Bleu d’Auvergne

Inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti, the cheese gives off a scent of undergrowth.

The Auvergne is the country’s most rural region, a land where many farming traditions endure, but where large, quasi-industrial structures also thrive. This contradiction is reflected in its PDOs, where both the farmer and the large dairy can hide behind the same name.

So it is with this blue cheese, created in the 19th century, which can be pasteurized and produced by the food industry, or made from raw, farmhouse milk. As farmhouse production is much smaller and rarer, it is the latter that patiently flourish in our cellars.

This blue-veined cheese, sown with Penicillium roqueforti, gives off a scent of undergrowth, mushrooms and humus. Rather supple and melting in the mouth, the first notes are just like the nose, a walk in the woods; the creaminess of the cheese tempers its wild character, however, and the finish, though salty, remains balanced. We’re talking about noble molds here.