This time last year I talked to you about this declaration, saying it was in the offing… and now it's for real. Charolais is officially an AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) cheese – that's to say not yet an AOP (PDO to you in Britain), though the dossier for this must have gone off quickly to Brussels after this French green light.
This summarises the main points of the French Institute press release:
"Charolais" becomes the 46th cheese to be awarded an AOC
"Charolais" cheeses are made from unpasteurised full cream goat's milk. They are upright, cylindrical in shape and slightly convex, a creamy coloured, firm and smooth cheese. After a minimum 16 day period of maturing, its weight is between 250 and 310 grams, with a maximum diameter of between 60 and 70 mm, and its height is between 70 and 85 mm.
Its rind varies from beige to ivory when young to become bluish with mould. Streaks mainly of blue penicillium may appear during maturing.
Charolais contains at least 45 grams of dry matter per 100 grams of cheese.
Charolais is produced in the heart of the Charolais bocage. The geographical area of the AOC covers 252 communes in which milk production and the making and maturing of cheeses occur, with 3 communes singled out for the maturing of cheese alone.
The heritage of Charolais derives from an ancient tradition of raising goats and making cheeses in the cattle farms of the Charolais and Brionnais regions. Raising goats appeared very early as a complementary activity to the breeding and fattening of cattle, but it was in the 1960s that cheese production using pure goat's milk took off. For a long time it was limited to Burgundy and the north of the Rhône-Alpes region, but the notoriety of Charolais has increased greatly since 1970 with the rise of commercial activity in the major Parisian markets. Even today it is essentially farmhouse production among traditional small scale farmers.
As is the case with every product awarded an AOC, tests undertaken by independent organisations guarantee the respect of conditions of production and also the issues of geographic coverage.
Facts and figures
16 farmhouse producers – 1 maturer and 1milk transformation centre – 59 tonnes produced in 2009 = 210,723 cheeses and 1,171,000 litres of milk produced – 724 goat farms to be found in the geographical region in 2008.
Quelle merveille! Pourriez-vous s'il vous plaît dites-moi ce AOP moyens?
Un grand merci!
Posted by: Muriel | 11 February 2010 at 18:41