Reblochon Cheese



Reblochon Cheese 240g. Reblochon is a French cheese from the Alps region of Haute-Savoie and has been granted the AOC title. It has a nutty taste that remains in the mouth after its soft and uniform centre has been enjoyed. It is an essential ingredient of tartiflette, a Savoyard gratin made from potatoes, bacon (lardons), and onions.

Production of Reblochon

Reblochon AOC is a semi-soft, washed-rind and smear-ripened mountain cheese that originated at the heart of the massif des Aravis, in the Thônes region of Haute-Savoie in France. Reblochon features a fine velvety rind, varying from yellow to orange in colour. The close textured pate is very smooth, supple and ivory in colour. Farmhouse cheese discs are matured for at least two weeks, during which the cheese develops an edible light beige crust and buttery dough.


Reblochon should be kept in a cool place (10-12° c) and is best eaten in the 10 days following the purchase. Leave it at room temperature for two hours before eating. Reblochon French cheese can be matched with many bread varieties and goes well with the wine of Savoie. It’s also very nice with nuts or dried fruits like fig, raisin or apricot. The cheese is excellent on the cheeseboard or can be melted on baked potatoes. Reblochon has a slight scent of the cellar and a mild fruity taste with an intense nutty aftertaste. Its delicate and subtle flavours go well with a glass of Savoie wine.

History of Reblochon

Reblochon French cheese was first produced in the Thônes and Arly valleys, in the Aravis massif. Thônes remains the centre of Reblochon production; the cheeses are still made in the local cooperatives. Reblochon derives from the word “reblocher” which when literally translated means “to pinch a cow’s udder again”. This refers to the practice of holding back some of the milk from the first milking.

During the 14th century, the landowners would tax the mountain farmers according to the amount of milk their herds produced. The farmers would therefore not fully milk the cows until after the landowner had measured the yield. The milk that remains is much richer and was traditionally used by the dairymaids to make their own cheese.

In the 16th century, the cheese also became known as “Fromage de dévotion” (devotional cheese) because it was offered to the Carthusian monks of the Thônes Valley by the farmers, in return for having their homesteads blessed.

The cheese was decreed as an A.O.C. cheese in 1958 and therefore is subject follow to strict rules and regulations. It is a lightly pressed, uncooked cheese, made from full-cream unpasteurised milk. Thirteenth-century fables tell of Savoie herdsmen who carried out an incomplete milking of the cows in order to reduce their ‘taxable’ production of milk. After the rent was paid to the landowners, they went back to ‘remilk’ (reblocher) the cows. The second milking of cows yielded milk rich in fat and was used to make Reblochon.

More Continental Cheeses at Sagebury Fine Foods

Reblochon as Fondue Cheese

Reblochon is also an excellent fondue cheese. Fondue is a Swiss melted cheese dish served in a communal pot (caquelon or fondue pot) over a portable stove (réchaud) heated with a candle or spirit lamp and eaten by dipping bread into the cheese using long-stemmed forks. It was promoted as a Swiss national dish by the Swiss Cheese Union (Schweizerische Käseunion) in the 1930s and was popularized in North America in the 1960s.

Since the 1950s, the term “fondue” has been generalized to other dishes in which food is dipped into a communal pot of liquid kept hot in a fondue pot: chocolate fondue, fondue au chocolat, in which pieces of fruit or pastry are dipped into a melted chocolate mixture, and fondue bourguignonne, in which pieces of meat are cooked in hot oil or broth.