L'Etivaz

What is L'Etivaz Cheese?

L'Etivaz comes from the hamlet of L'Etivaz, in the municipality of Château-d'Œx in the canton of Vaud, just under the Col des Mosses in the southwestern Swiss Alps. It is also produced in Rougemont, Rossinière, Ormont-Dessous, Ormont-Dessus, Leysin, Corbeyrier, Villeneuve, Ollon and Bex.

In the 1930s, 76 Gruyère producing families decided that government rules were letting cheesemakers cut corners on what made Gruyère good. They left the state Gruyère program and made their own cheese instead, naming it for the village they lived around. The cooperative dates to 1932, the first cellars to 1934. In 2000 the cheese became the first Swiss product other than wine to earn an appellation d'origine contrôlée, replaced in 2013 by the appellation d'origine protégée.

Production follows the way Gruyère was made a century ago. Cheese is made only while the cows graze summer Alpine pastures, in traditional copper cauldrons over old-style open wood fires. Aging runs 5 to 13 months.

The paste is yellow ivory, firm, and slightly sticky from the salt. Flavor is fruity and a little nutty, creamier and less sharp than Antique Gruyère, and it shifts with the soil of each pasture. Older wheels carried many tiny holes; modern ones rarely do, though a horizontal fissure sometimes shows under the rind. Wheels run 40 to 65 cm (16 to 26 in) across, 10 cm (3.9 in) thick, and weigh 20 to 50 kg (44 to 110 lb).

It is served at the end of a meal with raisins or fresh figs. Nuts and sliced pears work well too.