Neufchâtel AOP
Neufchâtel AOP. © Coyau, Wikimedia Commons

Dust off the cheeseboard, get that wine breathing, it’s time to indulge in a spot of fromage

TOMME DE SAVOIE IGP

  • Milk: unpasteurized cow’s
  • Region: Savoie
  • Texture: semi-soft

Tomme de Savoie is a semi-soft cheese with notes of nuts, mushrooms and grass. It is matured for one to three months to obtain a white or yellow paste with a strong, milky flavour. Did you know… it takes 15 to 20 litres of cow’s milk to make a 20cm cheese! Best enjoyed as part of a country platter of sausages and crusty fresh bread and washed down with a lovely Côtes du Rhône.

Tomme de Savoie IGP
Tomme de Savoie IGP. © Coyau, Wikimedia Commons

RIGOTTE DE CONDRIEU AOP

  • Milk: unpasteurized goat’s
  • Region: Parc Naturel Régional du Pilat, Rhône-Alpes
  • Texture: soft and creamy

Rigotte is a goat’s cheese with aromas of hazelnut and mushroom. Its name comes from the ‘laughs’ or ‘rigots’, the small streams that flow down from the peaks of the Pilat Regional Park where just 19 breeders tend their cattle on the mountain pastures. Enjoy it with a glass or two of Condrieu AOC red wine made from Viognier grapes.

Rigotte de Condrieu AOP
Rigotte de Condrieu AOP . © Coyau, Wikimedia Commons

NEUFCHÂTEL AOP

  • Milk: pasteurized cow’s
  • Region: Haute-Normandie
  • Texture: semi-soft

This heart-shaped cheese is made from Normandy cows that have grazed on outdoor pastures for at least six months a year. Similar in texture to Camembert (it too is delicious baked whole), it’s slightly salty and creamy and is covered with a white velvety rind. It pairs beautifully with white wine – try it with a Sancerre or a Gewürztraminer.

Neufchâtel AOP
Neufchâtel AOP. © Coyau, Wikimedia Commons

8 COMMENTS

    • We’ve been in France for more than a year now – unable to visit UK at all. So although we love our French cheeses and everything else delicious that we get to eat, we would be very grateful for a bit of Cheddar right now. Or some Stilton. Or Wensleydale… x

  1. Get in touch with L’Affinage for the best cheeses in the world.
    Working out of Gloucestershire they specialise in unusual British cheeses

    • Same here and it is a cheese that I miss. Nothing quite matches it in France, even though I appreciate some of cheeses on offer here.

  2. I live in the US, and until the pandemic changed our lives, my wife and I spent almost 3 months in the Southeast of France. Reading all these pleasant comments of cheese lovers from all over, I can only make one statement. As an addicted cheese lover, there is rarely one that I am not in love with, no matter where they originate from,even as far away in the Far East.
    As somebody once said, ‘’A cheese lover, is a cheese lover, is a cheese lover’’. Happy eating to all.

Leave a Reply to Elizabeth Cox Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here