Sept 7 ... In the Valley of Etivaz

Today we will visit the caves where Etivaz is aged. Aging is of great importance in developing the final quality of the cheese. The cheese is brought in by the farmers at regular intervals of up to a week as mandated by the AOC rules for this cheese. They are then salted and brined, dried off and moved to aging area set aside for each family. At 6 months a small portion of the cheese will be selected for a longer aging which may be extended for many years. This cheese will have the rind removed by scrubbing and a light coat of olive oil applied. It will then be moved to a drier aging area where it is stored on edge and turned a quarter turn at regular intervals depending on moisture level. This cheese is called Etivaz Rebibe and may be aged for many years. It is traditionally shaved into very thin strips when served.

In the afternoon we are off to visit another cheese maker who is very unique, being one of the few sheep milk cheese producers in Switzerland. We arrive in the evening to accompany him and his wife into the high peaks to gather the sheep and retrieve the milk. This is one rough journey even with four wheel drive and takes about 20-30 minutes each way. The milking system is quite amazing, bringing in 30 ewes running in 2 lines with the cheese maker and his wife doing the milking from from a recess below the ewes. When one batch finishes the milked ewes are released and another 32 come running in, I just had to wonder what was in the pellets they received during milking. 320 ewes were milked in 10+ batches in about an hour. This time of year only about 1/2 Liter per ewe is produced at each milking. During the summer almost twice as much is provided.
Before heading back down to the valley we went to see the ancient chalet that the family has been working at restoring now for several years. Currently all of the cheese is produced in the valley dairy where they live.

Following the Alpage visit we returned to the farm for a tasting of the cheese they produce. There is quite a variety. Yogurt (which we had for lunch earlier in the day) several fresh cheeses, a soft ripened cheese, and a nice Tomme style cheese. They also produce a wonderful pine bark wrapped cheese that develops a wonderful white coat as the cheese ripens inside. This appears to be similar to a Vacherin Mt D'Or but ripens very differently because it is not a washed rind.

Of course with the cheese we shared a bottle of wine and the discussion ranged from what is happening with cheesemaking in the US on small farms to current farm problems in their region. The biggest problem being animal loss due to lynx and the newly introduced wolf population. It seems that most of the cheesemakers we talk to in the mountains are losing many of their stock.