cheese more. If I had some sort of cheese rating, on a scale of 1 to 10, it would have to be a 10!
Enjoy with a glass of Haut-Poitou.


La Taupinière is French for molehill. Pin It

Road Trip

We taking a little road trip to the Poitou-Charentes region for a couple of days.
À bientôt. Pin It