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Raw materials/Variety/Race
L'Etivaz AOC is a cheese made with raw milk obtained from cows summering on the high mountain pastures of the Vaudoises Alps.
Method of working/Cultivation/Breeding
L'Etivaz AOC is a mountain pasture cheese produced exclusively between the 10th of May and the 10th of October. The cows used to produce the milk graze mainly on the alpine pastures. The quality of the grass has an important influence on the milk flavour and on the cheese taste. The transformation of raw milk into cheese takes place into copper cauldrons heated by a wood fire. This production method requires an important know-how handed down from a generation to another. Cheeses stay for a maximum of 7 days on the high mountain pastures. They are then stored in the Etivaz cellars where they are salted and rubbed regularly. During the ripening, each cheese develops its own aroma. This stage gives to L'Etivaz AOC its own character, enriched with a typical smoked touch. Ripening takes place on spruce boards and lasts a minimum of five months. Some of the most beautiful cheeses are left to dry naturally in a loft for three years. At the end of the process, a wooden plane has to be used in order to get the famous "rebibes ".
Aspect and Taste
L'Etivaz AOC has a firm texture and a natural rind. It is a round cheese weighing between 10 and 38 kg and measuring between 30 and 65 cm in diameter and between 8 and 11 cm in height. Its surface area is lightly humid and has an uniform brown colour. L'Etivaz à rebibes AOC is a dry and smooth yellowish cheese, with the outer rind removed, weighing between 10 and 20 kg. Most of the time, L'Etivaz AOC doesn't have any holes. The texture is thin, smooth, lightly firm and has a yellow-ivory colour. The taste is frank, aromatic, fruity with a hazelnut and a lightly smoked flavour. L'Etivaz à rebibes AOC is very hard, and is cut on special plane in very thin slices and rolled ("rebibes"). It is pale yellow and has a clean, aromatic and fruity taste that gets stronger with the ripening.
Production Zone
The production area of L'Etivaz AOC includes essentially the summering farms and their chalets located high up in the Vaudoises Alps, between 1.000 and 2.000 m, in the Vaud canton. All the cheeses are ripened in the cellars of the Coopérative des producteurs de fromage d'alpage, located in the village of L'Etivaz.
History
The history of L'Etivaz AOC belongs to a long tradition. The production of cheese in the Pays d'Enhaut is registered in many works dealing with the regional history, the most ancient one dating back to the 12th century. In the 18th century, the production of high mountain pasture cheese concentrated in the area of Pays d'Enhaut. This concentration defined the traditional production area of L'Etivaz cheese. In 1932, cheese makers grouped together in a cooperative in order to fight against the decrease of the cheese production. The origin of the name L'Etivaz, which is the name of the famous village where are located since 1934 the ripening cellars of the cheese, comes from the word "estivage" which means "summering".
Gastronomy
L'Etivaz AOC is marketed in slices. L'Etivaz à rebibes AOC is traditionally sold in "rebibes", sliced thinly on a special plane.
Marketing
The product is sold as L'Etivaz AOC or L'Etivaz AOC à rebibes. It is marketed in pieces or in thin slices (rebibes), in single packages.
Distinctive features
The unique flavour of L'Etivaz AOC is connected to the rich flora of the pastures where the cows feed on, and to the ancestral production method of the cheese. . Its delicate and aromatic taste varies according to the area of production and the know-how of each cheese maker.