Bleu de Gex Haut-Jura o Bleu de Septmoncel
Name of Group of Producers
Rout Félix Peclet, 146
39220 Les Rousses
Champs Elysées, 138
75008 Paris
Uncooked, unpressed blue-veined raw cow's milk cheese presented as a wheel with plane surfaces and a slightly convex heel, moulded in a mould which is 36 cm in diameter, having a weight of 6,5 to 8,5 kg, containing at least 50 grams of fat per 100 grams of cheese when completely dried out and not less than 52 grams dry matter per 100 grams of cheese.
Produced in the Jura mountain range, that is to say, the Haut Jura, straddling the Ain and Jura Departments.
The milk must be produced, and the cheese processed and matured, in the geographical area.
The milk used to produce the cheese must come exclusively from cows of the Montbeliarde or French Simmental breeds. The staple feed of the dairy cows must be fodder originating from pastures located in the geographical area. Silage products or other fermented fodder, including bales covered in plastic film, are prohibited on the holding and in feeding ruminant herds.
The making of Bleu de Gex cheese has remained traditional: the curds obtained by renneting the milk are then cut up, stirred and moulded. All of these operations continue to be performed by hand. The dry salting, which is carried out in individual tubs, as in the past, over several days gives the rind and cheese a very special texture. The cheeses are seeded in cool, damp cellars where the Bleu de Gex remains for a minimum of three weeks on spruce boards. The use of any additives or processing aid other than selected starter cultures, Penicillium glaucum and Penicillium roqueforti, salt or rennet is prohibited.
The origins of Bleu de Gex go back to the 14th century and the arrival of monks from Dauphiné who settled in the Haut Jura (Saint Claude's abbey) and brought with them the techniques for making a blue cheese that eventually came to be called Bleu de Gex. In 1935, the designation of origin Bleu de Gex, also called Bleu du Haut Jura and Bleu de Septmoncel, was established by a ruling of the Civil Court of Nantua, then by a decree of 20 September 1977.
