Le comté aop

Comté is a pressed cooked cheese made from raw milk. Its terroir is the Massif du Jura, a mid-mountain region that stretches across the Jura, the Doubs (two departments in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region) and the Ain (a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region).

Cows of the Montbéliarde and French Simmental breeds are the only ones allowed to produce Comté milk.

Every day, Comté cheese is made by hand in around 150 small village cheese dairies known as "fruitières".

Comté cheese takes its time to develop its full flavour. It matures in the ripening cellar for a minimum of 4 months, but often longer. Comté cheese is characterised by its astonishingly rich aroma. It is not a cheese with a uniform taste. Each wheel of Comté cheese reveals a different aromatic profile, depending on the micro-region of origin, the season, the special touch of the master cheesemaker and the cellar in which it was matured. This makes Comté a unique cheese.
> Available from cheese dairies and cheese factories in the Montbéliard region.

Since 2001, Les Routes du Comté has been an original network based on the close links between Comté and tourism in the Montagnes du Jura (an area covering the departments of Ain, Doubs and Jura). The network focuses on farms, cheese dairies and maturing cellars that can be visited, as well as cheese museums and "gourmet stops" offering good addresses for selling regional products and various types of catering...

> More information on the county and county roads: http://www.comte.com
> Guide available from the tourist office.