Comte Cheese Country

Comte is made in fruitieres, small cooperative dairies where neighbouring farms bring milk twice a day because no single farm produced enough for a wheel; the name comes from the idea of pooling the fruit of the herds. A wheel takes around four hundred and fifty litres and weighs about forty kilos. Only Montbeliarde and French Simmental cows qualify, silage is banned, and each cow must have at least a hectare of pasture. Wheels then go to ageing cellars, some in old forts, for four months to three years or more, turned and rubbed while they mature. Several dairies and cellars run visits with tasting across the ageing range.

What you actually see

• The village fruitieres - cooperative dairies making wheels each morning.
• The ageing cellars - racked halls holding tens of thousands of wheels.
• The pasture rules - herds on flowering meadows, no silage anywhere.
• The tasting flights - the same cheese at several ages side by side.

When to go

May to October, when cattle are on mountain pasture and the summer milk gives the most varied cheese. Dairies make in the early morning, so visits are early. Some cellars close in winter.

Honest expectations

Making happens at dawn, so a lie-in means missing it. Dairies are working premises with limited visitor space and require booking. Cellars are cold and smell strongly.

Nearby

Arbois and Poligny sit at the centre; Chateau-Chalon lies south.