Époisses

Époisses is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France, located around halfway between Dijon and Auxerre.

The village is known for its cheese, Époisses de Bourgogne, a pungent unpasteurized cows-milk cheese.

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Époisses de Bourgogne

Époisses de Bourgogne is a cheese made in the village Époisses, in the département of Côte-d'Or, about halfway between Dijon and Auxerre, in France.

Commonly referred to as Époisses, it is a pungent unpasteurised cows-milk cheese. Smear-ripened (washed in marc de Bourgogne, the local pomace brandy), it is circular at around either 10 cm (3.9 in) or 18 cm (7.1 in) in diameter, with a distinctive soft red-orange colour. It is sold in a circular wooden box, and in restaurants, is sometimes served with a spoon due to its extremely soft texture. The cheese is often paired with Trappist beer or even Sauternes rather than a red wine.

Napoleon was a particular fan of the cheese, and the famous epicure Brillat-Savarin himself classed it as the "king of all cheeses".

History

At the start of the sixteenth century, the village was home to a community of Cistercians at L'Abbaye de Citeaux that, according to oral legend, began production of the cheese. Two hundred years later, when the community left, local farmers inherited the recipe, which developed over the next century. Although popular at the start of the 20th century, with over 300 farms manufacturing the cheese, production had all but died out by the end of the Second World War. This resulted from the loss of a significant portion of the male population, leaving the women to work the fields, which in turn led to the neglect of the local dairy businesses and cheese-making.