Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage

The cheese

In the heart of the Vercors massif, straddling Isère and Drôme, Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage takes its name from the plateau and from the historic town of Sassenage, where its production was once sold at the great Lyon fairs. AOC since 1998 and AOP since 2001, it is made from the milk of three mountain breeds — Abondance, Montbéliarde, and above all Villarde, the endemic Vercors breed threatened with extinction that the appellation helps preserve. The four-and-a-half-kilo wheel of semi-soft blue paste calls for forty litres of milk. A minimum twenty-one days of cellar ageing, with needle-piercing on days six and twelve to release the blue veins, yields a blue notable for its mildness and creamy texture. Served on a cheeseboard or melted into the local 'vercouline', it pairs equally well with a Cahors, a sweet Sauternes, or a Banyuls Grand Cru.