La Ferme des Coteaux
Goat farm at La Ronzière making raw milk farmhouse goat cheeses, including Mâconnais AOP, sold direct to visitors seven days a week near Cluny.
About Mâconnais
A small goat's milk cheese from the vineyard country around Mâcon, made from raw milk and moulded in a small faisselle that gives it a truncated cone shape. It is salted on one face only. It earned its AOC in 2006 and European protection in 2010. Each cheese weighs only 30 to 40 g. The syndicate recommends it with a Mâconnais Chardonnay or a Mâcon red.
Made in: 101 communes of Saône-et-Loire and one commune of the Rhône, in southern Burgundy
On the plate
Milky and buttery when young; with age it moves to hazelnut and hay, and the oldest cheeses take on autumn undergrowth and mushroom. The syndicate describes a creamy hazelnut taste that evolves as the cheese ages.
Rind: white bloomy rind
Wine and cheese
What to pour with Mâconnais
Mâconnais Chardonnay (Mâcon-Villages, Pouilly-Fuissé) Burgundy
Local traditionThe syndicate recommends a Mâconnais Chardonnay or a Mâcon red. A white matches the cheese's milky, buttery youth and its hazelnut and hay notes with age, without overwhelming a 30 to 40 g cheese.
Côte Chalonnaise Chardonnay (Montagny, Rully, Mercurey) Burgundy
Our pickMâconnais is a small goat's cheese, milky and buttery when young, turning to hazelnut and hay with age. A Chardonnay from Montagny, Rully or Mercurey, with high acidity and fair weight, meets it without covering those notes.
The grapes behind these winesChardonnay
From the source
Where to buy and taste it
Alain Hess, Maître Fromager
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.
Fromagerie Porcheret
Founded in 1930 near the Dijon halles and renovated after Yann Lavigne took over in 2012. A glass trapdoor in the floor shows the vaulted ageing cellar below, and the counter holds more than 200 varieties of cheese.
Le Chalet Comtois
A Dijon cheese shop on rue Musette, founded in 1872 and under new owners since 2017. It stocks 250 to 300 cheeses, mostly from small producers, with Burgundy and Franche-Comté in the lead.
Au Gas Normand
Stall in the Dijon Halles run by maître fromager Sophie Greenbaum since 1983, selling raw milk Normandy cheeses and aged summer Comtés beside other French and European cheeses. Open on Halles market days.
Cheese experiences nearby
Marché des Halles de Dijon
Dijon's covered market, where cheese stalls such as Au Gas Normand sell Burgundy and other French cheeses on market days.
Atelier vins et fromages de Bourgogne
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.
Vélo et Fromages cycle route
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.
Fête du Vin, du Pain et du Fromage à Époisses
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.
Mâconnais: questions
What wine goes with Mâconnais cheese?
The syndicate suggests the local wines: a white Mâconnais Chardonnay or a red Mâcon.
What milk is used?
Raw goat's milk, from Alpine or Poitevin goats.
Same cheeseboard
More cheeses from Burgundy
Plan the trip
Visit Mâconnais country
Tastings and tours where it is made, and somewhere to stay.
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Sources: protection register, www.aopmaconnais.fr, fr.wikipedia.org. The drawing is made from the cheese's recorded shape, rind and paste, not a photograph.