La Taupinière Charentaise
- Producer
- Fromagerie Jousseaume
- Country
- France
- Region
- Poitou-Charentes
- Size
- 4 in diameter x 2 in height
- Weight
- 9.5 oz
- Website
- www.mason-jousseaume.fr
- Milk
- Goat
- Treatment
- Raw
- Classification
- Semi Soft
- Rennet
- Animal
- Rind
- Mold Ripened
Ash coated - Style
- Soft-Ripened (Brie-like)
La Taupinière Charentaise is the signature cheese of French goat farmer Alain Jousseaume, who produces a range of high-quality farmstead cheeses on his 100-hectare property in the Poitou-Charentes region. None of Jousseaume's cheeses are AOP (Appellation d'Origine Protegée)-certified; instead he has concentrated on creating unique cheeses that are nonetheless produced with respect for ancestral traditions. The key, he says, is "respect of the product from start to finish." This means using raw milk from his own herd of 500 goats, cultivating his own strains of cultures on the farm, and filling his molds à la louche (with a ladle, by hand). Jousseaume is an innovator, but he isn’t completely self-taught. “It’s as my grandmother did it,” he says
Taupinière means "molehill" in French, and like the mound created by a burrowing mole, this cheese is dome-shaped and gray-speckled--a result of its being rubbed with ash. Aged in the farm's on-site cellars, the mounds develop a delicate wrinkly rind. The cheese also comes in a smaller-sized version called Taupinette.
Tasting Notes
La Taupinette exhibits earthy aromas. Beneath its wrinkly rind is a sweet and fine white paste with a lightly goaty taste and lingering flavors of hazelnut.
Pairings
Pair La Taupinière with a glass of dry white wine.
