Mœlleux du Revard

«With this particular cheese, we wanted to treat ourselves to something special, admits Max Schmidhauser. We wanted to put new life into the Vacherin des Bauges, a product which has all but disappeared*, which used to be made in the fall with the first frost’s milk. We did research at the regional archives in order to get the recipe before giving the cheese makers at our three production facilities “ carte blanche ”. We made them an integral part of this adventure, while insisting that cost was no object : “ Don’t worry about the cost or the ageing time, just make us a good cheese... ” Everyone helped out; the Mœlleux is the result of a collective effort. »

AOP-labelled Milk Tome des Bauges

The Mœlleux was created in 2008. The Schmidhauser cheese dairy agreed to stop using the name «  Vacherin des Bauges », in agreement with the Tome des Bauges trade union, who was worried about creating confusion with the AOP label. The Moelleux is still however produced within the Tome des Bauges AOP zone, at the Trévignin cheese dairy, which was bought by the Schmidhauser cheese dairy in 2006. The workshop is located at the foot of Mount Revard and on the banks of the Aix-les-Bains lake. The Bauges Massif is a part of the long chain of the Pre-Alps, in the northern Alps, just like the Vercors, the Chartreuse or the Aravis... It is between the Savoy and the High Savoy regions. «  To make the Mœlleux, we only use AOP-labelled milk, continues Max Schmidhauser. The set of standards for the Tome des Bauges is very strict, especially when it comes to animal feed and how the herd is raised : left to pasture during the warm months for at least 120 days, an unlimited supply of Massif hay in the winter, a limit on the average dairy production,herds of only Abondance, Tarine and Montbéliard cattle... Regardless, in our own workshops in Saint-Ours and Trévignin, we only use milk which meets our own set of standards which were established to follow the Tome des Bauges set of standards. We do not want to use milk of lower quality, and we are stricter than the regional IGP set of standards.  »

Eight to nine weeks of ageing time

The Mœlleux du Revard, unpasteurised, is a soft-paste, rind-washed cheese wrapped in spruce. The spruce belting is not just for decoration ; the Moelleux honours its name, its paste is just waiting to pour out. It comes in two sizes (1,6 to 1,7 kilos, and 450 grams) and it is aged for between eight to nine weeks. «  The Moelleux, if I say so myself, is not just “ marketing ”, continues Max Schmidhauser. It is a very fine cheese, and proof of this is that it is sold in the best cheese shops. »
Discreetly flavoured, the Moelleux du Revard has woody notes from the spruce wrap. « We are able to let it age well, before it becomes bitter. » The Schmidhauser family, originally from Switzerland, started out in the Savoy region with ageing cellars ; an activity which has lasted and today their cellars are stocked with local cow, goat and sheep’s cheese. It later began producing AOP cheese, as well as one-of-a-kind cheeses for the traditional outdoor markets : the Chartreux, the Cousin, the Plaisir du Chartreux and the Tomme de Saint-Ours (IGP-labelled tomme de Savoie) were developed before the Moelleux.

(*) It is only produced at one or two farms, as well as at the Chabert cheese dairy.