Charolais

What is Charolais Cheese?

Goat farming started in the Charolais region in the 16th century, and the cheese followed soon after. Goats worked as a complement to cattle, keeping hedgerows and wooded pastures in check, while the cheeses fed farm families and brought in extra money. The early version was made from a blend of goat's and cow's milk. That blend faded through the 1960s until production went over to goat's milk alone, and from the 1970s demand pushed past the home region into Paris markets.

Charolais became the 46th French cheese appellation under Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée in 2010, then received Protected Designation of Origin status in 2014. The appellation zone reaches beyond the original terroir, covering roughly a 60 km radius around Charolles: 219 municipalities in Saône-et-Loire, 31 in Loire, 21 in Rhône, and 16 in Allier. Grassland and bocage define the landscape. Most of the cheese is still made on farms, alongside one ripener and a dairy that collects raw refrigerated milk from producers.

The milk is raw and whole, from Alpine and Saanen goats. Rules cap herds at 10 goats per hectare and require all forage to come from the appellation area. The animals eat fresh grass for at least 150 days a year, grazed or fed in troughs, with hay and non-GMO grain to fill the gaps. Silage and wrapped hay are banned.

Cheesemakers ladle the milk into large molds, then salt and turn each cheese by hand twice a day. The cheeses leave the molds after three days and ripen on racks for a minimum of 16 days, sometimes for several months. A young rind is beige under a bloom of geotrichum; with age it picks up blue spots from penicillium. The finished cheese stands 7 cm tall, measures at least 6 cm across the middle, and weighs 250 to 310 grams.

The Slow Food Ark of Taste describes a scent of almonds and hazelnuts "with a slight cellar perfume." Charolais eats best between April and November, and white wine is the recommended pour.