Comte (Reserve Arnaud - 18M)

Comté, from the Haut Jura, is a firm cheese with few small openings made from raw cow's milk harvested from the Montbéliarde breed of cows. Around 450L of milk is pressed into a large 40kg wheel, and then aged in general between 6 to 36 months. While it is contemporarily considered as a delicacy around the world, it was born out of necessity as the slow ageing large wheels would offer peasants sustenance during long and arduous winters. That in turn is why the tradition of Comté is so deeply engrained in the French culinary culture.