Monday 27 September 2010

Vacherin Mont D'Or is Almost There!


Vacherin's off its planks, had its final wash & in it's sealed box cocoon for it's final step off affinage.Only a few weeks now and the first bacth will be ready for reaching your shores, ovens, spoons and mouths!

Cheddar in France? Surely Not?

When I think of French cheeses I think of the classics: Brie, Camembert, Munster, Epoisses, Beaufort, Comté. The soft, the washed rinds and the supple mountain cheeses. None of the textures and flavours we find with the hard British cheeses such as Cheddar, Gloucester, Leicester and the like. But there it was, hiding in the corner of the cave at Mons – an English Cheddar. Regarded suspiciously by the other affineurs, I give it a bit of English love and attention. But England’s most famous gift to the cheese world as a cheese style cannot be denied, can it? Apparently, in France, yes: “Ah, but we invented it first…” Surely not? I had to find out!

Searching around the cave I found cheeses with a similar texture and flavour – Cantal, Salers and Laguiole, native to the Auvergne region and neighbours (Central South France). These cheeses, however, have a different flavour profile from Cheddar, helped by the fact they have slight differences in production (but not much), different breeds of cows, different terroir, and they all form natural rinds (not cloth-bound like traditional British Cheddars).

In fact, I’d tasted these cheeses before in the UK and have never really been impressed, until an encounter with Ann-Marie of The Fine Cheese Company: the Cantal she had brought for me to taste was amazing, with a complexity of flavour and texture not easily rivalled. It had been aged by affineur Xavier Morin of Aurillac (who specialises in cheeses of the Auvergne), so I swallowed my Cheddar-ish British pride and went to meet him to see what I could learn.

All of Xavier Morin’s cheeses were fantastic, and beautifully aged; he really has a true connection with his terroir. His unique cave and tunnel, as well as his specialist affinage techniques, really contribute to the flavour of his cheeses. (You can buy some of them online at The Fine Cheese Co.’s website.)

After viewing his caves we went up into the mountains to view the fabrication of Salers. Salers de Buron is made only in the summer (actually 15th April – 15th November, though often cut short by the weather) in the mountains of the Auvergne region. Exclusively made on farms, the name comes from the small wooden huts called burons. The rich flora, under-sown by phosphorus, potash and magnesia soils, adds real depth to this cheese.

The fabrication of Salers starts immediately after the milking, and takes several days before the wheel is formed ready to be aged. Rennet-set (the quality of the milk has no need for commercial starters and ferments); it is then gently cut, pressed into blocks for 1½ hours with regular turnings, and then left to rest for a day, before being milled and salted. Then rested again before being pressed into its wheel shape for 48 hours. Affinage often takes place in small caves on the farm (although Xavier takes them straight after production and ages the cheese in his tunnel), with the natural flora, affinage temperature, humidity and process forming the rind. And when it’s finished, yes, it has a great flavour.

There are unfortunately less than 100 producers left for this labour-intensive cheese. I went to watch ‘Salers de Buron Traditional’. Even more traditional, even more hard work, with only eight producers left, what makes this cheese unique (and different to generic Salers de Buron) is that the cheese must be made with the milk of only the Salers cow, which gives only a tiny bit of rich flavoursome milk (seven litres per day, compared with 20+ litres for more commercial breeds).

The Salers cow looks big and aggressive with its huge horns. It is, however, the opposite: gentle, quiet and very maternal. The maternal instinct is what makes the cow a right pain to milk. At each milking the cow’s calf must be present. To milk the cows the farmer rejoins the calf with its mother by gently calling out for the name of the calf (knowing them all by heart) The calf obediently trots forward and lines up next to its mother. The suckling starts, and then it is gently removed and the cow milked normally. Without doing this, the cow refuses to be milked. That’s why there are less and less producers every year – every day starts at 4.30 in the morning and finishes at 10 each night, often to produce only one 30kg cheese. It’s also why Xavier, rather gallantly, does not add a margin when he sells ‘Salers Traditional’, giving all the profits back to the farmer.

Hervé Mons also champions this cheese, and does his best to promote and preserve it too. All those years ago (he won’t tell me how many!) when he was learning his trade, he did a whole summer season with Salers Traditional. His deep friendship with the old farmer Marcel has continued to this day. An early start to view the milking here was also in order. High in the mountains the farm hands travel out the cows to milk them in-situ using little one-legged stools. The milk is then returned to the buron, situated in the middle of nowhere, where the next generation of Salers producer is learning his trade. Several hours later, the process finished, he places a finished cheese in his small cave. Guarded by the cross of butter above the door (a superstitious ritual using the first milk of the season), the finished Salers rest, awaiting Hervé to turn up with his van and take them to his cave.

And as to who invented the ‘Cheddar’ recipe first, I think it depends who you ask… But I think - the clue is in the name!

By the way, we’ve got another intern here for a short while: Elizabeth Chubbuck is wholesale manager at Murray’s, and she’s with us for a week to get an idea what we do, before going to the promised land (England) for dairy tours and some time with Neal’s Yard Dairy. So I spend a few days with her explaining and showing her how we conduct the affinage here, whilst secretly, when Hervé isn’t listening, trying to persuade her that English cheeses are the best! But to no avail, a quick trip to Salers and she is in love with France, can’t blame her really.

It’s great to meet another keen cheese enthusiast and for those Americans interested, she’ll be running a course on what she's learnt at Murray’s, the iconic cheesemongers in New York, later this month.

Saturday 25 September 2010

It's Not All About Cheese



Just in case my cheese stories were starting to grate on you, I thought I’d give you a slice of some different action (two jokes in one – bargain!).

Whilst travelling around I’ve also visited some fantastic wine producers in Burgundy and here in the Côte Roannaise – I had to find something that would go with all this cheese I was eating. It all started with a gentle weaving cycle ride through the Puligny and Chassagne Montrachet vineyards before arriving at Meursault. Here we stopped at the negociants ‘Ropiteau’. Generally only available in on-licence (restaurants, hotels) in the UK, I’d never tasted their wines before. But a friend at Beacon Purchasing enabled me to visit their cellars to have a taste with their cellar-master, Nicolas Burnez and Ropiteau’s UK Manager Jean-Pierre Grangé. The wines were fabulous, classic Meursault taste with just the right hint of oak. Tasting straight from the barrel with their cellar-master was a real experience, as he hopped about the cave drawing off wine here and there. It also meant I could taste wines that weren’t quite ready and needed a bit longer to see how they develop.

After tasting quite a few wines, I mounted my bike and made my wobbly way through the vineyard lanes to Beaune. There I had an appointment with the export director of Louis Jadot. I’d tasted their wines before, working at The Balmoral Hotel and was looking forward to this tasting – their Burgundy pinot noirs are impressive. Here the operation was on a different scale to Ropiteau: Louis Jadot’s cave was as long as the eye could see, filled with bulging burgundy barrels (or pièces as they call them). This time I didn’t make the same mistake of drinking too much at the beginning of the tasting, but saved myself for the impressive premier and grand crus of the Côte de Nuits. Again, I’m not going to bore you with what they tasted like, just be assured that I left Louis Jadot in love with pinot noir!

When I returned back to the Roannaise, I visited a little producer named ‘Palais’, almost next door to the Mons affinage tunnel. A different story again here! Yann Palais has about three fields surrounding his farm and instead of following the appellation regulations he plants something a little different alongside Gamay – Gewurtztraminer, Viognier and Syrah. His small production is all done in his barn and he stores his wine in a tiny cellar. In this small home production he produces several lovely wines, which will perfectly suit my copious cheese supply.

It's Not All About Cheese

Just in case my cheese stories were starting to grate on you, I thought I’d give you a slice of some different action (two jokes in one – bargain!).

Whilst travelling around I’ve also visited some fantastic wine producers in Burgundy and here in the Côte Roannaise – I had to find something that would go with all this cheese I was eating. It all started with a gentle weaving cycle ride through the Puligny and Chassagne Montrachet vineyards before arriving at Meursault. Here we stopped at the negociants ‘Ropiteau’. Generally only available in on-licence (restaurants, hotels) in the UK, I’d never tasted their wines before. But a friend at Beacon Purchasing enabled me to visit their cellars to have a taste with their cellar-master, Nicolas Burnez and Ropiteau’s UK Manager Jean-Pierre Grangé. The wines were fabulous, classic Meursault taste with just the right hint of oak. Tasting straight from the barrel with their cellar-master was a real experience, as he hopped about the cave drawing off wine here and there. It also meant I could taste wines that weren’t quite ready and needed a bit longer to see how they develop.

After tasting quite a few wines, I mounted my bike and made my wobbly way through the vineyard lanes to Beaune. There I had an appointment with the export director of Louis Jadot. I’d tasted their wines before, working at The Balmoral Hotel and was looking forward to this tasting – their Burgundy pinot noirs are impressive. Here the operation was on a different scale to Ropiteau: Louis Jadot’s cave was as long as the eye could see, filled with bulging burgundy barrels (or pièces as they call them). This time I didn’t make the same mistake of drinking too much at the beginning of the tasting, but saved myself for the impressive premier and grand crus of the Côte de Nuits. Again, I’m not going to bore you with what they tasted like, just be assured that I left Louis Jadot in love with pinot noir!

When I returned back to the Roannaise, I visited a little producer named ‘Palais’, almost next door to the Mons affinage tunnel. A different story again here! Yann Palais has about three fields surrounding his farm and instead of following the appellation regulations he plants something a little different alongside Gamay – Gewurtztraminer, Viognier and Syrah. His small production is all done in his barn and he stores his wine in a tiny cellar. In this small home production he produces several lovely wines, which will perfectly suit my copious cheese supply.

Monday 6 September 2010

A Bit of Science



Guilliame was over the moon. I could tell this because his normal gruff French expression had been replaced with the beginnings of a smile at the corner of his lips. And why? Because his Ossau Iratys had begun to get some small spots of red mould. “That bacteria,” he said, “looks good, and the Ossau taste even better.” So why had it been missing for the last few months? Problems with the Ossaus acidity and the micro-bacteria balance had meant it was not present. But luckily it had returned to the cave.

It got me thinking about moulds. At Mons there is an excellent balance, which has built up over many years. But they still need encouraging and pointing in the right direction – as we’d seen, that slight change in acidity with the production of Ossau had meant we’d lost our dear old red spotty friend. There are obvious ways you can encourage some bacteria – for example washing the Livarot and Epoisses twice weekly in a secret recipe, alongside keeping it in a humid atmosphere, helps it form ‘Brevibacterium linens’ - the orange mould responsible for the smell and flavour on washed rind cheeses.

However it’s not that simple with others: to encourage the blue penicillium spots you see on some goats cheeses (e.g. Crottin de Chavignol, Pouligny St. Pierre) we have to act in different ways. Some cheeses form it better on straw; others form it too fast and dry out too quickly on the straw. The expertise I’m picking up here is knowing when and where to put each cheese, not only according to type but also by how it arrives and how it is responding this week (this expertise has been built up by continuous testing of every possible variable over the last 40+ years). Simply, it’s the balance between the atmosphere, humidity and temperature to enable the correct moulds and yeasts to grow. We try to facilitate this by using different materials: wood, straw, paper, stone and earth. A slight change in either may mean a different mould or yeast may be more successful and a different product is produced.

Another example is our Lingot de St. Nicolas: we are trying to form a cream line beneath the rind, just thin enough to enhance the flavour but not so big so as to form frog-skin (when the rind and paste detach itself). The mould responsible is geotricum. Luckily our caves are full of it - but we have to catch the Lingot at the right time before it goes too far, whilst also making sure the other moulds present are also fully formed for the flavour!

When I leave I am going to have to take a lungful of air and hold my breath to take some of the air and moulds with me!
The pictures here show the evolution of (left) Tomme de Bois Noirs (a Mons speciality) and (right) Lavort. Forming the correct ‘mucos’ and initial rind takes the right conditions and handling; you can see the development to the final product. This affinage has developed the texture, smell, taste and rind to the point when it’s at its best; without correct affinage of the cheese the characteristic of each cheese won’t truly reveal itself to its full potential or may go too far, as bitter/rancid flavours, disagreeable odours and bad textures start to develop.