Plancherin d’Arêches: One of the Newest Cheeses From France
A mere bébé in the French cheese world, le Plancherin d’Arêches is the sublime result of a two-year long collaboration between a spirited young shepherdess and cheesemaker (who also happens to be a champion downhill skier and a former Miss France Agricole), and a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (an official recognition for someone who is considered a “best craftsperson” in France - a MOF) in cheese.
A Collaboration Cheese
Raising goats has been a passion of Caroline Joguet’s since receiving a few kids as a gift from her father when she was just a child, and by the age of 13 she was tending to her own small herd. Caroline went on to study agriculture and cheese making as a young adult, which led to an internship opportunity in the United States at the renowned Jasper Hill Farm. During her time there she met one of her idols, the internationally known MOF, cheesemonger and affineur (cheese ripener), Hervé Mons with whom she developed a friendship. Monsieur Mons had an idea to create a goat milk version of Vacherin du Haut-Doubs, the seasonal cow’s milk cheese from the Alps that is enjoyed every winter in France (often referred to as Mont d’Or). Using Caroline’s grandmother’s recipe as a base, and after much trial and error, their hard work finally paid off: le Plancherin d’Arêches was introduced to the world in February 2019.
The Making of a Precious Cheese
This cheese is a rare treasure. Caroline produces a scant 50 wheels a week during the spring and summer months when the snowline rises and her goats are able to graze freely on grasses and flowers high up in the Alpine pastures of her beloved home, le Savoie. In order to keep the scale of her production manageable, she has limited herself to a herd of only 90 Alpine Chamoisée goats. Le Plancherin accounts for about half of her cheeses, the other half is a small, washed rind chèvre called Le Grataron d’Octavie, named in honor of her grandmother.
She is a traditionalist, practicing age-old techniques such as hand ladling, warming curds in copper cauldrons, and hand salting. After the young wheels of le Plancherin are wrapped in a strip of spruce bark, they remain in Caroline’s care for 10 days before they’re handed over to Hervé and to another affineur, Marc Dubouloz, a third-generation fromager in Annecy, for a further 3-6 weeks of ripening. Only a handful of fromageries in France and abroad are granted the opportunity to sell this cheese, and I only occasionally see it here in Paris.
Le Plancherin d’Arêches Tasting Notes
Le Plancherin d’Arêches’ texture is thick and unctuous, and there are subtle aromas of pine from the bark that encircles the rind, similar to a Vacherin. Its flavors are deep and complex, offering hazelnut, buttery caramel and rich cream, and it has a long, tangy finish. When pairing with wine, this cheese needs something with character and structure. I recommend a white or sparkling wine from the Savoie region, such as Vin de Savoie or Roussette de Savoie, or an Arbois from the Jura.
If you’re wondering about its unusual name, it combines the made-up word, “Plancherin”, which is a mélange of Plans, the name of the hamlet where her farm is located, and Vacherin, the cheese, with Arêches, the village where she and her family live and where the cheese was first created.