Agriland visited the cellars of the Fort Saint-Antoine, Fromageries Marcel Petite where 100,000 wheels of Comté cheese are stored and matured.
In the heart of the Jurain eastern France, the Marcel Petite cheese dairy has been dedicated to maturing Comté cheese for more than five generations.
The dairy has become one of the most famous refiners in France and at Marcel Petite, maturing means guiding cheeses with sensitivity so that they can express their full potential.
The cellar has an altitude of 1,100m and Marcel Petite discovered this abandoned cellar 50 years ago and realised that the immense galleries offered the ideal conditions for maturing cheese.
The temperature in the cellar is constant and the humidity is perfect in the cellar and the selection is made wheel by wheel and all wheels are tasted before shipment.
Comté cheese
Thanks to various ripening processes, the challenge is to highlight the richness and diversity of the Jura’s terroirs and the raw material, the raw milk of Montbeliarde cows fed on grass and hay from the natural mountain meadows.
The result is the six main aromas and tastes of Comté Marcel Petite: fruity, roasted, lactic, vegetable, animal and spicy.
Each wheel of cheese weighs about 36kg and about 200 to 300 wheels will be tested in the same fashion as the video above.
The cheeses arrive at the cellar at two weeks of age and it takes 400L of milk to make the wheel of Comté cheese weighing about 36-40kg.
The wheels are stored for at least six months and can be kept up to 36 months, depending on the level of maturity and every day, 200-300 wheels of cheeses are sold from the cellar.
Each wheel of cheese is valued at €600-€700 and even if they are not tested, each wheel is lifted, wetted down and turned on its other side by one of the robots in the cellar.
There are a number of rules and regulations that farmers have to follow in order to supply their milk to Comté cheese.
The French dairy system completely supports the farmers as they get to dictate the milk price as they own and run the cooperatives directly, with no third party getting in between.
France has the largest amount of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheeses in Europe which gives the farmer the control of price and creates a sustainable dairy industry.
As part of the Comté cheese contract, the cow has to be a Montbeliarde, and the farm is capped at producing 4,600kg of milk/ha.
The farm is only permitted to spread 50 units of nitrogen (N)/ha and must have slurry storage for up to four months, but are allowed to spread at any time as long it is not freezing or snowing.
The cows have to graze for at least six months of the year and cannot be fed any fermented feed, so dry hay or dry alfalfa is usually fed instead of silage.
The reason it has to be Montbeliarde, is because the Montbeliardes produce 80% more cheese than Holstein cows, with the same quantity of milk due to their high protein, higher levels of beta casein and kappa casein.
Cows calve all year-round which is also essential for cheese production as there can be no fluctuation in solids and milk produced, as the same supply is needed from one end of the year to the next.
