Petit Grès d'Alsace

Petit Grès d'Alsace is a small, soft washed-rind cheese from the Alsace region of northeastern France — one of the great cheesemaking corners of Europe, where Germanic and French traditions have long overlapped to produce a distinctive dairy culture. Grès means sandstone in French, a reference to the pale, slightly grainy character of the rind and the rustic, terroir-rooted nature of the cheese itself.

Made from pasteurized cow's milk and matured in vineyard cellars, the Petit Grès develops the characteristic qualities of the Alsatian washed-rind style: a springy, yielding paste that becomes progressively gooey toward the rind as it ages, with a flavour that is subtle and milky at the centre, gaining a gentle, tangy savouriness and a hint of sweetness as you move outward. The defining step in its production is the washing of the rind in Kirsch — the clear cherry eau-de-vie that is as emblematic of Alsace as Riesling or choucroute. The Kirsch suppresses unwanted moulds, encourages the growth of the orange-pink bacteria that give washed-rind cheeses their colour and funk, and contributes a faint, fruity warmth to the aroma that is wholly distinctive.