The Appenzell Cheese Region

Appenzell is small, hilly dairy country below the Alpstein, and its cheese is the sharpest thing Switzerland makes. The wheels are washed during ripening with a herb brine whose recipe the producers have kept private for generations, and the result runs from mild at three months to something genuinely aggressive at six or more. The landscape is a patchwork of small farms, houses with painted fronts and flat gables, and alp huts on the slopes making their own cheese through the summer. Alongside the cheese come air-dried beef, spiced biscuits filled with almond paste and strong herbal bitters. A demonstration dairy at Stein and the shops along Appenzell's main street are the easiest way in.

What you actually see

• The washed-rind cheese - brined with herbs and sold at everything from three months upward.
• Alp cheese - made in huts on the high pasture through the summer months.
• Appenzell village - painted house fronts, with dairies and butchers along the main street.
• The local extras - air-dried beef, almond-filled biscuits and herbal bitters.

When to go

Summer for the alp dairies and the walking below the Alpstein, and late September for the cattle descents at Urnasch and the villages around it. Winter brings snow and a quieter, colder version of the same country, with the valley dairies still working. Cheese making happens early, so morning visits to the demonstration dairy see more.

Honest expectations

The region is compact and heavily visited in summer, and Appenzell's main street is now as much shop window as village. The strongest cheese is properly pungent and not to everyone's taste. Prices are Swiss, the portions in dairy shops are small for the money, and public transport thins out badly once you leave the main line.

Nearby

The Alpstein ridge and the Ebenalp cliffs rise directly to the south.