Hand-made Roquefort / Carles

We carry two Roqueforts…one Combes and one Carles, from two artisanal cheesemongers who both produce a high quality product. To compare the two, we would say that in a very general way the Carles cheese is more bluish in colour, with a drier and more crumbly pate than the Combes, which itself would be stronger in taste.

Roquefort is probably the best known French cheese, along with Camembert…a rich cheese full of history !
Made exclusively with ewe’s milk, Roquefort is veined in a uniform manner with blue or green mold. It has a clean, forceful flavour with strong salt, very different from the sweetness of milk. The pate is damp and crumbly, but should be « butter-like, » that is to say smooth and creamy. The cheese melts in the mouth, leaving an amazing flavouur of mold and salt. When mature, it is exceptionally strong.
A charter of protection for a great cheese…Roquefort is exclusively made from ewe’s milk. The cultures of Penicillium roqueforti used to produce the cheese must be prepared in France, from traditional sources in the micro-climate of the natural caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, which are ventilated by the « fleurines » (similar to natural chimneys - faults or fissures in the rock). The blue colour comes from the different strains of Penicillium roqueforti found only in these caves.

A cheese which traverses history….. It is said that in the distant past, a shepherd left some bread near a bit of cheese in a sheep pen in order to follow a young girl. Upon his return a few days later he found mold on his bread , but also a light blue mold dusting covering his cheese. He tasted the cheese and found it to be good. Roquefort was born! It was first appreciated by Charlemegne. On his way home from a war in Spain, he stopped at the home of the Bishop of Albi. It was Saturday, the day of abstinance. Unable to serve fish to the King the Bishop offered him Roquefort instead. Using the point of his knife, the King began to carefully remove all the mold from his cheese! The Bishop, however, succeeded in convincing him to taste what he was removing, and Charlamagne loved it so much, that he orderd two packhorses to take home with him. Worried about the variations in the quality of the cheeses, the Bishop warned Charlamagne that the cheeses he was taking home might not be the same as the one he had tasted. Therefore, Charlamagne suggested that the cheeses be cut in half to see which were the good ones and which the bad ones!
In the XVIII century, Diderot considered this to be the best cheese of Europe. Authors such as Voltaire, Chaptal, and others wrote about this cheese. As for Casanova, he considered it to be an aphrodisiac !
In 1411, Charles VI granted the people of Roquefort the monopoly of ripening the cheese in their caves as they had done for hundereds of years Charles VII renewed this privilege as did other prestigious kings such as Francois I, Louis XIII, Louis XIV and Louis XV. The Parlamentary court of Toulouse passed several decrees protecting this cheese from imitations and strengthening the rights which had been granted to Roquefort producers.
On the 16th of July, 1925, Roquefort was granted the first AOC regulation for a cheese!

AOC cheese since 1925

Hand- made cheese made with raw milk

Fat Content: 52%
Dry Matter of Total Fat: 30%

To accompany your Roquefort, I would suggest a Banyuls or a sweet Jurancon.

Fabrication : Artisanale - lait cru - AOC