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Walking in an alpine meadow you might see an eagle soaring over a rocky outcrop, or young marmottes tumbling and playing amongst juniper bushes. After a summer storm a summit may have a sprinkling of fresh snow like icing sugar
on a cake. With panoramic views of glaciers and peaks disappearing into the distance, you are in a world far from vineyards and winemakers, or so it seems. In fact there is a strong connection. The cheeses made here in the mountains
bring out the best in many great French wines.
The key to this lies at your feet. The grass on the slopes of the Alps, the Jura, and the Auvergne is thick with wild flowers and herbs. “C’est l’altitude!” insists a cheesemonger in the town of Chamonix, in the steep sided valley at the foot of Mont Blanc. The cows, (or sheep and goats in some areas), he explains, are feeding on a rich diet of gentians, orchids, Nepalese aconites, aquilegias, potentillas,wild thyme, mint, lavender and much else, which grow at high altitude. It’s this that gives the fabulous flavours, which
become fruity rather than floral as they age, in the hard cheeses which winemakers in Bordeaux and Burgundy like to pair with their wines.
Frederic Engerer of Chateau Latour says that vintages of their wines with reasonable acidity, like 1996,1988,1975,1970, 1966 and 1955 go well with “pates dures” (hard cheeses) – perhaps a 12 months old Comte - because they balance the smoothness of the cheese. An aged Comte´of 36 or even 48 months is the choice of Christian Moueix, to go with one of their older Pomerols such as Trotanoy 1990 or La Fleur-Petrus 1989. In Burgundy Jean-Marc Roulot says he adores mature Beaufort with his older vintage Meursaults. Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanee Conti will keep a little le Montrachet, (the only white wine they sell),which has been poured with a first course to savour with Beaufort or Cantal.
Burgundy is only about 3 hours drive from both the Jura and the Alps; no surprise that sommeliers from the best restaurants in the ski resorts can be found tasting in cellars there. A surprising number of Burgundian growers are
keen skiers or mountaineers, so there is two-way traffic which is mutually beneficial.
If you happen to be in the mountains in early summer you may witness the “Transhumance”, or moving of the animals to the high pastures. This very old tradition continues to this day. A deafening noise of clanging cowbells and lowing beasts fills the main street of any village en route. It’s a kind of festival, with craft stalls and drinks laid on. Cow-herds, or shepherds, with their working dogs, walk their animals from the valley floor where they have been grazing since the snow thawed in spring, up to the lower, and then eventually to the higher slopes. They will stay with their herds, sleeping in the small wooden chalets that have been used for generations, milking, and making their cheeses. This milk from the summer months (traditionally a season lasting 100 days) is the most highly prized; the cheese made from it will
be labelled “de l’ete”,(summer)or “d’alpage”, the word for high altitude pastures. After maturing for 12, 24, or 36 months it sells for a higher price than that made from winter milk, when the cows are penned in barns, albeit munching the sweet hay cut from the valley meadows after the transhumance. It is these hard cheeses – Beaufort and Gruyere from the Alps, Comte from the Jura, and Cantal from Auvergne – which can be perfect partners for a great wine,
whether red or white.
You can buy them, sometimes from the farm door, or direct from a producer in local markets. It’s fun to meet the farmers, but the truth is that the cheese is never as good as from a serious cheese monger, or maitre fromageraffineur,
He or she selects unpasteurised cheeses from favourite artisan producers and then tends them in maturing rooms (maintaining humidity at 85-95 %) to develop complexity comparable to that found in Grands Crus wines. One of the
best known of these experts is Bernard Anthony. He dispatches his well-tended cheeses to many famous chateaux and three star restaurants from a cellar in his native region of Alsace.You can find him in attendance at tastings and dinners in all the sorts of far-flung places that famous winemakers travel to, although it’s Bordeaux where he seems particularly at home. He is on a mission to teach the world to choose the right cheese for the right wine.
Part of his message is that cheeses should taste of their terroirs, like wine. Well-informed locals in the mountains will choose cheese made from the summer milk from cows grazing specific named slopes. Grazing rights remain with
families for generations. In the past, it was the rich who owned the cows, although farmers looked after the herds and did the milking for them. The unpasteurised milk, the warm morning milk mixed with that of the night before, was sent down the mountain to the owners for the process of coagulation, cutting the curds, stirring, heating, moulding and pressing. But the farmers were canny, thrifty people,and made sure they didn’t completely finish milking each animal, so that a little would remain for their own use. Reblochonner is the old French verb in the Haute-Savoie region for “to re-milk” – hence Reblochon, the washed rind cheese, made from the second, less rich milk which gives gentle flavours. This is one of the few soft cheeses regularly recommended to serve with older red Bordeaux and Burgundy.
Spotting a patch of gentians as you walk a mountain trail is a stop-in-your-tracks moment. The colour, which is quite unlike any other blue, almost takes your breath away. Proust had his madeleines for instant recall. A bite of
Beaufort will do the same. For a moment you will be back in that air “like champagne”, see those views, remember the refreshing cold water of the clear streams whose banks are lined with flowers loved by butterflies and bees. And your wine will taste good too.
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