Chevrotin

Type: Soft
Milk: Raw goat's milk
Rennet: Animal
Location: Savoie, France

While we tend to associate Savoie cheeses with cow’s milk like Tommes or Reblochon, Savoie and the Haute Savoie have a tradition of goat’s cheeses going back 200 years.  Usually, these cheeses were consumed at home. It wasn’t until a few producers got together to form an AOP and were granted the Appelation in 2002 that Chevrotin, a reblochon-style make made with French Alpine goats milk, began to receive recognition.

Total production of this cheese is small at less than a hundredth of that of Reblochon and there are 24 producers in the AOP each operating with small herds.  The goats, being in the alps, spend 4 to 5 months on alpage pasture and overwinter in the valleys.

Chevrotin is a rennet-coagulated cheese, meaning there is very little acidification before the curd is cut and drained.  The curd is cut to the size of a wheat grain before draining in moulds to form the finished discs of cheese.   These are washed daily for a week before being aged for 21 days on wooden boards.  As it is seasonal there are changes this cheese will vary; early lactation cheeses are firmer while end of lactation cheeses will be more supple.

It has a fondant paste that melts in the mouth with a herbaceous sweetness.  Young cheeses will have quite subtle flavour while the more animal, meaty notes develop as the cheeses age.  Either way they are utterly delicious.