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Epoisses de Bourgogne

Name of Group of Producers

Made from whole cow's milk, this is a soft cheese with a washed, smooth or slightly creased and glossy rind, pale orange to brick red in colour and cylindrical in shape. It comes in two formats: either with a diameter of 95 to 115 mm and weight of 250 to 350 grams, or with a diameter of 165 to 190 mm and weight of 700 to 1 100 grams. It has a fat content of at least 50 % of the dry weight and at least 40 % dry matter. The cheese is pale beige in colour and is supple, creamy, soft and slightly salty. It may be partially proteolysed in the centre, depending on the maturity of the cheese.

Produced in part of the Departments of Côte d'Or, Yonne and Haute-Marne, in the Burgundy Region.

The milk used to produce Époisses is exclusively milk from cows of the breeds Brune,  Montbéliarde or Simmental Française.

Époisses is produced from full cow's milk by coagulating a predominantly lactic curd, set in moulds after a rough cut without causing the curd to disintegrate. The product is left to drain naturally. It is dry salted and matured for at least four weeks, during which it is washed with water containing marc de Bourgogne, which lends the cheese its natural brick red colour due to the pigmentation of surface bacteria.

The product was created in the early XVIth century by Cistercian monks living in Époisses and then further developed by local farmers. Praised by Madame de Sévigné and named the ‘Roi des fromages’ (king of cheeses) by Brillat-Savarin in 1825, it began to be traded more widely as of 1840.