Charolais - Cheese Course

When it comes to cheese consumption, measuring the depths of taste is no easy task. Take a demi-sec (medium-aged) French goat's milk cheese like Charolais from Burgundy. It has a bright grassy aroma and a smooth, firm paste that melts on the palate, giving way to several different taste sensations that are all mildly citrus-like and "goaty."

At first, the cheese seems to be fairly mild, making it the perfect goat's milk cheese for the sensitive palate. However, after the cheese is swallowed, its flavor resonates and increases in strength, accumulating deep floral and grassy notes. In other words, it has a kick that lasts for a bit.
Thanks to its complex flavor profile, similar to that of Clacbitou (another goat's milk cheese from Burgundy), Charolais is a cheese that exemplifies what 19th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin (not to be confused with the cheese) identified as "reflected sensation" -- namely, the impressions that a food gives after it's been consumed, and the overall judgment that a person makes based on those flavor sensations. But, what is responsible for Charolais' sensual and cerebral taste? It can be summed up in one word: terroir.

The Alpine and Saaneen goats that produce the milk for Charolais reap the benefits of a rich diet of wild flowers and grasses as a result of the granite plains in northern Burgundy (the French department of Saône-et-Loire). Their diet is responsible for creating the rich and unique-tasting milk that in turn is used to make the cheese.

Until recently, it was possible to eat Charolais made from both cow and goat's milk (because goats don't always produce enough milk, cheesemakers sometimes use cow's milk to make up for the slack). But all that changed on Jan. 23, 2010, when it became the 46th French cheese to receive an AOC (Appellation d'origine contrôlé) label, a certification granted by the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO), a French governmental bureau. The purpose of the AOC label is to ensure and preserve the quality of the cheese's production. As a result, it stipulates that cow's milk can no longer be used in the fabrication, in order to preserve the purity of Charolais as a goat's milk cheese.

Being a culinary gem of Burgundy, a region renowned for its wine and cuisine (think of dishes like boeuf bourguignon or escargots), it's surprising that Charolais just recently received an AOC label. The region is recognized for its creamy cow's milk cheeses, such as Époisses and Chaource, but not its goat's milk cheeses (which are usually associated with the Loire Valley). That said, besides Charolais, the region has several other distinct goat's milk cheeses -- Montrachet, Mâconnais and Clacbitou. And, being from a region with more AOC wines than any other part of France, it's only appropriate to pair it with a light Chardonnay or a fruity Beaujolais.

Stateside, the cheese can be ordered from Formaggio Kitchen. Those looking to try a goat's milk cheese with a deliciously long-lasting bite will want to add Charolais to their list of "must try" cheeses.