Cheese · AOP · Beaujolais, Burgundy
A goat's milk cheese from About 60 km around Charolles: Saône-et-Loire, with parts of the Loire, Allier and 21 communes of the Rhône.
A big raw goat's milk cheese shaped like a small barrel, made from a lactic curd. The EU single document gives 250 to 310 g after at least 16 days, 60 to 70 mm across at mid-height and 70 to 85 mm tall, under a rind mostly of geotrichum with blue penicillium spots that may appear; INAO calls it among the largest goat cheeses, at about 300 g. It became an AOC in 2010 and an EU AOP in 2014. The area is a 60 km radius around Charolles and, in the Rhône, takes in the canton of Monsols and communes of the cantons of Beaujeu and Lamure-sur-Azergues, among them Claveisolles in the Beaujolais hills.
Made in: About 60 km around Charolles: Saône-et-Loire, with parts of the Loire, Allier and 21 communes of the Rhône
INAO lists grass, hay, fresh straw and mushroom, then hazelnut and butter, on a fine, smooth, creamy paste; the EU single document calls the paste cream-coloured, firm and smooth. The ivory rind can take a light blue down as it ages.
Rind: natural crust
Wine and cheese
The Burgundy wine board gives Viré-Clessé its top rating for Charolais. A Chardonnay of ripe fruit suits a creamy goat cheese with notes of grass, hay, hazelnut and butter.
Juliénas is a Gamay cru with high acidity and medium tannin, firm enough for an aged goat cheese. Charolais has a firm, smooth paste with hay, hazelnut and butter notes that the wine frames rather than covers.
The Burgundy wine board's top pick for Charolais is Viré-Clessé, a white from outside Beaujolais. A fruity Brouilly, a Gamay cru, also suits the firm, creamy goat paste: its acidity and red fruit lift the hay and hazelnut notes.
The grapes behind these winesGamay
From the source
Goat farm on Mont Soubran in the Beaujolais hills, with 130 Alpine goats. Its farm shop sells AOP Charolais, Galette du Soubran and Bouton Beaujolais every morning, and it hosts school and other groups.
Founded in 1965 by Renée Richard, known as La Mère Richard, and at the Halles since 1971. Its page names Saint-Marcellin and Saint-Félicien as specialities and Paul Bocuse among the clients who built its name.
Cheese shop on place Carnot in Beaune with about 200 cheeses, wine and fine groceries. Alain Hess, maître fromager since 1997 and an affineur, created the Délice de Pommard.
The cheese counter of a Lyon house founded in 1890, now in its fourth generation by its own count. Its page for the Halles shop cites more than 350 cheeses, alongside charcuterie and a traiteur.
Shop of the Mons house of affineurs on the rue Nationale, selling cheeses selected and aged by Hervé Mons, among them the local Bleu du Passeloup.
Lyon's covered food market, whose own pages list four cheese counters: Beillevaire, Mons, La Mère Richard and Cellerier, and say Paul Bocuse bought supplies here for his restaurants.
The covered market of Villefranche-sur-Saône, a listed 1930s building reopened in December 2025 after a year of renovation. Rhône Tourisme lists cheesemongers among its traders.
Dijon's covered market, where cheese stalls such as Au Gas Normand sell Burgundy and other French cheeses on market days.
About an hour in a Dijon wine shop tasting three Burgundy wines each paired with a Burgundy cheese, including an Aligoté with Délice de Bourgogne and mustard. Saturdays at noon from 10 October to 26 December 2026.
A 22 km easy ride along the Canal de Bourgogne with four cheese tastings at farms, including the Soumaintrain producers Lorne and Leclère, ending at Flogny-la-Chapelle.
Annual village fair in Époisses with about 60 exhibitors selling wine, bread, cheeses and local produce, with a petting farm and music, and a festive evening the next Saturday.
Yes, in part. INAO counts 219 communes of Saône-et-Loire, 31 of the Loire, 21 of the Rhône and 16 of the Allier; the EU single document names Claveisolles among the Rhône communes.
250 to 310 g, 60 to 70 mm across at mid-height and 70 to 85 mm tall, after at least 16 days, according to the EU single document.
No. Charolais AOP is a cheese of raw whole goat's milk, per INAO.
Viré-Clessé is the board's top recommendation for Charolais, with Chablis Premier Cru and Saint-Aubin next; all three are Burgundy whites.
Same cheeseboard
Plan the trip
Tastings and tours where it is made, and somewhere to stay.
Le Hameau Duboeuf: The 1st Vine and Wine Theme Park Tour
All 61 experiences in BeaujolaisBooking links go to our partners (GetYourGuide, Viator, Zen Hotels), who may pay us a commission. It never decides what we cover. Editorial standards.
Sources: protection register, www.inao.gouv.fr, fr.wikipedia.org. The drawing is made from the cheese's recorded shape, rind and paste, not a photograph.
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