Époisses AOC

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

From a region famed for its cheese and wine, the Époiss­es tru­ly embod­ies the best of the region. This farm­house-style cow’s milk cheese is washed with marc de Bour­gogne, a pomace brandy that gives it its sig­na­ture pun­gent aro­ma. It is aged for at least 6 weeks, allow­ing its rind to turn sticky and devel­op a deep orange col­or. Inside, the pâté is a mag­nif­i­cent­ly creamy ivory to pale yel­low col­or, and it is so smooth that it melts in the mouth. Spice, salt, sweet­ness, and a hint of a tang hit you straight on the palate. It comes in a wood­en box to help pre­serve its shape.

PREPA­RA­TION OR PAIRINGS

This cheese is so soft and creamy that the fore­most way to indulge in it is to eat it at room tem­per­a­ture right out of its wood­en box with a spoon. You can, of course, scoop it out onto slices of crusty baguette and accom­pa­ny this delight with crisp fruit like apples and pears.

Epoiss­es is a chal­lenge to pair with wines, but its best com­pan­ion is the brandy that gives it its pun­gency, marc de Bour­gogne. It’s so strong and spiced, it pairs per­fect­ly with this cheese. This cheese also presents fine oppor­tu­ni­ties for beer-lovers. Bel­gian Trap­pist beers like Orval or Chi­may and French bière de garde don’t wilt under this cheese’s strength. If you’re still push­ing for wines, try our Alsa­t­ian Domaine Rol­ly-Gassman Gewürz­tramin­er de Rorschwihr or a sweet wine like a Sauternes or sim­i­lar Bor­deaux blends.

PUN­GENT BUT GOOD

Époiss­es is so pun­gent it has a cer­tain rep­u­ta­tion in France. To main­tain this lev­el of noto­ri­ety that makes this cheese so good, Fro­magerie Beill­e­vaire part­ners with Ferme des Mar­ronniers in Nor­mandie. This is a farm with full organ­ic farm­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in the Euro­pean Union, ensur­ing that that every step of the process, the wel­fare of both the ani­mals and the end prod­ucts is looked after fol­low­ing the high­est pos­si­ble standards.

DIS­CLAIMER ON AVAIL­ABIL­I­TY OF PRE-ORDERED AIR-FLOWN ITEMS

This is a pre-ordered item at The Bow Tie Duck and will only be avail­able while the pro­duc­er from over­seas is able to sup­ply and allow air-flown deliv­ery. In case of deliv­ery delays, deliv­ery can­cel­la­tions, ​“out of stock” notices, or ​“out of sea­son” notices after pur­chase, you will be con­tact­ed by our Sup­port Team. You will receive a refund or prod­uct replace­ment, or you can choose a new deliv­ery date for your item. In choos­ing to place an order, you agree to the terms and have read that this par­tic­u­lar prod­uct is not on-hand. After a short wait, you will receive your orders fresh from the source.

Storage Instructions

Cheeses (except brined ones in jars) should be stored in the crisper or the but­ter draw­er of a refrig­er­a­tor, not on the shelves them­selves. This is to help reg­u­late their tem­per­a­ture and humid­i­ty lev­els — and pre­vents the for­ma­tion of mold. Once opened, they should not be kept in their orig­i­nal pack­ag­ing. Soft cheeses with del­i­cate rinds need to breathe, so they are best placed in glass con­tain­ers lined with paper tow­els to absorb extra mois­ture. Leave the lid open a tiny bit for air to cir­cu­late and don’t for­get to write up a label with the date you first opened the pack­age. Your cheese will be fine for up to one month. Cheeses are air-flown from France on demand. They are meant to be con­sumed with­in 1 to 2 weeks of their arrival at your residence.

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