Ferme de la Fringale
Goat farm at Veuil making Valençay and Selles-sur-Cher AOP from about 150 dairy goats. Guided visits explain the herd and the dairy, with cheese and wine tastings.
About Selles-sur-Cher
A raw goat's milk cheese shaped like a flat, truncated cone, a pebble 9 cm across and 3 cm thick, weighing around 150 g. The surface is coated with salt and vegetable charcoal (traditionally vine ash), which gives the natural, grey, ashy rind. The paste is ivory-white, matte, smooth and melting. It comes from the border of Touraine, Berry and Sologne, and has been an AOC since 1975 and an AOP since 1996. The consortium counts it the third best-selling French goat cheese of 2019.
Made in: Where Touraine, Berry and Sologne meet: Loir-et-Cher, Indre and Cher
On the plate
Sweet and hazelnut, with a balance of salty, acid and bitter. Young cheeses are delicate; with age the paste firms and gets saltier, with goat notes on the rind and hazelnut in the paste.
Rind: dusted with ash
Wine and cheese
What to pour with Selles-sur-Cher
Montlouis-sur-Loire (dry Chenin) Loire Valley
Our pickThe consortium points to a Chenin from Touraine for Selles-sur-Cher. Montlouis, across the river from Vouvray, makes dry Chenin with enough acidity to balance the salty, slightly bitter ash rind and the sweet, hazelnut paste.
Saumur-Champigny or Anjou Cabernet Franc, no new oak Loire Valley
Our pickSelles-sur-Cher balances salt, acid and bitter under its ash rind. A medium-bodied Cabernet Franc from Saumur-Champigny or Anjou, raised in tank or old oak with no new wood, offers bright fruit that does not turn bitter against that salt.
The grapes behind these winesCabernet FrancChenin Blanc
From the source
Where to buy and taste it
Loumanore
Goat farm at Billy, opened in 2020, making Selles-sur-Cher AOP from the milk of its own herd. The farm shop is open most days, and rooms are available on site.
France Fromages
Cheese stall and ageing cellar in the Halles de Tours, run by Hans and Adeline Krischer, with a counter built around goat cheeses from Touraine and neighbouring areas.
Fromagerie du Puits Neuf
Saumur cheese shop in the Saint-Jean quarter, open since 1985 and under new ownership since 2023. It stocks nearly 140 cheeses, finishes the ageing of some in house and makes take-away platters.
Les Fromages de Camille
Cheese shop near Tours town hall, selling cheeses, dairy and fine groceries from producers that let their animals graze. It also makes platters and delivers by bike.
La Passion du Fromage
Amboise boutique of La Passion du Fromage, a group of shops mostly in Indre-et-Loire that advertises more than 300 cheeses and local products and offers click and collect.
Cheese experiences nearby
Foire aux Fromages et à la Gastronomie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine
Annual fair devoted to Sainte-Maure de Touraine AOP, with a market of regional food products, cheese competitions including the Chèvre d'Or, a mini-farm and entertainment. Free entry in 2026.
Halles de Tours covered market
Covered market of Tours, opened in 1980, where stalls such as the affineur France Fromages sell Touraine goat cheeses alongside bakers, butchers and wine merchants.
Tasting of five ageings of Crottin de Chavignol
A farm tasting of five ageings of Crottin de Chavignol, from fresh to dry, with either a glass of Loire wine or apple juice, at a goat farm a few kilometres from Sancerre.
Wine and cheese tasting at Dubois-Boulay, Chavignol
Wine and cheese tasting in the boutique of a Chavignol affineur: a single Crottin de Chavignol, or a cheese and charcuterie plate, in a shop that also has an ageing facility with explanations of the craft.
Guided visit of the Ferme de la Fringale
A guided visit of a goat dairy with about 150 milking goats, explaining how the herd is run and how Valençay and Selles-sur-Cher AOP are made, with cheese and wine tasting.
Visit of the Ferme des Chapotons goat farm
A visit of a working goat farm and Sancerre vineyard, free to walk round and guided on request, with the making of Crottin de Chavignol to see and a tasting in the shop.
Selles-sur-Cher: questions
How long should Selles-sur-Cher be aged?
Le Guide du Fromage gives a minimum of 10 days; the AOP consortium says ideal eating is around 20 days of ageing.
Why is Selles-sur-Cher grey?
The rind is coated with salt and vegetable charcoal, traditionally vine ash, before it ripens, according to the AOP consortium and Le Guide du Fromage.
Which wine goes with Selles-sur-Cher?
The AOP consortium points to Loire Valley or Coteaux du Cher wines: a red Cheverny or a Chenin from Touraine.
Same cheeseboard
More cheeses from Loire Valley
Plan the trip
Visit Selles-sur-Cher country
Tastings and tours where it is made, and somewhere to stay.
Loire Valley
3-day Private Loire Castles Trip 2 Wine tastings by Mercedes
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Sources: protection register, aopchevrecentre.fr, www.inao.gouv.fr. The drawing is made from the cheese's recorded shape, rind and paste, not a photograph.