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The Fourme of Ambert (AOC since 1972)
 5905 T per year
3% made with raw milk
10 producers
The Fourme d’Ambert is a cow’s milk cheese. Its uncooked and unpressed pate is white with green markings. It has a grey ripened rind and contains a minimum of 50% of fat. It is a 2,2kg cylindric cheese, highter than large (19 cm high, 13 cm across).
Criteria
Raw or pasteurised milk.
The cows are fed with grass from the AOC area.
The AOC area is in Cantal, Puy-de-Dôme and Loire.
History
The Fourme d’Ambert is a traditional medieval cheese, which finds its origins in the Haut-Forez region, where summers are warm and winters long and cold. Formerly, children and women collected the milk everyday from may to october and the Fourme d’Ambert was sold in local markets.
At the beginning of the XXth century the production became industrial.
Production
First, the milk is curdled. Then it is cut, brewed, moulded, drained and salted. The cheese is pricked to create green markings. To finish the Fourme d’Ambert is put during 28 days in a very humid cellar, with a temperature between 8 and 12°C.
Choice and tasting
Eyes : the rind is dry, grey with red or orange markings. The pate is fat, white with green markings.
Nose : light cellar odour. When young, the cheese smells mushrooms. Aged, it changes to yeast.
Palate : rustic and delicate flavours at the same time.
The Fourme d’Ambert is excellent with a red, a rosé or a sweet white wine as the Côteaux-du-Layon. You can also try it with a Porto.
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