🧀 Laguiole

Laguiole is a French pressed, uncooked cow's milk cheese with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), registered in the EU in 1996. According to the single document it has a dry rind and a cylindrical shape. ³ Its name comes from an Aubrac village, and it was nearly lost in the 20th century before a cooperative brought it back. ⁴

Milk. Laguiole is made only from raw whole cow's milk that is not standardised in fat or protein; no physical treatment of the milk is allowed. The herds consist of Simmental française or Aubrac cows, or crosses of the two. The basic ration comes from the area; maize silage, grass silage, wrapped and other wet-preserved fodder are prohibited. When grass is available, the cows graze for at least 120 days a year. ³

The cheese. It is a cylinder 30 to 40 cm in diameter, with a height of 0.8 to 1 times the diameter, weighing 20 to 50 kg. Fat is at least 45 g per 100 g of dry cheese and total dry matter at least 58 g per 100 g of cheese. Ripening lasts at least four months from renneting. The paste is ivory to straw yellow; the whitish to light-grey rind may turn amber brown to granite grey. The taste is milky, average to intense depending on ripening, with nuances from fresh hay to dry hazelnut. The specification describes double draining, in the tomme press and again after moulding, and ripening in a cold (6 to 12 °C), damp cellar with regular rubbing and turning. ³

Where it is made. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening all take place in the defined area of municipalities in the departments of Aveyron, Cantal and Lozère, with the Aubrac mountains at its heart. ³

Presentation and labelling. Pre-packaged pieces must carry part of the distinctive rind, except portions and slices under 70 g and cubes, sticks, shavings, grated or shredded cheese. The label shows the name of the designation in characters at least two-thirds the size of the largest on the label, and the EU PDO logo. The word buron may be used only for cheese from a single herd milked during transhumance (25 May to 13 October) on high grassland above 1,000 m, made in a cheesemaking building there. The cheese may carry an embossed stamp with the Laguiole bull and the name. ³

Link with the area. According to the specification, from the 12th century the monks of the abbeys of Aubrac and Bonneval laid down rules for making Laguiole so that summer milk could feed pilgrims in winter. In 1897 hill farmers began selling their cheese through a syndicat, and the designation was recognised in 1961. Monks and pilgrims. Around 1120 Adalard, a Flemish nobleman who had nearly died on the plateau, founded a monastery-hospital for pilgrims at Aubrac. Monks cleared the land for summer pasture and worked out a cheese that would last, because cows spent only four and a half months up there, from 25 May to 13 October. Mule drivers bringing wine, fruit and salt carried it south on the way back. ³⁴

Life in the burons. After the Revolution removed the monks, landowners kept the system. Huts became burons with stone walls and slate roofs, usually with four men: the cantalès made the cheese, the pastre milked, the bédelier watched calves and the roul was an apprentice. Cheeses were also moved in autumn to the colder monastery at 1,300 m, where near-freezing air held them until spring, so they reached southern markets before other cheeses. By the early 20th century 1,200 men made 700 tonnes in 300 burons. ⁴

Near extinction and return. Wars, depopulation and the harsh life emptied the huts: by the late 1950s only 55 burons were working, making 25 tonnes. In 1960 young farmers founded the Jeune Montagne cooperative, and the designation followed in December 1961. The specification kept four months as a minimum, while the producers' association says sales have shifted to 9 to 18 months. In 2020, 74 milk producers, 5 farmhouse makers and 2 plants sold 630 tonnes. ⁴⁵

Why it matters to you. Age changes the cheese: at 4 months it is milky and buttery, later fruity and grassy, and after a year more strongly matured. Ask how old it is rather than judging by the name alone. The milk is always raw and whole, so this is not a choice between producers. Aligot, the region's famous dish, uses fresh tome from the same milk, not ripened Laguiole, so do not expect the same result from a wedge. ³⁵