Artisan cheese of the month: Beaufort

One of the gruyère family of firm Alpine cheeses, Beaufort is a raw cow’s milk made in the town of the same name in Savoie – specifically, from the brown Tarines or Tarentaises cows in the three valleys of Beaufortain, Tarentaise and Maurienne.

11 litres of milk go into making one kilogram of cheese and in 2016, 70,100 moulds of the most common type of Beaufort cheese were produced – the winter one, called, simply, Beaufort. The other two are Beaufort d’Eté (summer production) and Le Beaufort Chalet d’Alpage, from the highest meadows).

The cheese received the prestigious appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) label in 1968.

An easy melter, Beaufort is great in fondues.