St Nectaire Laitier

Size

Type: Soft
Milk: Pasteurised cow's milk
Rennet: Animal
Location: Auvergne, France

Made at the Wälchi family’s dairy in Condat using milk that they collect from farms within the Auvergne Parc National des Volcans. Founder, Fratz Wälchi, was born in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland but moved to France aged 20 and after a few years working as a cheesemaker for other people, set up his own dairy in 1933 with the intention of making the local cheeses of the Auvergne. The dairy expanded under his watch and that of his son, Jean-Claude, and grandson, Pierre. Now they not only make St Nectaire but mature cheeses for local farmhouse producers.

Historically St Nectaire made in a dairy and that made on the farm had quite different recipes but were both sold under the same name causing opposition between both parties. In 1962 after a lengthy court case, the label St Nectaire Laitier, was created to distinguish between the two. Many factory or dairy produced St Nectaires have an orange rind and are sold young. The Wälchi dairy produces this type of cheese as well but unusually for a bigger dairy, they also retain the traditional maturation they learned in the company’s early days from local farmers. Key to this is maturing on rye straw on wooden boards which helps develop the distinctive grey rind. This rind and longer maturation are a characteristic of the farmhouse St Nectaire. For us the fact their Laitier cheese has it too was also a key consideration when import restrictions meant we could no longer bring in unpasteurised cheese from our usual suppliers.

Their cheese is gentle and creamy with yielding pastes and a slight hazelnut finish and it’s all too easy to keep going back for more.