Catching a Rainbow

Époisses de Bourgogne is a cheese made in the village of Époisses, which can be found in the département of Côte-d’Or; between Dijon and Auxerre.

As the sixteenth century dawned, Époisses was home to a community of Cistercian monks who resided at L'Abbaye de Citeaux.
It was the monks who developed and perfected the recipe for this wonderfully aromatic, some say pungent cheese.

Two hundred years later the monks were gone, but the tradition of cheese making remained in the community and continues to this day.
Époisses- a famous cheese, so beloved by Napoleon and crowned by the celebrated Brillat-Savarin as the ‘King of Cheese,’ although now popular, disappeared from French cheese boards between 1914 and 1950 production halted during the two world wars.

The milk used in the production comes from three local varieties of cow the Brune, Simmental Française and the Montbéliarde. The pâte is lightly pressed and is ripened for eight weeks in humid caves in the Burgundian countryside. Regularly hand washed with water enriched with Marc de Bourgogne the cheese gradually develops its characteristic appearance and heady spicy aroma. Although available all year round the best cheese is made from summer milk becoming available in the early autumn- or right now!

A small handful of resolute producers lead by the Berthaut family decided to re-launch the cheese in 1954 making it in the same way it had been made for centuries.
A good Époisses has a soft rind, smooth and brilliant- pale orange with a light coloured pâte, rich and supple. It has a 50% fat content and has a flat cylindrical shape. It is made in two sizes 250g-350g and 700g – 1100g.

As the cheese matures it develops different characteristics and can be eaten at different times through the maturing process.
At thirty days old the cheese is firm with a grainy pâte and a distinct yeasty tang. As the cheese ages the rind softens becomes darker and stickier and a pungent spicy aroma develops.

The cheese needs a big white burgundy to complement it, however some prefer a Sauterne. Locally the cheese is often served with a glass of Marc de Bourgogne a spirit distilled from fermented grape skins, which have been used to make wine.

Époisses has been classified as AOC since 1991.
There are now three dairy producers of Époisses and one farm producer who have united to for the syndicate for the defence of Époisses.

Buy a wine to go with Époisses

Sauterne.
Red Burgundy.
Marc de Bourgogne.


References
http://www.fromage-Époisses .com/uk/Époisses /historique/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89poisses_cheese
http://www.fromagerie-berthaut.com/htmlfr/p02_2a.htm

http://www.trenel.com/liqueurs/en_tres_vieux_marc.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9B03E7DA153BF93AA2575AC0A9679C8B63

Special thanks to
EN ROUTE: FRANCE; A Fine Roughness: On the Trail of a Spirit Called Marc
By R. W. APPLE JR.
Published: September 19, 2001 ©

The Loire River named after the silt it produces in such great quantities, wends its way from its source in the southern part of the Cévennes highlands to the Atlantic Ocean near St Nazaire.
The Loire, the longest river in France some 10,000 Km long drains more than a 20% of the country and flows through some of the most fertile and productive areas of Europe let alone France.
To the West, bordering the vastness of the Atlantic, one finds the Pays de la Loire or the Land of the Loire. The name is a confusing moniker for this area of France; as it only comprises a few départements through which the river snakes, and is only one of the 26 regions of France as a whole.
However, the region of Pays de la Loire not only includes the ancient département of Loire Atlantique, once part of Brittany; but Brittany proper lies only a few miles north of the River crossing at St Nazaire.

The valley of the Loire is the home to some of the finest cheeses in France, particularly goat cheese. Names such as Crottin de Chavignol, Pélardon des Cevennes, Pouligny Saint Pierre, Sainte-Maure de Touraine Selles, sur Cher Valençay, and the Chabichou du Poitou are just a few, all of them covered by an Appellation d’origine Contrôlée, all of them great cheeses but, why did none of them make it across the river to Brittany and why does Brittany have no cheese today?

The last statement may cause concern for some very fine artisan cheese producers in Brittany, who on a small scale and local basis make some very fine cheese…but it is a sad fact that not one AOC cheese is made in Brittany let alone a goat’s cheese with the same classification.

Brittany, a peninsula, surrounded by the sea and the ocean for most part; has a strong affiliation with both. It is perhaps that Brittany has such a tie with the sea, that no real relationship was forged between it, the cow or the goat. It is true that Brittany makes a great deal of butter much of it speciality mixed with sea salt, but only a small percentage of the milk is transformed into cheese.

On visiting Brittany one admires the rocky coast continuously battered by wave and wind, its gentle cliffs descending abruptly to the mistress of Brittany…the sea. The regions history, dark, always connected to the deep, its music even the paint laid on stretched canvas, all have a connection with the Ocean. Pirates, Corsairs, fishermen. A people a language a way of life all seem to face seawards. This may account for why cheese has been neglected.

Brittany with its rolling low hills, soft rains and green grass should be fertile ground for cheese production, but it may have been the low hills which decimated cheese manufacturing prior to the middle ages. Roc Trevezel, the highest point in Brittany is only 384m above sea level.


Many of the most famous cheeses and cheese producing areas of France are located in remote highlands, in out of the way places away from normal trade routes and historically un-affected by outbreaks of Bubonic plague- Brittany has no such places.
In the 1300’s there was a huge outbreak of plague accounting for a loss of 25% of the French population. The Plague was known to follow trade routes, and Brittany had a major route from Rouen to Rennes and to the Western Ports.
The Ports of Brest, Morlaix and Roscoff also had contact with Ireland and Great Britain and thus completed the circular spread of the plague from France to England and back to France.
It is possible that the lack of cheese in Brittany was caused simply by the knowledge of cheese making dying out in the middle ages. This theory is further strengthened by the fact that many cheese in France, including Brittany were and are still made within the confines of Abby’s and Monasteries, they themselves normally isolated, enclosed, possible protected from the ravages of the Black Death, not by mountains or remoteness but by walls.

The cheeses that exists in Brittany today are mainly Trappiste cheese made in Abby’s, such as:
Abbaye de la Joie Notre Damme, a trappiste cheese made in the style, of Port du Salut.

L' Abbaye de Campeneac, another Abby cheese descended from the cheese of Mayenne, Entrammes, Port du Salut. Although today the Abby specialises in biscuit and chocolate production rather than cheese.

L'Abbaye de la Meilleraie,

Le Curé ou Le Nantais.
A cows milk cheese made south of the river Loire, so no longer in Brittany, created by a vicar from the Vendee.

Le Montauban-de-Bretagne
Is a variety of Saint-Paulin made in Ile-et-Vilaine.

Le Saint-Agathon
No longer exists but was made on farms around the area of Guingamp

Le Saint-Gildas
A rich cheese 75% fat content made from cows milk.

Cheese yes all of them made in the style of Port Salut or St Paulin, Trappist cheeses…none of them famous, none readily available and not one having an Appellation d’origine Contrôlée.

So why did goat cheese not cross the river Loire north into Brittany?
(To be continued)

Appellation d’origine Contrôlée or, AOC is a phrase known to many who have a fondness for wine and food. The translation from French means ‘term of controlled origin’ and is a French certification granted to certain French products including wine, dairy and other agricultural based foods.

The body of people involved with evaluating, awarding and regulating this prestigious award is the government run office of the Institute National des Appellations d'Origine or the INAO.

The INAO is split into three different committees.


1. The National Committee for wine and spirits.
2. The National Committee for dairy products.
3. The National Committee for other agro foods





The first product to be regulated by a parliamentary decree was Roquefort, a cheese from southern France, in the 15th Century. This was further developed during the First World War, when a decree was passed protecting the rights of the place of origin for certain other products. The result of this declaration was that for the first time the region or even the individual communes were given the sole protected rights to produce any given product. It is for this reason that items such as Champagne, Camembert Cheese and Cider from Cornouaille in Brittany, can only be produced in strictly controlled geographical areas. Although often copied, (Somerset Brie) the copies cannot be called the same (Brie), nor purport to be the original French commodity.

The INAO is a branch of the French Ministry of Agriculture and came into being on July 30, 1935. Originally it was created to manage and protect the geographical independence within the wine industry. It ensured that only wines made in a specific area of France, a region or even in some cases a commune, could carry a specific name such as Champagne, Bordeaux or Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
In 1937 a lawyer and winegrower from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, applied for and obtained legal recognition for the Côtes du Rhône thus became the first wine in France to be granted an Appellation d’origine Contrôlée.
Although the original 15th Century concept was invented to protect a cheese, it was not until 1990 that the INAO began expanding the certification to other food products apart from wine. Today although there are 467 wines covered by an Appellation d’origine Contrôlée, there are also 47 cheese and dairy products as well as 25 other food items.

It is illegal to manufacture and sell a product if it does not comply with the criteria of the AOC and these conditions can be very specific, as is the case with Roquefort.

1. Milk cannot be used until 20 days after lambing.
2. The renneting (the addition of the coagulating agent) must take place within 48 hours-at the latest-after the last milking.
3. The cheese culture, Penicillium roqueforti used in the manufacture must itself have been produced in France.
4. The Penicillium roqueforti must come from the traditional source from the natural caves within the commune.
5. Only dry salt can be used for the salting process.
6. The producers of the cheese must keep accurate records, available for inspection by the committee showing the quantities of milk delivered to the manufacturers of the cheese, as well as the number and weight of all the cheeses made, daily.
7. Every step of the production as well as the storage and refrigeration prior to shipping must take place with in the commune of Roquefort.

Only thus, can it be assured, that a Roquefort cheese is and will always remain Roquefort.
Once a product is awarded an AOC it is entitled to include a seal or certificate on the products packaging and no part of this design, which in itself has to be authorised, can be used on any other product not awarded the AOC.


Why have the AOC?

In many ways the AOC is an award, which all food, wine and dairy producers should be striving for. It is recognition of a regions entitlement to safeguard and protect its local heritage, independent of national idiosyncrasies.
It is a guarantee that the product, whatever it may be, has been manufactured in the same way for generations and in some cases hundreds of years or, if a recent addition; that the methods of production will be preserved for future generations.
It is a safeguard of a products character and continuity as well as protection for a specific region to lay right to its gastronomic heritage.
And it is an assurance as to the quality of any given product, rigorously tested, inspected and regulated to maintain the original standards for which the AOC was first awarded.



For a full listing of all AOC wines click HERE.

For a full listing off all AOC Cheese click HERE










Sources
http://www.agriculture.gouv.fr/spip/ressources.themes.alimentationconsommation.signesdequalite.lappellationdoriginecontroleeaoc_r172.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appellation_d'Origine_Contr%C3%B4l%C3%A9e

In the heart of Brittany, half way between Rennes and Vannes in the département of Morbihan one finds the village of Campénéac.


The Abbaye de la Joie Notre Dame (the Joy of our Lady,) is of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance. It is a community of nuns formed in 1921 when they moved to the abbey in 1953. Previously they had been part of the Abbaye de la Coudre at Laval and when they moved they took their cheese making skills with them.

The cheese still made at the abbey is made from cow’s milk, and is of the semi-soft uncooked variety. It has a washed outer rind and is similar in appearance to Port Salut the cheese from which it is derived.

Unlike Port Salut, Abbaye la Joie Notre Dame is still made in small quantities and retains much of the characteristics of the original hand made cheese or Entrammes.
(Unfortunately in 1873 the abbey, which made Port Salut sold out to a factory and the cheese is now mass-produced, the orange rind made from plastic.)

Abbaye de la Joie Notre Dame comes in the form of a large disc 20 cm in diameter and 5 cm thick weighing approximately 1.4-1.4Kg, although it also comes 250 g and 390 g sizes.
The cheese aged for five weeks has a 50% fat content and is available all year round. During the ripening stage the cheese is washed with brine

I am currently looking for a picture of this cheese, if you have one then I would appreciate a copy via e-mail
to malcolm@malcolmhamilton.net


Wine
Goes well with a young fruity red Bordeaux such as Château Maurine 2004 or a Stowels Merlot


References and acknowledgements

web site for the abby
http://www.chambarand.com/53.0.html
Abbaye de la Coudre : BP 0537 - rue St Benoît - 53005 LAVAL -