Fromagerie Brun Comté AOP | France | Cow’s Milk | Jura Mountain Cheese, 32+ Months Aged
250 gram wedge
This is Comté at its outer edge—aged over 32 months in the cellars of Fromagerie Brun, where raw cow’s milk from Montbéliarde and French Simmental herds transforms under wild flora, salt, wood, and time. The paste is dense, amber-hued, and crystalline. The flavour is astonishingly layered: roasted hazelnuts, sourdough crust, beef bouillon, stone fruit, and cellar.
Long-aged Comté doesn’t just intensify—it shifts. The sweetness recedes, the umami deepens, and the cheese picks up minerality and savoury complexity. Each wheel tells its own story, and this one is written in brine, alpine grass, and 1,000 days of waiting. Nothing added. Just time, milk, and quiet intention.
250 gram wedge
This is Comté at its outer edge—aged over 32 months in the cellars of Fromagerie Brun, where raw cow’s milk from Montbéliarde and French Simmental herds transforms under wild flora, salt, wood, and time. The paste is dense, amber-hued, and crystalline. The flavour is astonishingly layered: roasted hazelnuts, sourdough crust, beef bouillon, stone fruit, and cellar.
Long-aged Comté doesn’t just intensify—it shifts. The sweetness recedes, the umami deepens, and the cheese picks up minerality and savoury complexity. Each wheel tells its own story, and this one is written in brine, alpine grass, and 1,000 days of waiting. Nothing added. Just time, milk, and quiet intention.
250 gram wedge
This is Comté at its outer edge—aged over 32 months in the cellars of Fromagerie Brun, where raw cow’s milk from Montbéliarde and French Simmental herds transforms under wild flora, salt, wood, and time. The paste is dense, amber-hued, and crystalline. The flavour is astonishingly layered: roasted hazelnuts, sourdough crust, beef bouillon, stone fruit, and cellar.
Long-aged Comté doesn’t just intensify—it shifts. The sweetness recedes, the umami deepens, and the cheese picks up minerality and savoury complexity. Each wheel tells its own story, and this one is written in brine, alpine grass, and 1,000 days of waiting. Nothing added. Just time, milk, and quiet intention.
Origin: Jura Mountains, France (Franche-Comté)
Milk: Raw cow’s milk (Montbéliarde and French Simmental breeds)
Rind: Natural brushed rind, firm, mottled brown; inedible
Weight: Full wheel ~35–40kg; sold in wedges
AOP Status: Appellation d’Origine Protégée (since 1996; AOC since 1958)
Texture: Firm, dense, crystalline
Maturation: Minimum 32 months
Shape: Tall wheel with convex sides, ~55–75cm diameter
What It Is
This is long-aged Comté from Fromagerie Brun—a raw milk Alpine cheese aged over 32 months in traditional cellars where airflow, humidity, and microbial life are left to do the heavy lifting. The milk is collected daily from pasture-grazed Montbéliarde and French Simmental cows, then curdled, cooked, and pressed into massive wheels that are matured slowly on spruce boards.
At this age, Comté doesn’t just intensify—it distills. Moisture has dropped, amino acids have crystallised, and the paste has deepened to a toffee gold. Proteolysis has slowed to a crawl, but lipolysis and Maillard-like reactions have taken over, yielding roasted, fruity, and umami-rich compounds layered into the cheese’s structure.
This isn’t the Comté for sandwiches. It’s the kind you shave thin, chew slow, and listen to.
Taste and Texture
Rind: Natural, brushed weekly with brine; earthy and tough, not for eating.
Paste: Firm, slightly flaky, marbled with tyrosine crystals. Golden to amber in colour. Cuts cleanly, melts slowly on the tongue.
Flavour Profile:
Roasted nuts: hazelnut, walnut, brown butter
Umami: beef bouillon, soy, miso
Sweet elements: caramelised onion, dried apricot, candied citrus peel
Savoury depth: cellar air, toasted cereal, mushroom stock
Finish: dry, mineral, long-lasting
Flavour comes from microbial and enzymatic transformations over time—especially lipolysis (breaking down milk fats into flavour-packed free fatty acids) and the slow accumulation of amino acids like glutamate and tyrosine.
Pairing Logic
This is concentrated, savoury cheese. You want contrast (acid, bubbles), or echo (oxidised, nutty, rich). Skip the sweet stuff—it'll get buried.
Classic Pairings:
Vin Jaune or Savagnin from Jura: oxidation, acidity, and terroir match
Oloroso sherry or dry Madeira
Mature Champagne or pét-nat with leesy funk
Jura-style Chardonnay (unwooded but aged)
Non-alcoholic:
Cold roasted oolong or high-fire Wuyi rock tea
Kombucha with ginger or barrel-aged complexity
Tart apple cider vinegar cordial
Dried fig infusion or cold barley tea
Avoid: tannic reds or sugary whites. Both will fight rather than flow.
Serving Guidance
Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour before serving. Shave thin with a plane, or cut into slivers to highlight the crystalline structure. Serve with rye crisps, roasted nuts, or charred vegetables.
Ideal as the closing cheese on a board—paired with something bitter, raw, or earthy. If cooking, use sparingly: a shaving in a soufflé or over a purée adds massive flavour.
Storage
Wrap in cheese paper and store in a sealed container in the fridge. This cheese is stable—will keep up to 4 weeks. If rind darkens or paste oils slightly, trim and allow to breathe.
Avoid plastic wrap or cling film, which suffocates and flattens flavour.
Waste-Conscious Use
Shave over roast veg (celeriac, pumpkin, beetroot)
Melt into potato gratin or onion soup
Infuse in cream or milk for savoury custard or polenta
Use rind in risotto stock or bean broth
Stir into scrambled eggs with foraged mushrooms
This is milk, mountain air, and microbial life held in tension for three years. Fromagerie Brun doesn’t push flavour—they wait for it. You should too.