🧀 Bleu de Gex Haut-Jura

Bleu de Gex Haut-Jura, also called Bleu de Septmoncel, is a French blue cheese with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO, registered in 1996). According to the specification, it is made only from raw cow's milk; the paste is blue-veined, uncooked and unpressed. ³

Milk. The area is the mountain part of the Ain and Jura departments (the Jura massif); for some communes only the parts at an altitude of at least 800 m belong to it. Only milk of Montbéliarde or French Simmental cows, or certified crosses of the two, is allowed. The farm needs at least one hectare of grassland per dairy cow; the cows graze once the snow has melted, silage and wrapped round bales are forbidden, and concentrates are capped at 1,800 kg per cow a year on average. The cows are milked twice a day. ³

How it is made. The milk is renneted at no more than 30 °C with calf rennet. The permitted additives are selected lactic ferments, Penicillium glaucum and Penicillium roqueforti, salt and rennet. Each cheese is moulded by hand in a mould 36 cm across (give or take 2 cm); it is neither cooked nor pressed. Salting starts only after unmoulding: dry coarse salt, daily for at least two days, with at least three days in an individual salting vat at 18 °C or more. ³

Ripening. At least 21 days from the day of making, at least 18 of them in the cellars of the dairy, on spruce boards at 6–14 °C. The cheese is pierced between the 7th and the 15th day. ³

Look and taste. The wheel has flat faces with clearly rounded edges, weighs 6 to 9 kg and is 31–35 cm across at sale. The rind is thin, dry, whitish to yellowish and slightly floury, with the imprint of the cloth and sometimes small reddish to brownish spots. The paste is soft, white to ivory, with slight openings, marbled with fairly pale blue-green mould; fat is at least 50% of dry matter. The word “Gex” is moulded in a recess on one flat face. ³

History and labelling. According to the specification, blue cheese has been made in the Jura mountains since at least the end of the 18th century, in mountain chalets, and was sold as “Gex”, “Septmoncel” or “blue cheese of the Haut-Jura”; the appellation was recognised by a court judgment in Nantua on 24 July 1935. The label shows the full appellation name and the EU PDO logo. ³

Why here. Rain is heavy in the Jura and snow lies for months, so meadows became the main source of feed: the specification counts at least seventy plant species. Raw milk keeps that flavour. ³

Why this size. A wheel weighs 6–9 kg for a reason. In a smaller one the mould would break the paste down too fast, and in a larger one the balance between chalky zones and blue veins is hard to keep. So a white, chalky patch here is not a flaw but a sign of the type. ³

Why it matters to you. Look for the full name, the PDO mark and the word Gex on a flat face: they set this cheese apart from other blues. It is a raw-milk cheese, so check first if you avoid those. ³⁴