Rigotte de Condrieu
AOP📍 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes · Rhône
Small goat cheese from the Rhône hillsides.
The cheese
On the eastern slopes of the Massif du Pilat, where the Rhône Valley gives way to the cool Monts du Lyonnais, Rigotte de Condrieu hides in the high pastures straddling the Rhône and Loire departments. AOC since 2009 and AOP since 2013, it is France's forty-fifth cheese appellation to win this recognition — a late accolade for a cheese that peasants of the Pilat have been making for centuries. The specification requires raw whole goat's milk, bans silage, and excludes GMO feed. The small cylinder — barely four to five centimetres in diameter — comes with soft paste and a natural rind that shifts from ivory to bluish grey as it ages. Served from May to August, it pairs naturally with a Condrieu white based on Viognier or a deep-coloured Saint-Joseph red — neighbouring vineyards just waiting to converse.