Early start this morning to visit a Comte and Morbier being manufactured, which means getting up at 5.00am to be there in time for production to start at 7.00am. Thank goodness we didn’t have a late night.
The production was fascination to watch, this manufacturer uses high end technology which means that only 3 people can produce an incredible amount of cheese each day. We were shown the entire production from start to finish, then given samples to taste. A wonderful experience.
After such an early start and finish at 10.00am we went hunting for a coffee shop. Wrong choice made on the selection, the coffee was undrinkable and they used UHT milk (I have started drinking black) and it’s just lucky that the coffee only cost me 1.80 euro, which was about 1.70 too much.
Another picnic lunch (more cheese, but we did add some Jamon this time) then off to visit Fort Rousse. This Fort was built by Napoleon, but fell into disuse when compulsory military service was abolished in France. The Fort was then sold to a cheese company who now use it to house cheese museum pieces, and for the storage and ripening of thousands of Comte cheeses.
There are about 136,000 cheeses currently being stored from 12 months to 3 years. Each wheel of cheese weighs approx. 40 kg, and 90% is sold within France.
That is a heck of a lot of cheese consumed each year by the French, and this is only one of the storage facilities and only one of the many cheeses manufactured in France.
Fromage et Fromaggio 
Amazing! Just think of the amount of wine and cheese in cellars all over France. The mind boggles! I wonder if I could find Comte here. Just loving reading all about it.
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I am going to track it down when I get back and some of the other cheeses. Unfortunately it isn’t something I could make, but I could try a Comte style cheese, just have to wait 12-18 months to see how it works out. LOL
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