Bergkäse Huguenin

This Bergkäse (or mountain cheese) is produced by a ten man team, fronted by Andreas Hinterberger, at Fromagerie de Montagne de Gais, in Switzerland. The dairy sits at 950m altitude, within the beautifully picturesque Canton of Appenzell, an area of rolling hills which overlooks Lake Constance where Switzerland borders with Austria and Germany.

The milk for this cheese comes from 60 small scale family run suppliers in the Appenzell area, each one known and followed closely by the dairy, and all the milk is from cows who live freely on the verdant mountains. The dairy works with around 30,000 litres of milk in total per day.
It is traditional in the area for small scale producers to allocate a space in the milking stalls to each cow, who will then return to the exact same spot every milking day of their lives. Many even have their names and birthdays written above their stalls.

Huguenin Fromages are affineurs with their ripening cellars at Fort de la Tine, a military base built into the mountain during the 1940s. The mountain store once held 260 soldiers but is now a labyrinth of tunnels that holds 8000 cheeses. It sits at 12° and 95% humidity.
All of the cheeses matured there are brushed, washed and turned by hand until they reach their optimal maturity and the desired flavour profile.
The Bergkäse Huguenin is brine salted and washed every day for the first four weeks and then weekly thereafter for around four months.

The dairy prides itself as a custodian of the natural environment they are surrounded by, and use solar power to provide the energy required for cheese production. They are also fierce advocates for animal welfare and have very close relationships with the farmers and animals to ensure this is of the highest standard.