France makes more than a thousand cheeses, and the reason is the land. Alpine pastures give you Comté and Beaufort, the damp meadows of Normandy give you Brie and Camembert, the limestone of the south gives you Roquefort and goat’s cheese. This guide takes you round the country, picks out the cheeses worth knowing, and tells you what to drink with each. It also tells you which ones are on our counter on Gillygate right now.
French Cheese by Region
- The Alps and the Jura: big wheels of cooked, pressed cheese built to last a mountain winter. Comté is the one to know: ours is aged 24 months, nutty and brothy with a crunch. Beaufort, Abondance and Reblochon come from the same hills.
- Île-de-France and Normandy: the home of the bloomy rind. Brie de Meaux, Brie de Melun, Camembert and Pont-l’Évêque are all soft, rich and made for a baguette. Our French Brie is the everyday version; Brie de Meaux itself is out of stock while raw-milk cow’s cheese imports from France are paused.
- Burgundy and Champagne: washed-rind cheeses with orange rinds and a big aroma. Langres, with its dimpled top made for a splash of Champagne, and Époisses are the famous ones. Délice de Bourgogne, the triple-cream cheese, comes from here too and is the most indulgent thing we sell.
- The Auvergne: France’s blue cheese country. Fourme d’Ambert is tall, mild and creamy, one of the gentlest blues there is. Bleu d’Auvergne is bolder, buttery with a proper tang. Roquefort, the sheep’s milk blue from the caves further south, is the big brother of both.
- The Basque Country and the Pyrenees: sheep’s milk cheese made to a recipe the Basques say has not changed in thousands of years. Ossau Iraty is firm, nutty and faintly sweet. Eat it with black cherry jam, as they do at home.
- The Loire: goat’s cheese, in every shape you can think of. Valençay, Crottin de Chavignol, Selle-sur-Cher and Sainte-Maure, each a little chalky, lemony log or pyramid, often rolled in ash. The freshest of them are wonderful with a glass of Sancerre.
If you would rather taste your way round than read about it, our Bon Appétit French Cheese Selection brings five of them together: Langres, Brie, Ossau Iraty, Comté and Fourme d’Ambert. It is the box we send to people who tell us they do not know where to start.
Pairing French Cheese with Wine
The French rule is simple: what grows together goes together. A few pairings that never let us down:
- Brie and Délice de Bourgogne with something crisp and fresh. Muscadet, or a Blanc de Blancs if it is a celebration. The bubbles cut through the cream.
- Comté with an oaked white, or a lighter red. It is one of the few cheeses that is happy with both.
- Langres and other washed rinds with a red that has some fruit and a little spice, like a Côtes du Rhône. Or, as the locals do, a glass of Champagne poured into the top of the cheese.
- Fourme d’Ambert and Bleu d’Auvergne with something sweet. A dessert wine or a tawny port. Salt and sugar, the oldest trick in the book.
- Ossau Iraty with a Basque red, or failing that a Rioja from over the border.
- Loire goat’s cheese with Sauvignon Blanc, Sancerre if you can, or a dry southern French rosé.
Storing and Serving French Cheese
Keep cheese in the fridge wrapped in waxed paper, never cling film, and take it out an hour before you serve it. A cold Brie is firm and dull; at room temperature it relaxes and tastes of something. Use a separate knife for each cheese so the blue does not end up in the Brie, and serve them mildest to strongest: Comté, then Brie, then Langres, then the blue. Bread rather than crackers for the soft ones. The French would not dream of putting Brie on a cracker.
French Cheese FAQs
What is the most popular French cheese?
Comté, by volume, in France itself. In Britain it is Brie, and Camembert not far behind. On our counter Comté and Délice de Bourgogne fight it out every week.
Are French cheeses pasteurised?
Many of the traditional ones are made from raw milk, including Comté, Brie de Meaux and Roquefort. Others, including the Brie we currently sell, are pasteurised. Every product page on our site says which, and it matters if you are pregnant, so do check.
Why are some French cheeses hard to get at the moment?
Imports of raw-milk cow’s cheese from France into the UK have been paused for animal-health reasons, which is why Brie de Meaux is out of stock and we are stocking a pasteurised Brie instead. Sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeses and pasteurised cheeses are unaffected. We will have the raw-milk ones back the moment we are allowed.
What French cheese makes a good gift?
Our Taste of France gift basket pairs French cheeses with a bottle to match, and the Bon Appétit selection above is the one for someone who just loves cheese.
Every French cheese mentioned here, when it is in season and in stock, lives in our French cheese collection. Cut to order, delivered fresh across the UK, or come and try them at the counter in York.
