L'Etivaz Cheese

L'Etivaz exists because of a disagreement. When Gruyere production was industrialised and standardised in the twentieth century, a group of Pays-d'Enhaut chalet farmers refused to move to the new methods and in 1932 formed their own cooperative to keep making cheese the old way - only in summer, only at the alp, only from the milk of that day's grazing, heated in a copper cauldron over an open wood fire, which gives a faint smokiness no factory vat produces. It received AOP protection in 2000. The cellar in the village stores tens of thousands of wheels for maturing and can be visited. Production runs only from May to October, and each wheel carries the mark of its chalet.

What you actually see

• Copper cauldrons over wood fires - the method the cooperative refused to give up.
• A 1932 breakaway - farmers who left the industrialised Gruyere system.
• Summer-only alp production - May to October, at the chalet, same-day milk.
• A maturing cellar - tens of thousands of wheels, open to visit.

When to go

May to October to see chalet production; the cellar is open all year. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Chalet visits need arranging and are working dairies, not demonstrations. The cellar tour is short. The village is tiny with limited services. Postbus connections are infrequent.

Nearby

Chateau-d'Oex is down the valley; Gruyeres is north.