Rural Europe on the move English_chap7_13 | Page 18

8
Tasting
independence
PHILIPPE BARRET
W
ith my European friends I are three kinds of Beaufort: Winter,
stand in the ripening room of Summer and high mountain cheese.
slices of Beaufort on our tongues.
My connection to the Beaufortain
the Beaufort cheese cooperative in Winter Beaufort is produced when area had been lost somewhere in the
the village of Beaufort, in the Savoie cows eat hay, and Summer Beaufort mists of time. No matter how much I
region of southern France, surrounded when they eat grass. There is also a searched in my memory, I cannot find
by impressive whole cheese third season of Beaufort that we do not the triggering moment. I end believing
wheels. We are a colourful group of sell in cooperatives, which is produced that this connection is due to the
Europeans participating in a field trip exclusively in the higher pastures, with wonderful taste and fragrance of
on one of Forum Synergies’ European milk from just a single herd. Farmers Beaufort, ‘the king of Gruyères’, whose
Rural Sustainability Gatherings. We are the only ones who have the right flavour and texture have always
want to learn about local innovations to call their cheese ‘Alpage’, which delighted me.
based on sustainable practices. comes from their Alpine pastures,” she
Jocelyne Viard-Crétat, the
salesperson of the local dairy
explains.
We are invited to dive into
Beaufort carries a protected
geographical label of origin (PDO)
and therefore no other cheese can be
cooperative invites us to meet the Beaufortain mountain pastures with produced and marketed under this
seasons of Beaufort cheese: “There summer grass and winter hay, thin name.