A traditional craft over a thousand years old

It was the long, harsh winters of the Jura Massif in the Middle Ages that obliged the inhabitants to find a way of transforming milk into a cheese that would keep, that was then known as Vachelin. Only large cheeses kept well enough to meet the needs of an entire family all through the cold season.

The cheese’s longevity and its improvement with time also made it a product that could be exported outside of the region, and thus a means of procuring new resources through exchange.
The large wheels required a lot of milk (500 litres on average) and so farmers formed cooperatives and brought their milk to the fructerie, now known as a fruitière (the idea being that the milk “bears fruit"). In France, documents mentioning the fruitière cooperative system have been found dating back to the Middle Ages, before the term had been coined (cf. : 1264 and 1267. the history of the communes of Levier and Déservillers).

This particular form of village-based organisation originated eight centuries ago. An approach that incorporates solidarity and sharing has been preserved, as have the small-scale production techniques and traditions which make Comté a great cheese.

Due to its distinctive nature, its cultural value and its economic importance for the region, Comté was, in 1958, one of the first cheeses to be granted Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) status.
Comté is thus much more than a great cheese. It is a heritage that has for centuries been shared by an entire region. Comté represents a link between a people and their land. Its production has to follow certain procedures and traditions shared by an entire region, and yet each wheel carries the mark of the local cheese dairy, the microclimate, the season, the particular skill of the cheese maker and the affineur. Here, Comté is an inexhaustible subject of conversation. It is the fruit of a labour that we may sample and judge for ourselves ...and who would want to miss such a delicious opportunity?

The new century has dawned with technology as a dominant theme. The makers of Comté may take the best from what such progress has to offer, but the small scale traditional methods of production will always remain a living and well defended heritage.
The people of the Jura Massif are unlikely to stop comparing the virtues of a Comté from the Petite Montagne to those of a Comté from the Valserine or of another from the Drugeon Valley...

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An historical perspective...

Latin texts dating from the beginning of the first millennium attest to the production of cheeses in Maxima Sequanorum (Franche Comté) and Helvetia (Switzerland) that were appreciated in Rome.

1264 / 1280 : First references to fructeries in six texts attesting to the production of cheese in Déservillers and Levier (cartulary 1319). It is not known if the term fructerie designated a dairy cooperative.

1380 : “cheeses of large size” are mentioned, which would have involved the processing of a large quantity of milk, which could only have been produced by a cooperative system or a person or organization owning a large number of cows.

Fifteenth century: “Abolition of the charters”. A peasant revolt resulted in the abolition of seigniorial rights and the creation of a local democracy and institutions that would exist until the revolution. Production of large cheeses using the technique developed earlier by the large landowners (secular and religious).

End of the sixteenth century: development of the cheese market due to the growth of towns. The Grandvallier cart-drivers develop trade towards Lyon. These peasants in the region of St Laurent-en-Grandvaux became cart-drivers in the autumn and travelled all over France. Production is no longer intended solely for local consumption but also for trade.

1678 : after the conquest of Franche-Comté by Louis XIV, the region becomes depopulated and a lot of Swiss come the Gruyère region, bringing with them cheese making techniques using rennet — previously plants were probably used to coagulate the milk. There are references to "vachelin in the gruyere style”.

Eighteenth century: the population increases significantly and the cheese dairies descend towards Le Revermont (about 700 dairies spread over the mountainous zone in 1780) and then towards the plain.

First half of the nineteenth century: construction of specific buildings for the making and maturing of cheeses (based on the Swiss chalet model) to replace cheese making by private individuals which was acceptable in numerous dairies.

1850 : the arrival of the railroad, facilitating trade, results in an economic crisis and a fall in the price of cereals. Peasants abandon polyculture for grass.

1880 : start of the use of the “gruyère de Comté” appellation in texts to specify the regional origin. Comté becomes one of the region’s identifying features. There were 1,800 dairies at this time, often with a seasonal production.

1882-1905 : agricultural and industrial crisis results in major changes: modernisation of equipment (steam-powered machines, electricity), creation of dairy schools, selection of new dairy breeds, appearance of maturing houses etc.

1914 : there are about 500 cheese dairies. During the war many cheese makers came from Switzerland to replace the men who had gone to the front. More than half of the cheese makers in the Doubs were Swiss in 1919.

1924 : “Comté” begins to be used to mean a specific type of cheese.

1952 : definition of the Comté production zone.

1958 : creation of AOC Comté.

1963 : creation of the CIGC (Comité Interprofessionnel du Gruyère de Comté). In the period from 1960-70, many dairies grouped together, thereby significantly reducing the overall number. This number has currently stabilized around 170.

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The cheese dairy as a patriotic example

In 1890 G. Bruno’s book, Le Tour de France par Deux Enfants (“Tour of France by Two Children”) appeared. Its subtitle was duty and the homeland. This exceptional book for school children tells the story of Julien (aged seven) and André (aged fourteen), two children from the Alsace region who set off to discover the wonders of France. The book had a specific aim: to show that everyone, no matter where they are in France, contributes to the patriotic structure. It was to have a considerable effect, and is still in print.

In the journey that is described, Julien arrives in Rousses. He is immediately very impressed by a herd of cows that is returning from the common pasture land, and even more so when he visits the place where they make the cheese. Here is an excerpt,

“...Julien was brought to the cheese dairy where the cheese maker worked who he was to speak to: in the Jura people who make cheese are called “fruiterers”. The cheese maker was very friendly and, seeing Julien's eyes widen as he looked around the dairy, he asked him what it was that he found so surprising.
– Oh ! said Julien, its that big cauldron that I see on the fire. It’s as big as a barrel and looks like it is full of milk.
– That’s exactly right, my child: there you see three hundred litres of milk being heated up to make a cheese.
– But sir, said little Julien, a farmer’s wife in Lorraine told me that a cow rarely gives more than two hundred litres of milk in a month; so you must have a lot of cows sir, to be able to have three hundred litres of milk all at the same time!
– Well now, said the cheese maker, I do not own a single one. And there is no one in the whole village rich enough to have enough cows to be able to supply the dairy all by themselves. But the farmers work together: they bring me their milk everyday, so that I can fill the cauldron. I measure out all the milk, and I note down how many litres each farmer has brought. When the cheeses have been made and sold, I am paid for my trouble, and then the farmers share out the rest of the money in accordance with the amount of milk that each one has supplied.
– So can somebody who only has one cow bring you their milk and have a share?
– I don’t see why not, my little chap! He will be just as happy, and has even more need to see his milk well employed.
– In one year all those cows that I saw up in the mountains must make a lot of cheese!
– That’s for sure: the department of the Jura alone has more than fifty thousand cows and produces more than four million kilograms of cheese every year. And we do all this by working together, rich and poor alike, in a common agreement; for you see, my child, when each person carries a stone, the house is easily built.
– Oh ! said Julien, how I like it here, everyone gets along so well together. »

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