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Maturing; where Comté develops its differences |
The cheese maker completes his task, but Comté is still not ready to be delivered to the shops. A novice, it enters a kind of monastery, where it will be matured for long months. Like religious orders, every house has its rules, and they are there to serve the common good: the quality of the cheeses, the health of the industry and the life of a region.
We propose to provide an introduction to the affineur's role through these interviews. |
Véronique Rivoire-Spahis: every wheel has to improve the industry’s reputation and help maintain the price of the milk |  Véronique Rivoire-Spahis has run the Fromageries Rivoire-Jacquemin in Montmorot, near Lons-le-Saunier, where the cheeses from twenty-three fruitières are matured, since 1992. The fifth generation of a family business, she took over from her father, an important figure in the industry, who died suddenly in 1991.
Vice-president of the CIGC, and recently president of the CEC (1), she is particularly well placed to evoke the role of the maturing houses in the industry, and its special place and relevance in the French world of cheese.
What is the current position of the maturing houses within the industry?
Véronique Rivoire-Spahis – the profession is not any weaker or stronger than it has been in the past, it is simply an essential stage in the production of a great Comté. In the 1970s, experiments in the maturing process carried out in several cheese dairies did not give the results expected, quite simply because this is an authentic profession that carries it with it a great deal of expertise. I would like to emphasize one point: our role is primarily to ensure that the “white” cheeses delivered to us are correctly matured, and to make sure that we have all the necessary resources, and then, as a secondary task, to sell them. It is important that the order of these priorities is preserved. Comté’s distinctive taste is very much a result of its stay in our cellars, of which we are very proud, and we should think about how to communicate more on our role in the development of Comté’s diversity and richness of flavour.
What are the keys to this profession?
On a technical level, the maturing process is not something that one can easily codify, which is fortunate, as this ensures that our expertise is well-protected. It is a combination of dozens of details and areas of expertise, accumulated over decades; it is also a knowledge of the cellars, and the effect that each of them has on a Comté’s development. A set of sensations and observations. It is a profession that involves communicating with people; the better our relationships with the farmers and cheese makers upstream (2), and with the customers downstream, the more value we are able to give to the cheeses. Every wheel of Comté has to improve the industry’s reputation and help maintain the best milk prices. This is what we strive for every day. When affineurs are dealing with their customers they have to keep in mind the expectations of the farmers who have placed their trust in them, the cheese maker’s unique technique, the needs of the cooperatives, whose loyalty is essential, and also on their own employees’ requirements. It is not a matter of placing successive product lines in the context of a strong price. To a large extent, the affineurs take economic responsibility for all the parties involved, and this stimulus has enabled the region to achieve one of the best milk prices in France.
How have these links evolved?
There has been substantial evolution. Our maturing houses and, to an even greater extent, Comté itself, cannot exist without excellent dairy farmers and the level of communication and exchanges is constantly progressing We are also aware of the difficulties being encountered by the farmers, and in particular the presidents, in the management of the cooperatives. However, I regret the way that the cheese makers' profession has evolved; their influence within the cooperative was much greater in times past.
Have customer relations followed the same trend?
The Comtés that leave the maturing houses are cheeses that we regard as special, and we present them as such. Our business has remained very much on a human scale. As I said, the company director maintains contact with the farmers and equally with the customers, whether they are a cheese shop or a supermarket. Our strength is that we do not only position ourselves in terms of competitive prices. Our customers come to see us, we show them the cellars, and very often take them to visit the fruitières. We explain our role and the all the various stages in the production of Comté. This kind of approach never fails to have an impact. Eventually an appreciation develops: we are not just selling a product. With Comté, customers can check the truth of this message for themselves.
The large supermarkets have come to occupy a new place among these customers. What are your views on this?
There has been considerable growth in this direction. First, supermarkets have replaced some wholesalers who only had regional operations. Each wholesaler, depending on the region, would ask for a particular selection. This new distribution channel has enabled a consistency in the type of Comté sold in France. Large cheeses have, for example, been well-suited to this situation. We have managed to adapt. Of course, the danger of centralization remains in certain markets in which volume/price ratios are all that matters. However, contrary to what many people think, the “traditional” supermarkets certainly look for the best profit margin, but they also ready to recognize good quality products. We have another advantage: consumers are becoming more and more well-informed, and their habits are changing. We can trust the consumer to make the right the right choice.
Cheese maturing is a profession in a class of its own. What are the implications of this on an economic level?
Cheese maturing companies come in various shapes and sizes but, broadly speaking, more than half of all Comtés are matured by family or medium to small scale businesses, which do everything they can to stay that way. It has to been understood that our approach to asset management is of a long term nature that is sometimes hard to grasp from the outside, since there is never any spectacular growth. We tie up huge amounts of capital which one could argue would be better invested in the stock market for example. We are constantly having to explain our operation, our unique situation, to institutional and financial bodies that are more used to rapid growth or spectacular commercial actions.
What tasks lie ahead?
There is still a lot to do, particularly concerning export. However, to enable the best possible development in terms of the value of increased volumes of cheese produced, the control of production remains the key to the future and we are participating in plans to campaign for production to be regulated. Obviously, it is not a case of blocking all growth, but rather of adapting growth to market demand so that we have the time to introduce Comté to countries and to people who know very little about it in such a way that they come to respect it and to like it, always keeping the best possible added value as a priority.
(1) - CEC: Chambre Syndicale des Entreprises de l’Emmental et du Comté. An employers’ federation that brings together all the cheese maturing businesses. Its offices are in Besançon.
(2) – Every month, each fruitière sends a delegation to its affineur to carry out the grading of the cheeses.
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Claude Querry: we are “caséologues” * |  (translator’s note: this is a made-up word from the Latin, “caesum”; the equivalent would be something like a “cheesologist”, i.e. a cheese specialist)
Manager for Fromageries Petite of the maturing cellars located in a fort in Saint-Antoine, Claude Querry presents an even more exacting picture of the profession. In 1966, Fromageries Petite, based in Granges-Narboz, set up a new maturing site in an unusual location: the Fort Lucotte in Saint-Antoine. The move was doubly unusual: with the new location came a new, much slower approach to maturing cheeses.
Claude Querry, a farmer’s son, has managed the site with his team since 1988, which has a capacity to mature 65,000 wheels of Comté that come from fifteen different fruitières. Claude Querry presents a profession that is ever more exacting in its daily operation: “Our role comes at the end of a process and so we are not the only ones who an influence on the final product. A relationship built on trust is essential. We never forget the work that has already gone into a wheel of Comté: first the farmer has to collect 400 litres of milk and then there the skill and labour of the cheese maker. We never forget our responsibility. Bear in mind that each wheel may be cut into between seventy and seventy-five pieces, each weighing 500 grams, and that each of these may be bought by a family and shared by up to ten people. So for each wheel that is around 500 consumers whose loyalty we must try to gain.
This is our concern and it provides a constant challenge, an almost impossible task, given that we have a thousand customers in twelve countries. Not everyone on the planet wants to eat the same thing. And these different tastes can be satisfied by the diversity of the terroirs in Franche-Comté”. The development of the profession is towards an extremely in-depth knowledge of the world of flavours. “Our customers”, analyses Claude Querry, “come requiring information, and we always need more arguments to defend our products against industrially produced cheese. We need to enrich our vocabulary, to be innovative and productive. The Comtés tells us their stories and we never tire of it.” »
“You are caséologues,”(see above) Pierre Dornier said one day to Claude Querry, comparing the cheese maturer's task to that of the oenologue (oenologist). He liked the word, finding it “well-suited to the idea of enjoyment, which is comparatively recent in cheese”. “My role is to give the cellar workers a passion for cheese; if they do they work properly then the Comté will do the rest when people come to taste it.”
With his team of graders, Claude Querry does not neglect the impact of visits to the fort: “It’s part of the job. As well as being of value to the entire industry, it is a source of great satisfaction and motivation for our team. Whether they are farmers, cheese makers, customers, journalists, tourists or schoolchildren, our industry’s values always interest visitors. Will we be able to preserve this heritage?”
Claude Querry speaks of gold. Those who are lucky enough to follow him through the fort’s passage ways are sure to keep an unforgettable memory of their visit. When he strikes one of the cheese to test it, it is as if Aladdin has rubbed his lamp. The cellar resonates with a powerful story, taking us to mountain pastures, cows being milked in a barn, a small village, the cheese making dairy… It may sound like a tale from times long past, but we are not in a story book. We are in the modern and very real world. | Top of the page p |
Comté maturing houses | D OUBS
Guyans-Durnes: Fromagerie de Clerval (Groupe Ermitage)
Grand’Combe-Châteleu: Fromagerie Rieme
Granges-Narboz: Fromagerie Petite
Ornans: Fromagerie Grillot (Coopérative de Blamont)
Saint-Antoine: Fromagerie Petite
JURA
Frontenay: L’Alpage
Champagnole: Coopérative du Mont-Rivel
Courlaoux: Juracourlaoux (Entremont-Alliance)
Les Rousses: Fromagerie Arnaud
Montmorot: Fromagerie Rivoire-Jacquemin
Poligny: Fromagerie Arnaud, Fromagerie Brun, Fromagerie Grillot-Brevet (Groupe Ermitage), Fromagerie Juragruyère (Groupe Entremont), Fromagerie Vagne (UCAFT)
Pont-du-Navoy: Fruitière du Massif Jurassien
Saint-Claude : Fromagerie Locatelli
Vevy: Entremont
AIN
Charix: Fromagerie Seignemartin
HAUTE-SAVOIE
Seyssel: Fromagerie Gojon
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