AOP, first protected 1991Cow milkSoft, washedWashed rind
A soft cow's milk cheese with a washed rind, tied to the Auxois in the west of Côte-d'Or. Tradition credits a religious community of the early 16th century; farm women kept it going, output sank almost to nothing by the 1950s and a farming couple revived it around 1955. Each cheese is rubbed with a salted solution containing Marc de Bourgogne, which gives the rind its colour. It comes in a small format (250 to 350 g) and a large one (700 to 1,100 g).
Taste: A powerful, penetrating animal nose, a creamy and melting paste, a fruity sweetness behind the force. The syndicate calls it a cheese outside the usual standards, made of strength and elegance.
Ageing: 4 weeks minimum, rubbed with a salted solution containing Marc de Bourgogne
Made in: Western Côte-d'Or (the Auxois and Châtillonnais), three cantons of Yonne and two of Haute-Marne
AOP, first protected 1970Cow milk, bothSoft, bloomyBloomy rind
A soft cow's milk cheese with a white bloomy rind, made on the Burgundy and Champagne border in the Aube and the Yonne. Its recognition as an appellation dates from 1970, and it has European protection as well. Le Guide du Fromage says farm women were already making it in the 14th century and that Marguerite of Burgundy, wife of Louis X, insisted on having it at her table. It comes in a small and a large format, the large one about 450 g.
Taste: Creamy paste that grows creamier under the rind as it ages. INAO lists cream, fresh mushroom and sometimes hazelnut; Le Guide du Fromage adds a delicately salted taste.
Ageing: 14 days minimum; at its best after four to five weeks
Made in: Aube and Yonne departments (Troyes, Avallon and Sens arrondissements)
AOP, first protected 2006Goat milk, rawSoft, bloomyBloomy rindAlso Mâconnais (also Cabrion, Chèvreton du 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.
Taste: 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.
Ageing: 10 days minimum; longer for the white and blue-spotted versions
Made in: 101 communes of Saône-et-Loire and one commune of the Rhône, in southern Burgundy
AOP, first protected 2010Goat milk, rawOtherNatural rind
A goat's milk cheese of about 300 g, among the biggest of its kind according to INAO, shaped like a small barrel with a slightly domed top and made from raw whole milk. Goat keeping around Charolles goes back to the 16th century. Production is mostly farmstead. It was recognised as an AOC in 2010. It is ripened on racks for at least 16 days.
Taste: Fine, smooth, creamy paste. Notes of grass, hay, fresh straw and mushroom, then hazelnut and butter. The ivory rind can grow a light blue down as it ages.
Ageing: 16 days minimum
Made in: 219 communes of Saône-et-Loire, 31 of the Loire, 21 of the Rhône and 16 of the Allier, around Charolles
AOP, first protected 1991Cow milkSoft, washedWashed rind
A washed-rind cow's milk cheese from the Bassigny and the plateau de Langres. Its signature is the hollow in the top, the fontaine, which is traditionally filled with a splash of Marc de Bourgogne when served. The standard cheese weighs 280 to 300 g and is about 10 cm across. It has been an AOC since 1991. Not a Burgundian cheese in the strict sense: the zone lies mostly in Haute-Marne, in Champagne-Ardenne, and only four villages of Côte-d'Or fall inside it.
Taste: A washed-rind cheese whose rind runs from pale yellow to reddish brown, sometimes with a fine white down. The paste is creamy and smooth, moving from white toward creamy as it ripens.
Ageing: 15 days (small), 18 days (medium) or 21 days (cutting format)
Made in: Two Haute-Marne arrondissements (Chaumont and Langres), one Vosges canton (Neufchâteau) and four villages of Côte-d'Or
IGP, first protected 2016Cow milk, bothSoft, washedWashed rind
A flat, round cow's milk cheese with a brine-washed rind, from the Yonne and neighbouring Côte-d'Or and Aube. Written traces go back to 1631, when it served as a tithe to Pontigny Abbey, and Cistercian monks are thought to have made similar cheeses in the 12th century. The cheeses are 90 to 130 mm across, with a height about a third of the diameter. The European Commission registered it as a protected geographical indication on 14 June 2016.
Taste: Fine, soft paste with a lactic, slightly acid taste when young. With age come animal and vegetal notes: mushroom, humus, hay and straw (INAO). The rind runs from ivory-yellow to ochre.
Ageing: 21 days minimum, washed regularly with brine
Made in: Parts of the Yonne, Côte-d'Or and Aube departments
IGP, first protected 2017Cow milk, bothSoft, bloomyBloomy rind
A triple-cream cow's milk cheese enriched with cream, at least 72 percent fat in the dry matter, with a white bloomy rind. It began around 1890 near Forges-les-Eaux in Normandy and was renamed in the 1930s by the Paris cheese merchant Henri Androuët for the gastronome Brillat-Savarin. The IGP zone covers five departments: Seine-et-Marne, Yonne, Aube, Côte-d'Or and Saône-et-Loire. It has been an IGP since January 2017.
Taste: Very fine, melting paste with a pronounced lactic taste and flavours of cream and fresh butter (INAO). The cream added to the milk before making is what gives it the triple-cream texture.
Made in: From the south of Seine-et-Marne to the north of Saône-et-Loire, from Brie to Burgundy
Cow milk, thermisedSemi, softWashed rindAlso Abbaye de Cîteaux
A pressed, uncooked-curd cheese with a washed rind, made by the Cistercian monks of Cîteaux Abbey from the thermised milk of their own Montbéliarde herd. It has been sold since 1925 at the abbey shop, which does not ship. A wheel weighs about 700 g. It has no protected name.
Taste: Described by the abbey's tourism listing as fruity, with the taste of pasture. A pressed, uncooked cheese close to a small Reblochon, ripened for about three weeks in the abbey cellars.
Ageing: About three weeks in cellars at 12 degrees C
Made in: Made at Cîteaux Abbey, Saint-Nicolas-lès-Cîteaux, Côte-d'Or
Cow milk, bothSoft, washedWashed rind
A small, flat, washed-rind cow's milk cheese from the village of Chailley, near Saint-Florentin in the Yonne. It is about 10 cm across and 4 cm high, with a yellow-orange, finely wrinkled rind and a cream-white paste. It is made from raw or pasteurised milk and has no protected name. It also exists as a fresh, plain white cheese.
Taste: Mild, lactic and slightly acid with a discreet bitterness when young. As it ages the flavour grows stronger, with animal or vegetal notes. The rind is yellow-orange and the paste cream-white.
Made in: Chailley, near Saint-Florentin, Yonne
